Watertekenaar and +Reuse Quickscan proud winners of the 2020 Plus+ Innovation programme

The winners of the 2020 edition of the Plus+ Innovation programme were announced on Thursday March 5, 2021 during the Witteveen+Bos Company Day: Watertekenaar and +Reuse Quickscan. The design and decision support program Watertekenaar was chosen by an internal and external expert jury as the winner of the 2020 innovation campaign.

The developers of Watertekenaar will gain access to intensive training and development sessions by DearNova and platforms and further support in marketing their innovation. Managing Director at Witteveen+Bos Belgium Mark van Straaten surprised the winning team - consisting of Olivia Coomans, Thomas Hawer, Katrien Van Eerdenbrugh, Kato De Roos and Jochem Boersma - by handing over the Plus+ Innovation Award 2020 at Witteveen+Bos’ Antwerp office.

Watertekenaar was developed to assist cities who want to design and develop (parts of) themselves with proper water management and a touch of climate adaptation by visualizing the designed water related measures in an urban context and calculating their potential effect on the water balance. Watertekenaar address climatological, ecological and environmental challenges by combining separate fields of expertise in an iterative designing process by visually attractive and understandable  engineering calculations and urban design. New insights, better results and more sustainable and future proof solutions are developed by this serving clients and communities.

Arjen van Nieuwenhuijzen, innovation director of the 2020 edition and jury member, reflects: 'The jury concluded Watertekenaar to be a smart innovation creating impact on the environment and society. Future challenges in urban and rural design are proactively engaged and solved by using Watertekenaar. For Witteveen+Bos this results in more efficient work processes and for customers it gains more insight for planning and strategic decision-making. All in all, Watertekenaar is the suitable winner in line with the increasingly higher scoring Plus+ Innovation program.'

Public prize winner +Reuse Quickscan was awarded by innovation manager Elmo Slump. In a live coverage he handed over the Plus+ Public Award to the innovator Danny den Boef at his home with congratulations to all team members. +Reuse Quickscan supports asset owners who want to determine if their assets are re-useable by eliminating a gap in knowledge and quickly determining their true value and enabling the realisation of the SDG's unlike current inspection and assessment standards. +Reuse Quickscan connects closely to the 2018 Plus+ Innovation Award Winner +Circular Design.

After editions in 2017 and 2019, the Plus+ Innovation programme continued in 2020. Once again, all Witteveen+Bos employees were given the opportunity to develop their ideas with partners and clients into concrete products and services as part of a demanding innovation acceleration process. Five categories related to Witteveen+Bos’ business: Smart Cities, Smart Cycles, Smart Deltas, Smart Infra and Mobility and Smart Company, aimed at client needs and creating impact and business. During the ideation phase of the Plus+ Innovation programme 90 innovation were submitted from which  the 10 ‘best’ ideas were selected to enter the bootcamps and acceleration phase. Due to COVID-19 all work sessions and development bootcamps were organised in digital form, challenging the innovators to grow and create more and more impact. Finally the jury and public votes selected the winners. The runner up innovations will be actively supported by Witteveen+Bos and clients to further develop their dreams. The Innovation and Digitalisation advisory team is ready and waiting.

Would you like to know more about the Plus+ Innovation programme and the innovation teams? Then visit plus.witteveenbos.com.