National grant underlines success of WIJS in Groningen

Last week WIJS was awarded a grant of € 50,000 by City Deal Kennis Maken. WIJS stands for Wijk Inzet door Jongeren en Studenten, a collaboration in which students and youth provide neighbourhood assistance. In the eyes of the grant awarder, WIJS has in recent years proved to be successful in involving students of the Hanze University of Applied Sciences and the University of Groningen in social issues. WIJS will use the money to expand and develop new projects in the future to improve liveability in the city of Groningen.

The grant was awarded by City Deals. These are concrete collaboration agreements between the Government, cities and stakeholders, designed to strengthen growth, innovation and liveability in Dutch cities. City Deal Kennis Maken concentrates on involving researchers, lecturers and students more closely in resolving the social issues in a city.

The request for the grant was submitted by the Groningen Agreement, a collaboration between the knowledge institutions in the city, the UMCG, the Municipality of Groningen and the Province of Groningen. With the aim of jointly profiling Groningen as a knowledge city, they searched for a suitable initiative to submit to the City Deal Kennis Maken.

In Groningen this aim turned out to dovetail perfectly with WIJS. This organization unites town and gown by linking social issues to the study careers of students. With WIJS, students conduct research, advise inhabitants or contractors based on their expertise and organize activities. This helps students to develop as future professionals while allowing the city to profit from the knowledge it houses.

According to the assessment committee of City Deal Kennis Maken, WIJS more than satisfies the criteria: ‘It is a good idea to scale up and solidify this existing successful initiative. We can see that WIJS has a clear, effective and efficient project plan for the future.’ As by far the majority of the issues are currently still linked to the Hanze UAS, the committee advises intensively involving the University of Groningen in future new projects.