KWR is honoured to announce that it conferred its prestigious Honorary Fellowship to Luc Keustermans for his long-lasting commitment and drive to lay the foundations for the Flemish-Dutch collaboration in applied water research. KWR’s CEO, Prof. Dragan Savić, handed the Honorary Fellow Award to Luc Keustermans on 8 June 2023 during the festival celebrating 40 years of collaborative water research in the Netherlands and Flanders.
An outstanding contribution to KWR
As Technical Director of the Flemish De Watergroep from 2002 until 2018 and from 2018 until his retirement as Director of Strategic Projects, Luc Keustermans was pivotal in developing and strengthening the collaboration with KWR and the joint water research programme. On 1 May 2016, De Watergroep joined the collaborative research programme BTO and became the first international shareholder of KWH, the holding of which KWR is a 100% daughter. For KWR and its shareholders, the Flemish collaboration resulted in an expanded home base for research and application and new cooperations with high-quality Flemish research partners.
Luc Keustermans: ‘When you are on your own and have limited resources to set up your research programmes, you can better work together. It allows you to develop more innovative solutions faster. I am honoured to receive the award: the most beautiful gift is a gift you do not expect.’
KWR Honorary Fellowship
Since 2015, KWR has awarded an Honorary Fellowship annually to individuals who contribute to the research community and society. These individuals include managers, supervisors or proprietors within KWR’s national and international network. Luc Keusternans is the seventh recipient of the prestigious Honorary Fellow award, following Martien den Blanken (2015), Joan Rose (2016), Willy Verstraete (2017), Ad van Wijk (2018), Harry Seah (2019) and Marion Koopmans (2020).
An Honorary Fellow is appointed for life. An Honorary Fellow with the other Honorary Fellows constitutes a source of knowledge, expertise, and experience that supports the ambition and collective values that KWR upholds.
40 years of Joint Research in the Flemish-Dutch water sector.
Water utilities regularly joined forces and resources to address local water challenges. 40 years ago, they committed to a Joint Research Programme based on co-makership. The Dutch drinking water utilities (Brabant Water N.V., Waternet, Vitens, Waterbedrijf Groningen, Evides Waterbedrijf, WML, WMD Drinkwater BV, Dunea, PWN, Oasen), the Flemish De Watergroep, Vewin (Association of Dutch Water Companies) and KWR Water Research Institute jointly set up their research ambitions to address current and future water challenges, define the projects, and (where feasible) carry out the research together. This concept of co-makership allows for keeping a long-term focus on pressing issues, such as the impact of climate change and migration. It creates commitment and ensures research results are applied and embedded in practice. The knowledge and expertise developed in the Programme remain available to the drinking water utilities through KWR Water Research Institute. Overall the program involves 140 researchers at KWR and approximately 120 professionals at the utilities. The program amounts to 9,5 M Euro per year.
For more information, visit: https://www.kwrwater.nl/en/projecten/impetus/
