The Week of IO+: Our role in an unstable world
Every Sunday, our weekly review offers an overview of the most interesting stories around important innovations.
Published on February 16, 2025
Bart, co-founder of Media52 and Professor of Journalism oversees IO+, events, and Laio. A journalist at heart, he keeps writing as many stories as possible.
We cannot avoid pausing at the beginning of this newsletter to reflect on last week's events on the world stage. Not to offer you yet another comment on what happened in Washington, Moscow, Brussels and Munich. After all, everyone has seen enough of that already - and draw their own conclusions from it. What we do want to share, however, is our promise to continue to write the stories of the people and organizations who, with their hopeful innovations, are trying to solve the major issues of our time. We have been doing this for over 10 years and we will continue to do so as long as we exist.
Because we are convinced that, especially in an unstable world, there is a need for guidance. We need examples that may not immediately eliminate all unrest but show that there is an alternative. Lots of alternatives. Alternatives that inspire others to roll up their sleeves and help build those much-needed solutions. So we keep looking for those inspiring examples, every day, seven days a week, 365 a year. If you think your friends could use a shot of realistic optimism, please forward them our newsletter. You'll be helping us, too!
What if...?
It's better to copy well than think flawed... Well, anyway, we had to chuckle when we saw the new podcast by none other than Diederik Samsom and Mathijs Bouman. Indeed, What if? collides 100% with the column that my colleague Elcke Vels writes every other week for IO+. In her columns, Elcke tries to imagine a world in which many of our daily challenges are solved as if by magic. What if we did have a world that was completely climate neutral, circular, happy, and friendly? Knowing that we do look at the possible transitions with realism in all our other stories, Elcke is allowed to daydream a bit every now and then.
Read Elcke's column, published yesterday, here
Listen to Diederik and Mathijs' podcast here (Dutch)
Laio On Tour
We were in Utrecht last week to show what Laio is capable of at the Citizenship and Democracy in a Digitizing World symposium. There was a lot of interest in our AI tools!
Laio on Tour, © Coen Koppen
Bio+ Bites newsletter: 30,000 subscribers
Colleagues Elcke and Mauro write their Bio+ Bites newsletter every four weeks about life sciences and the innovations shaping them. From health innovations that impact people's lives to developments in food technology, Elcke and Mauro help you get to the right places. The newsletter now has almost 30,000 subscribers, so you certainly don't have to feel alone if you sign up for it, too :-) Read yesterday's episode here.
Meanwhile, there was plenty of other news:
- This is how Julia Feddersen boosts Dutch quantum
- To read or to be read? Maxim Februari on machines as citizens
- Trump has free rein over Dutch government data
- NL data security: lessons from Russia,
- Netherlands to strictly monitor the supply of critical raw materials
- This is how DeepSeek built a powerful AI with less money
- Fatbike is not the culprit: 'Cars get too much space'
- Schoof: 'Declining number of startups is worrying'
- Dutch battery breakthrough: breaking through lithium-ion limits
- 'Circular economy starts with turning off the tap'
- Six women shaping the future of science
- Speed up the trains: Connecting Eindhoven to high-speed network
- 'High-tech' horticulture: catalyst for transitions?
Still not had enough? Here, you can re-read everything we published last week. Happy Sunday, make it an innovative and entrepreneurial week!