Interview with Mark van Koningsveld, Chris Karman and David van den Burg
Six years after its launch in 2019, DigiShape has grown into a network that takes collaboration, innovation and knowledge sharing in the water sector to the next level. Our impact is seeping through the entire industry: from new tools and collaborations to structural changes in how data and knowledge are shared. Yet this influence often remains implicit and difficult to capture in concrete projects or results. In this interview, Mark van Koningsveld, co-founder of DigiShape from Van Oord, and Chris Karman, former program manager, talk about how they have seen the influence of DigiShape on the water sector grow. The current program manager David van den Burg joins to give his vision of the future.
Mark: “I remember well that after a start-up period in 2019 with Van Oord, Rijkswaterstaat and Deltares, we decided to set up a pre-competitive network for digitisation of the water sector. Each from our own perspective, we saw that innovation and digitization were approached in a too fragmented way, so that the wheel was constantly reinvented. With complex challenges, such as climate change, sea level rise, the energy transition and the pressure on our infrastructure on our doorstep, we had a strong feeling that this could and should be done smarter. We wanted to share our data, tools and projects with each other in order to make more effective use of the opportunities of digitization and thus be better equipped for the problems that come our way.”
Chris Karman was soon called in as quartermaster to set up this network, which was given the name DigiShape, under the Top Sector Water and Maritime. “We wanted to show that cooperation between government, market and knowledge institutions is not only desirable, but also produces tangible results. We started with one A4 sheet as a program plan and joined in as a community with a number of concrete use cases and tools. Think of the Digital Twin North Sea, the Digital River and open source tools such as OpenCLSim. A special project was MIJbrein, which arose from an innovation challenge that Rijkswaterstaat had used as an experiment to tender innovatively within DigiShape.”
In the DigiShape community we share the results of our work, but also difficulties we encounter. That gives a sense of togetherness.
Chris Karman
DigiShape’s great trademark from the beginning was its open and pragmatic working method. Chris: “During DigiShape days, we shared the results of our work, but also the difficulties and questions we encountered. This gave a sense of togetherness, which continues in our community to this day.”
Pre-competitive cooperation as a foundation
An important starting point within DigiShape is pre-competitive cooperation: parties work together on solutions at an early stage, without there being any direct competition. This lowers barriers, accelerates innovation and ensures that developed tools become widely applicable.
“A good example of this is OpenCLSim, a software library that simulates the behaviour of complex water logistics in relation to currents and waves,” Mark explains. “This software library has been developed over several years by TU Delft, Van Oord, Deltares and Witteveen en Bos and is now also used by Rijkswaterstaat and Boskalis, among others, to calculate scenarios for water transport.”
Pre-competitive development, competitive application
Rijkswaterstaat uses the software to analyse the climate robustness of inland shipping networks and to investigate the effectiveness of possible measures. Dredging companies use it to plan complex hydraulic engineering projects more efficiently, taking into account waves and currents. Mark: “The fact that competitors such as Van Oord and Boskalis are working together on this is really special. Without the open collaboration and early feedback rounds, this software library would never have been able to land in practice so quickly. Van Oord and Boskalis have each invested in the code and shared their improvements with the larger community. That doesn’t seem like a commercial idea, but in the end this method pays off. Together you can develop a high-quality product much faster than alone. The development of water logistics simulation software is typically pre-competitive for these parties. Its application is of course extremely competitive.”
It is much more efficient to proactively contribute to the development of the right tools in advance than to have to be reactive and critical of research results afterwards.
Mark van Koningsveld
There are many more examples where it is much more efficient to proactively contribute to the development of the right tools in advance than to have to be reactively critical of research results afterwards.
From project-based to programmatic work
Another added value of DigiShape is that we work programmatically. Mark: “Many initiatives in the sector start as a separate project, receive funding for a few years and then disappear again. This means that we have to start over and over again and that valuable knowledge and tools are not structurally developed. DigiShape takes a different approach: we share the data, knowledge and tools from our projects in the community and ensure that they can then be applied and improved in multiple processes.”
Chris continues: “What helps is that we have been working together for many years now, which has created mutual trust. Other parties can now easily connect to this. Together, we have introduced a way of working, in which it makes sense to share knowledge at an early stage. This prevents six different models from being developed for the same problem. Instead, you lift each other to an increasingly higher level through cooperation. Everyone benefits from this in the end.”
This principle is also reflected in the DigiShape project DigiPact, which served as input for the large NWO-NWA project Path2Zero. “These projects are fundamentally changing how we handle data in the water sector,” says Mark. “Rijkswaterstaat, the Port of Rotterdam Authority, SmartPort and maritime companies are now working together to make data more accessible and usable, with the help of knowledge institutions such as TU Delft and Deltares and with one common goal: emission-free inland shipping by 2050. It is a textbook example of how we can develop a sector-wide standard through joint efforts.”
DigiShape as a discussion partner for governments and policymakers
“What we should also not forget is that DigiShape is now taken very seriously as a discussion partner,” David adds. “During my introductory rounds with the partners, I noticed that public organizations, such as ministries and Rijkswaterstaat, see DigiShape as a platform where something really happens. For example, we have set up the Water and Climate working group within the AIC4NL, to fundamentally and structurally integrate knowledge from the world of AI technology into our water world. As individual organizations, we would never have been able to do this, but because DigiShape stands for the sector as a whole, we did get those doors open.”
Because DigiShape stands for the sector as a whole, we get new doors open.
David van den Burg
“That is indeed a very important development,” says Chris. “Five years ago, we were still explaining why the triple helix collaboration was necessary in the first place. Now we are at the table at a strategic level. This gives us the opportunity to take innovations further and to ensure that regulations and policy are more in line with what is technically possible.”
Focus for the future: more clients, more pre-competitive projects
For the coming years, it is clear to David where the focus lies: “We want to connect more commissioning parties and facilitate more pre-competitive projects. DigiShape has grown strongly in connecting market parties and knowledge institutions, but to make a real impact, we need to ensure that public clients such as Rijkswaterstaat, ministries and water boards join even more actively.”
In addition, David wants to better organize pre-competitive cooperation. “We now see that many initiatives arise within DigiShape, but sometimes still fail because there is insufficient space or funding to go through the pre-competitive phase properly. We are therefore going to work on new forms of financing and programmes, so that we not only generate ideas, but also develop them into concrete applications that help the sector move forward.”
Farewell to Chris: a lasting legacy
After six years at DigiShape, Chris is handing over the baton to David, but his impact continues to be felt. “Chris has played a huge role in the growth of DigiShape,” concludes Mark. “What started as an experiment with three parties, has grown under his leadership into a solid network in which eighteen partners work together and a community of about a thousand people is actively involved.” David continues: “What I have mainly seen in my first months at DigiShape is how strong the intrinsic motivation is among the partners. This is not only because of the content, but also because of the energy Chris has put into it. We will continue that spirit. DigiShape is far from finished growing and developing!”
Chris concludes: “I still think the best thing about DigiShape is that lean and mean functioning, without a big bag of money. And that is also our strength. Normally, you see that communities only exist as long as there is money and that parties disappear as soon as the money runs out. With DigiShape it is the other way around: the partners contribute to being a part. And I like to stay involved from the sidelines, because if DigiShape has proven one thing, it is that collaboration does not stop at a position or project. And that’s how it should be!”
