The revision of the eIDAS Regulation proposes the implementation of a European digital identity wallet for citizens to authenticate themselves across the EU. The process to decide if a person already has an account at the service where they seek to authenticate themselves is called identity matching. Regulated and public Dutch Relying Parties and the Dutch government are not always able to assess whether a citizen authenticating themselves has a pre-existing record at the Relying Party or in the Dutch national registry. Moreover, the current dependency on the Dutch central identity matching service creates a Single Point of Failure. Besides these reliability problems, privacy issues such as profiling data minimization must be accounted for. To this end, this research proposes three possible solution directions for solving these problems: a government-centric, wallet provider-centric, and a hybrid solution direction. The design of the solution directions follows a design science research methodology. The possible solution directions are evaluated by experts in focus groups to elicit the benefits and the barriers which these experts identify as relevant factors for accepting a solution direction. These factors are categorized using the TOE model, which is adapted to suit the current context. Expert evaluations during the focus groups have resulted in factors which relate to the organizational, technological, and external environment of the solution directions. The evaluation uncovered tradeoffs which the Dutch Ministry of the Interior must make to choose between one of the proposed solution directions: reuse of infrastructure at the cost of citizen privacy, or more privacy for citizens at the cost of additional logic requirements needed for the identity wallet. Based on the privacy and reliability requirements and the objective of the Dutch government to give citizens more control over their personal data, the wallet provider-centric solution direction is the most fitting choice of the three proposed solution directions. The explication of the problem, requirements, and solution directions can be used as a starting point in the exploration of new solution directions for the identity matching problems. More research is needed on other possible solution directions than are proposed in this research and their viability to meet the objectives of the Dutch government and deadlines set by the European Commission.

Circular Economy (CE) is proposed as an solution to the problems the world is facing concerning global warming and resource scarcity. The construction industry however struggles with the new concept of CE. Practitioners lack knowledge, experience and examples. Therefore, embedding circularity in the contract may work as a stimulation. The purpose of this research is to determine a list of requirements on how the client can embed circularity in official documents of infrastructural commissions in an integrated contract in such a way that the contractor can understand, relate and implement the concept in the commission. The results of the research should answer the main research question: What requirements, according to the contractor, do clients of infrastructural projects have to uphold in embedding circularity in the official documents of their commission to stimulate the contractor in implementing circularity in the project? The intention of this research is to form consensus amongst contractors concerning which re¬quirements are necessary for the client to uphold and include in the contract in order to stimulate the contractor in implementing circularity in the project to its fullest potential. To reach consensus, the Delphi-method is applied, which consists of three rounds in this research. The first round is the scoping round in which semi-structured interviews were held with contrac¬tors and clients. From the first round, six themes in which participants encounter struggles with CE were identi¬fied. The second round was a questionnaire in which contractors are asked to judge statements, which were drafted based on six themes from round one. General statements were used as a validation for the six themes identified, example statements were used to determine how currently embedded circularity is perceived by contractors and which improvements have to be made. Moreover, contractors were asked to pro¬vide arguments that support their judgement. Statements on which no consensus have been reached were questioned again in round three. Along with the statements, the arguments given by contractors in round two were provided as well. These arguments enabled respondents to revise their judgement, which is necessary to reach consensus on more statements. The Delphi-method ended with round 3. From the 29 statements, 23 have reached consensus after the third round of the Delphi method; 6 statements did not reach consensus. From the arguments given, combined with the results of the questionnaire, it became clear that in general, clients need to adhere more to the tender-requirements stated by the European law. Concerning the answer to the main research question it becomes evident that clients need to be clear about the by them used definition of the concept of CE. Moreover, direction and scope is appreciated. Award criterion are better for stimulation and a more objective measuring method is necessary. Collaboration is necessary for finding the best solution possible.

This research aims to gain a deeper understanding on the financial, legal, organisational and technical considerations regarding the application of product-service systems. The goal is to identify how these characteristics could be implemented in project delivery methods to contribute to a circular economy. This design-based research is carried out from the perspective of the contractor by participation in a development program to find out how infrastructure could be delivered as a service. Additionally, insights from the perspective of the client and supplier are gathered by semi-structured interviews. Literature study has shown that the more a product is delivered as a service, the more it fits with the principles of a circular economy. In the analysis, it became clear that for the application of product-service system (PSS) in infrastructure projects five conditional state-of- affairs should be fulfilled. In addition, throughout the project lifecycle, some required changes are identified as being important. To develop a project delivery method suited to circular economy and incorporating PSS characteristics it is identified that certain steps should be taken. Therefore, an agenda for change is developed to clarify what steps need to be taken to make the transition to application of PSS characteristics in the infrastructure sector. During the research, a model has been created based on the application of PSS characteristics during the different stages of a project. The outcome of this model leads to the most optimal situation in relation to circular economy for application to the infrastructure sector. The model indicates that the identified prerequisite changes need to take place up front and during the lifecycle of the infrastructure project to transform towards a service-oriented project delivery that complies with the principles of circular economy. Most important change in relation to the existing project delivery methods is the inclusion of the end-of life phase, which should be standard incorporated in project delivery of infrastructure projects to support the closing of the material cycle. Additionally, it turns out that it is important that power (knowledge and resources) and responsibilities are allocated to the service provider to create an economic incentive to preserve the quality and value of the product throughout the contract period. In this research it turns out the most service-oriented category of PSS is currently not possible to achieve in the infrastructure sector due to the current organisation of the Dutch infrastructure sector. However, incorporating PSS characteristics on a project level could support the infrastructure sector in the transition towards a circular economy.

With the current urgency to become more circular, procurement presents the primary method to deliver the circular policy ambition by purchasing circular products and stimulating circularity in the market. In the building and infrastructure sector, civil engineering projects offer unique opportunities for circularity. This research presents an assessment of the implementation fidelity of the circular ambition within the tendering process. It examines for each of the methods that define the tendering process, the tendered project, and the awarding framework whether the way circularity is being implemented delivers the ambition as expected. Along with the four research phases, the research devises and uses a framework to assess the fidelity of circularity implementation through the methods to include it in the tendering of civil engineering works. The implementation fidelity framework is used to; create a holistic analysis that captures the many facets impacting the tendering process; determine areas of issues and, consequently, room for improvements; and differentiate between the methods to include the circular ambition in the process. Through three study cases, the construct of the analysis managed to capture the data between quantitative and qualitative in a consistent and interpretable manner. It creates a consistent link between the fidelity dimensions, the corresponding issue areas, and the methods to include circularity in the tendering process. The room for improvement follows the three moderating dimensions, exposure, quality of delivery, and participation. The research links the issues impacting the fidelity of circular ambition implementation in three categories: structural issues, implementation traps, and policy-related, to the three moderating dimensions. The research acknowledges that policy-related issues impact at a sector level as issues inherent to the policy itself. Nonetheless, the research finds that, on an organizational level, removing structural issues and implementation traps raises overall fidelity and reduces the effect of policy-related issues. Increasing this fidelity reflects on the efficacy of the methods to include circularity in tendering, individually and as a group of instruments intended to complement each other. In conclusion, the research recommends practical use of the implementation fidelity framework, which would feed into the body of expertise within an organization to improve future tendering processes to include, enable, and produce more circular solutions with more efficacy in the use of the methods. It will also allow aligning perceptions of the contractors and the contracting authority on one hand and the policymakers and policy implementers on the other hand. For future research, examining all five implementation fidelity dimensions for the instruments and processes at the different levels throughout the procurement cycle is most compatible with the circular ambition in the building and infrastructure sector. This could be most beneficial to establish a more vital link between policymakers and policy implementers. Moreover, it would support future efforts to update the circular ambition goals and milestones by presenting a more encompassing image of the policy implementation fidelity in real-world settings.

With the rise of data, many sectors have been implementing a form of automatising in recent times. This brings a lot of possibilities. As a matter of fact, an automated system is – unlike the human brain – not dependent on food nor sleep and less prone to errors. The efficiencies that could be gained by ‘working’ 24 hours, 7 days a week without a single moment of pause is enormous. An Artificial Intelligence system (hereinafter: AI system) could provide a relief for many sectors. In the literature, the application for an AI system within the judicial system has been advocated for. Nevertheless, the judicial system, especially regarding the rights of a suspect, needs many more considerations than the workload-relief argument alone. In this thesis, the possible implementation of AI – or a robot judge – within the Dutch judicial system will be explored. In this research, a special focus will be given to the rights of a suspect as set out in article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (hereinafter: ECHR). Article 6 ECHR provides the right of a fair trial to a suspect, where relevant, with the following provision: “In the determination of his civil rights and obligations or of any criminal charge against him, everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing within a reasonable time by an independent and impartial tribunal established by law”. From clause 1 of article 6 ECHR, the following components can be extracted: a fair, independent and impartial tribunal. Implicitly, article 6 ECHR also provides the right to an explanation on how this tribunal reached to its verdict. In practice, this is also referred to as the right to transparent verdicts. With the use of the research question “to what extent can Artificial Intelligence be used in the Dutch courtroom while still maintaining the rights for the parties involved, especially as how has been set out in article 6 ECHR?”, an answer is formulated on the question whether the Dutch judicial system is ready for – and capable of – the next judge: a robot judge. This research uses a systematic literature review as a starting point. With such review, information is gathered from both technical as well as legal point of views to answer each sub-question individually. This research also specifically looks at the way other countries have implemented or created a form of an AI tool in and as court. Next to this, four interviews have been held with potential stakeholders as well as persons of interest. The reason why these interviews are held is to confirm and check what has been found from the literature assessment as well as to gain new (internal) insights on this topic. As an answer to this research question, an AI system can be implemented in the Dutch courtroom if it consists of two (main) components: a linguistic system and a machine learning system. Additional rules to use this robot judge are proposed as well, for example that continuous feedback-loops (of the probabilities for example) should be built in and that the system should be continuously monitored (and adjusted) for potential biases. The robot judge can both function as and in court. Additionally, a robot judge can sit at the table of the Dutch Council for the Judiciary and their ambitions to (further) litigate digitally and publish more, if not all, cases online.