Onboarding the TRL Train to the 4th Generation University (4GU)
How technology can become a flywheel for need societal change
How can we create the social transitions at a scale, maturity, and speed we can hardly imagine now? To help the imagination we (Iris, Auke, and I) have worked out this metaphor of a train towards the future, specifically the 4th Generation University (4GU).
Introduction
Have you ever wondered why there seems to be such a great divide between universities and policymakers? Universities are full of talented people eager to work on a better tomorrow, and yet society’s great problems often seem to go largely unaddressed. In this article, I would like to introduce you to the University of the future or, as I like to call it, the 4th Generation University (4GU). It is my firm belief that this university will be the answer to many of today’s grand challenges.
Grand challenges are problems that are global in scale and very difficult to solve. They require a cross-disciplinary, multi-faceted, and collective approach that includes both the scientific community and the political sphere. Today’s most obvious example of a grand challenge is climate change.
We may solve this puzzle, or we may not. But even if we do, it makes a big difference in how we get to our destination. Solving a grand challenge requires a transition and society often does not handle transitions well. Frequently, we seem to be surprised once the transition starts to manifest itself, even though we could have seen it coming. As a result, much needed changes are delayed while we muddle our way through in the most inefficient way imaginable.
For example, think of the housing crisis in the Netherlands and other parts of Europe. With a growing population and a laissez faire approach to housing by the government, we could have seen it coming. Or think of net congestion in many parts of the world. Renewable energy and the need for electrification: we could have seen it coming. Indeed, some of us DID see it coming. Yet somehow, the problem did not get enough attention.
To deal with today’s grand challenges, we need a university that can look at them in a holistic way.
1. Why we need the 4GU
Did you ever consider the way universities changed throughout the times? The first generation of universities (1GU) were the ancient scholarly institutes of wisdom going back to before the Common Era. In the first generation, we see scholars using reason and writing to develop the social sciences (i.e. the great ancient philosophers). The classic universities of the second generation (2GU) added the natural sciences to the mix, with scientists who built instruments and laboratories to develop models of nature. For some time indication, Galileo Galilei (1586–1642) is often seen as one of the pioneers. The university of the third generation (3GU) splits natural sciences into the exact and applied sciences, creating Technical Universities (TUs). The first TU was founded in Paris in 1794 and many would follow. So we develop a theory of NGU (N for Next), learning from previous generations to accurate the R&D of the 4GU.
In short, the first generation produces wisdom, the second generation added measurable facts, the third generation added technology, and now a fourth generation is needed to add societal impact. Today these different “productions” are called the pillars of a university: the first pillar on education, the second pillar on research, the third pillar on transfer and indeed for NGU now a fourth pillar should arise on transition. I estimate that the NGU of the fourth generation that is able to crack the grand challenges, will be a reality in the period 2040-2050.
An 4GU that truly addresses the grand challenges is not a certainty. We need to build it and just as with every previous NGU the pillars will change too. A key feature of grand challenges is that they are complex puzzles, consisting of many different interlinked sub-problems. If one reduces this complexity too much, in order to work on one small part of the puzzle, one is likely to be solving one goal at the cost of another. Then again, we cannot solve everything at once. So how can we start small while still allowing for enough complexity? We need to shape a holistic way of thinking, researching and building technology. This will be hard, because the 3rd generation is hyper compartmented, as a way to deal with complicated problems. But we must try to develop a new way of working at the university, and the evolutionary process is happening. Indeed, every pillar is changing thanks to digitalisation. Education is becoming challenge based. Research is becoming interdisciplinary and also transfer is changing. This brings us to the concept of the TRL train.
2. Why we need a TRL Train
To help us develop a holistic mindset for academic transfer, I would like to introduce a concept I call the TRL Train. Today technology transfer happens by developing Technology Readiness Levels (TRL):
At TRL 1, the technology is the subject of fundamental research.
At TRL 2, the technology is the subject of applied research.
At TRL 3, a proof of concept is built to test the technology.
At TRL 4, the proof of concept is further developed into a prototype in a lab.
At TRL 5, the technology is further validated and approaches the end product.
So, what is the TLR Train? It’s a metaphor, in which the locomotion stands for technology, developed by the 3rd generation university. The locomotion pulls the other wagons. The coal wagon stands for the integral effect this technology has i.e. earthly impact. The coal wagon represents the limitation of available resources and considers recycling and regenerating the resources to ensure a sustainable future. The passenger wagon stands for the people affected by this technology, i.e. societal impact. Like considering how technology will impact people who use it (safety) and people how produce it (fairness).
From a societal perspective, it makes no sense to regard the different parts of the train in isolation. Solar panels are a great discovery in the fight against man-made climate change, but a just society must also consider what resources are required to build the panels and how they are obtained. Also, the circumstances in which solar panels are produced are important. Are all the people in the passenger wagon comfortable or are some being exploited? Another example is plastic. Plastic is a great material for wrapping all kinds of food and beverages, making them much easier to preserve in a clean way and thus reducing the risk to human health. But what happens to the plastic when we are done with it? Can we dispose of it in a non-hazardous way or does it end up strewn all over the coal wagon’s floor? With micro-plastics now penetrating the earth, what will the effect become on the heath of people, so will the effect also get into the passenger wagon? What effect will the micro-plastics now penetrating the earth have on human health?
The point I am trying to make, is that we need to address the full complexity of the problem we’re working on, even while we’re still in the start-up phase of development. Computer models are an excellent way to do just that, but a model is still just a model. How do you get to the physical reality of a better tomorrow while taking the full complexity into account? The TRL Train helps to think this through.
3. How we will build a TRL Train
If we accept the TRL Train as a guiding principle in research, how can we design feasible, small scale experiments that take the complexity of the problem into account? We cannot reduce the complexity but what we can do, is limit the physical impact and the time span of our experiment.
A first step is the NEON programme. NEON is a crossover program with thirty-four research projects, from five different universities, with twenty industry partners. Its work packages are all related to the energy and mobility transition but have a very different focus, from social psychology to mechanical engineering. Indeed, it is a great example of how holistic research (2nd pillar ) is happening today. In NEON, many researchers collaborate to build digital twins to simulate reality in such a way that complexity is preserved. NEON is therefore in a poll position to create a first TRL train and demonstrate how NGU transfer (3rd pillar) can become possible by temporal physical setups.
An example of an event where NEON is applying the concept of a TLR Train is organizing a festival. The events sector faces many challenges in terms of sustainability and social responsibility. A large number of people need to be transported and fed, among other creature comforts, in a very short time span and in a confined, often literally fenced off area. This makes a festival a perfect testing ground for technologies that generate and store renewable energy, for mobility solutions and lodging (i.e. the camping). Festivals all happen in a minimal setting, in the past with little attention to sustainability. The latter has been changing with festivals going green. Turning the current trend into more ambitious goals for a festival as a green popup city, allows us to test solutions at scale.
For example, applying peak shaving at festivals is happening and this solution can be useful for bigger problem with net congestion for a business park. Going fully zero-emission at a festival would again be a good testing ground, because it is only for a few days, so we can learn a lot and next applying it for civil engineering project were it would run for weeks or month and later also business parks where such solution would need to run maybe years until the civil infrastructure is upgraded. Similarly, becoming serious about mobility may turn festivals into labs for Mobility as a Service (MaaS) and a camp site could be a lab for temporal housing solutions. So, a festival has the complexity and is a minimalistic but perfect starting point to develop real popup cities. We could make a shift from the minimal comfort we tend to expect for such a temporary event to solutions that could be used for months or even a few years, until more permanent solutions get implemented.
4. What will the TRL Train look like?
By designing and building new technologies we need for the NGU, we speed up the development towards the NGU. And with that, I would like to propose a new venture. For now, we are calling it Green-Energy Assembly Rack (GEAR). GEAR will be a modular system that provides a serious amount of energy in the megawatt range, when and wherever you need it. The modules will be the size of a container and can be moved with trucks. Each module contains components like wind, solar, battery, and grid infrastructure.
Going back to idea of the TRL Train: GEAR should be the component module for the locomotion. Actually, new tech innovation (wind, solar, battery, etc) are like the cogs and GEAR should help to easily plug them in and replace.* The current trend to shift to sustainable festivals is already adding the coal wagon. Festivals care a lot about people involved, so the passenger wagon is already present as a process. We now like to see it present as technology too and it would turn festivals into popup-cities. For example, creating festival mobility (not just by foot) and turning the camping (tents) into more comfortable sleeping facilities (temporal housing).
Turing sustainable festivals into popup-cities is the next level that will make the TRL train become an instrument to development of NGU 4th generation. In practice this means finding the big players as partners for research on how to turn big logistics into a more flexible setting to build an event. We expect parties such as Tennet, the ministry of defense, PON, ASML, VDL and homeowners associations to be partners. They are already partners for a 3rd generation universities, by becoming partners on a TRL train they can accelerate by creating large scale tests fully embracing the complexity of the problem.
Partners can team up with research groups who would normally do this in a more classical setting, like the logistics of a harbour and the energy grids of actual cities. For example, by designing MaaS solutions instead of personal car use at big events or designing more sophisticated energy strategies, building up a reservoir days before the event instead of switching on diesel generators during the event. We need researchers to look at concrete events and come up with concrete solution on energy, mobility, etc. While GEAR should become practical now, the research project on Popup-cities would become practical during the validation of the research (in circa 5 year from now).
5. All aboard!
The TRL train is a metaphor to understand how a 3rd generation university can become the “engine” for social transition. Indeed, the NGU can compartmentalize a problem while conserving the complexity involved. We invite everyone who would like to contribute to jump on board. Technology innovators can contribute by ensuring their innovation can fit GEAR compartments. People in applied research can contribute to show how their research can be validated with a festival in this vision of popup-cities. Social studies can be added, using the festivals as a testing ground. Together, let’s figure out how we turn the metaphor into a more robust validation process for the NGU.
The call to action is not just about creating a cool project and turn festivals into popup-cities, but about learning how to become proactive in the NGU development, because our world needs it and our societies need it. Let us turn universities back into the beacons of hope they used to be. Let us acknowledge all the 3rd generation universities and the industrial revolution they made possible and now move on to the next chapter with the 4th generation university. This NGU is about a great simplification by embracing complexity, it seems paradoxical until we understand how to build intuitive interfaces. Metaphorically, compare how trains rails were built in the USA from east coast to west coast using the trains to deliver the tracks for the train. Similarly, the TRL train can start from a 3rd generation university and build the tracks to get to a 4th generation university. It is happening slowly without our attention, so blow the whistle and get everyone onboard !
* This is based on the insight of Herbert Simon explaining how complexity is managed by a clockmaker by using component module.