Finland

The new chapter of Wave NL is an initiative re-launched in 2025 by Wavemakers United (WMU), building on similar efforts previously undertaken by WMU in other countries. Wave NL isdeveloped in collaboration with the Top Sector Water & Maritime (TSWM).

Many Dutch youth organizations have already responded positively to the initiative and are now being invited to take the next step by making concrete commitments to projects and funding. New partners are also warmly welcomed to join and contribute to this initiative!

Targets

The dutch wave contributes in the water challenges by focussing on 2 specific goals:

For both objectives, there is an explicit focus on cooperation between educational programs/organizations in the blue domain on the one hand and (water-related) and educational programs/organizations in the green domain on the other.

Inspirational guest lecture by Athlete ambassador Scipio Houtman and Jason Frederick

Sense of urgency

Every country has their own challenges related to water and so do we. The biggest challenge in the Netherlands; too much water. However due to climate changer our summers are getting dryer and dryer.

We need all the bright minds to keep up with the Dutch water problems, but the water sector is aging.The student numbers in core watermanagement courses are relatively low: In total, approximately 600 students graduated in water core courses in the Netherlands in 2022, of which only 90 at ‘MBO’level, and 500 at ‘HBO/WO level.

For the “adjacent” water-related courses, student numbers are (fortunately) higher. In 2022, approximately 6,500 students graduated from these programs. However, the transition of these graduates into the Top Sector Water & Maritime remains relatively low—only 2 to 5%, as expected—compared to 9 to 30% for the core courses. This also highlights a challenge in terms of human capital capacity.