Why work with us
Experience is key
Three reasons to work with us:
The founders of Ecosystem Navigators have spent a substantial part of their careers in building, managing and navigating alliances, clusters and innovation ecosystems: you get the best of real-life experience.
We have a vast global network of top-notch experts both in specific domains, ranging from innovation experts to economists.
A tailor-made approach based on proven methods and tools, delivered by the experts.
Initiatives
A selection of initiatives in which the Ecosystem Navigators founders have contributed:
Roger was the first CEO of Foodvalley NL until 2020. Since its establishment in 2004, Foodvalley has developed into one of the leading food ecosystem organisations in the world. The organisation is known for its demand driven, innovative way of working and its vast national and international network of food innovators. Over the years, it has attracted substantial international attention – both from overseas companies interested in participating in the ecosystems and by organisations keen on building a similar organisation.
As Foodvalley’s CEO, Roger has been responsible for designing the organisation, including the business model, membership base and account management with partners in the Netherlands and abroad. Over the years, the organisations was reshaped a couple of time in order to cater for the changing needs of the companies that Foodvalley NL serves.
With the support of the Dutch government, together with Berytech, a greenfield cluster organisation was built in Lebanon, one of the first in the Middle-East. Qoot is now a generally recognised food cluster that acquired the bronze label for cluster management excellence last year and is currently going for the silver label. The support provided began with the organisation of workshops on ecosystems and what ambition was realistic and achievable in this case. After this, different stakeholders formed a ‘coalition of the willing’. Subsequently, it concerned all aspects of the design of such an organisation (target group formulation, the development of service packages, financing models, governance, etc.) up to and including the co-selection of the cluster manager and the coaching of this person.
DigiShape is an open innovation platform of companies, knowledge institutions and governments that together want to exploit the great potential of digitisation for the water sector. In recent years, the world has been digitising at a furious pace. By making smart use of data innovations and digitisation, the water sector can save costs, increase quality and reduce risks. Governments, the business community and knowledge institutes are therefore working hard to integrate data from various sources more intelligently into their business processes. The DigiShape members innovate as an open community with massive amounts of data and advanced techniques. Using data science and digitisation, they develop innovative solutions for the concrete challenges of today and tomorrow.
The AMS Institute is a young and ambitious international institute at the forefront of innovation, situated at the nexus between industry, government and academia. Engaging and developing the latest technology and science with research, experiments and projects in the city of Amsterdam, the institute takes on the challenges posed by our rapidly urbanizing world. The AMS institute is using the city of Amsterdam as a Living Lab in which multiple stakeholders jointly test, develop and create metropolitan solutions. Its mission is to develop a deep understanding of the city – sense the city – to design solutions for its challenges and integrate these into the city of Amsterdam. The AMS research portfolio revolves around applied technology in themes such as water, energy, waste, food, data and mobility, and integrating these themes to create an innovative, sustainable and just city. AMS Institute is involved in over 100 projects that focus on securing a city that is innovative, sustainable and just.
In 2013 a group of large companies, Danish Universities, organisations and the Region of Central Jutland agreed to form a national cluster organisation for food. A cluster organisation being able to optimize the Danish food support system and an organisation being able to stimulate innovation and connect the Danish food cluster internationally. The Region of Central Jutland is the heart of the Danish food cluster producing more than a third of value of the large Danish export. It was also agreed that the new cluster organisation, named Danish Food Cluster, should have it´s headquarter in Agro Food Park in Aarhus. Ecosystem Navigator co-founder and clusterpreneur Søren Madsen spent all 2013 together with an interim Board of Directors building up Danish Food Cluster. This work included attracting members, development of a sustainable business model, innovation platforms, articles of the new association, finding the CEO and planning a large opening conference
The Food Innovation Ecosystem is a special stronghold for Business Region Aarhus – a collaboration between 12 municipalities in Eastern part of Central Jutland, Denmark. Around 5% of the worlds food ingredients is produced in this business region and some of the worlds most advanced food-tech companies are based in the region as well as the headquarters for Arla Foods and Danish Crown – two top 100 food companies in the world. Also Aarhus University is a leading, highly ranked, university in both agricultural and food science. Ecosystem Navigator co-founder Søren Madsen has twice assisted Business Region Aarhus in the development of a strategy to strengthen the business conditions for the Food Innovation Ecosystem. And Søren works part time for Business Region Aarhus in 2020/2021 implementing essential parts of the latest strategy.
Our partner network
