It was a formal and festive moment on June 28th when the administrative kick-off of the Workplace Vitality Hub was held and the four founding FITT partners Fontys University of Applied Sciences, imec , TNO and the Eindhoven University of Technology signed the cooperation agreement together with campus developer High Tech Campus Eindhoven and Twice as the organization to give companies access to the Hub.
Since 2019, the FITT partners have been working together to get people to be more physically active at work, mentally healthier and more connected with their colleagues. As of September, the collaboration will also be given a physical location: the Workplace Vitality Hub on the High Tech Campus Eindhoven in the middle of the Brainport region.
A test room will be located on the second floor in one of the region's smartest buildings HTCE 85. The Hub offers beautiful space with an amazing view of the campus, for (joint) research & development into "vitality at work" solutions, supported by smart technologies.
Each of the founding partners explained the value of the Workplace Vitality Hub for their institution:
Joep Houterman (Chairman of the Fontys Executive Board) emphasised the pragmatic and multidisciplinary approach of Fontys University of Applied Sciences to a social issue like vitality.
Jo De Boeck (Managing Director of imec Netherlands) sees the ecosystem and the cooperation between the knowledge institutions as being very valuable. "I particularly look forward to the feedback from the users and the new issues that this will generate."
Arnaud de Jong (Director Industry at TNO) thinks the new Hub is 'spot-on'. "The question that everyone has is: 'How do we get back to the office?' You want nothing more than for your employees to perform optimally, to be vital, and be happy. With Holst Centre's technology, we want to contribute to this."
Saskia van de Schoot (Director of Twice) sees the Workplace Vitality Hub as an opportunity for start-ups to participate in a great programme. Twice provides the necessary infrastructure to the partners in the Hub. "As a tech start-up, you can participate in innovative solutions for a vital work environment at an early stage, giving you the opportunity to work with great companies!"
High Tech Campus Eindhoven also sees great benefits in developing a field lab together with campus tenants. "It's great that we are involving the knowledge and educational institutes in themes such as sustainability and vitality. I am very pleased with this initiative," says Freek Smolders (Director of HTCE).
Carmen van Vilsteren (Director of Health TU/e and national figurehead for Life Sciences & Health) termed the cooperation on this theme in the Workplace Vitality Hub unique and expressed the wish to give this initiative a national follow-up.
Marieke van Beurden (Manager Workplace Vitality Hub) and Sywert Brongersma (Director Strategic Partnerships imec) invited those present to raise their glasses after which the informal part started. This included a tour through the office space that included a number of vitality innovation demos. The tour also gave everyone the opportunity to experience the vitality chair of TNO/imec and to get acquainted with the 'Office agents' and the 'Work walk' of Fontys/TUe. Spacewell, Zens, Ahrend, Eyrise, Beyond Eyes, and Sparckel were also present to demonstrate what they have to offer in collaboration in the Hub.
Smart workplace
"This Hub is unique because it puts working people at the center and is not just a smart building. We are looking for interaction with the people in the smart building", says van Beurden, "we combine personal data with data about the building so that it becomes clear what users need in order to do their work healthily and efficiently. The next step is to see how technology and the building can contribute to this. There's nothing there yet, but during the summer period, Spacewell and others will be installing software and sensors. This will allow us to monitor occupancy and measure air quality, temperature and CO2 emissions."
Rob van Gemert (Director of sales & business development at Spacewell) is coordinating the project from the software developer. "For the HTCE and the Hub, we are creating a smart workplace digital catalog of what is technically possible."
Test and experience the workplace of the future
Companies and staff can test and experience innovations in the workplace at the Workplace Vitality Hub. Sign up to participate in an experiment via this link. The official launch of the Workplace Vitality Hub will be on Tuesday 21nd of September 2021 during the Holst Centre Innovation Day.
