The Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) has been finding it increasingly difficult to carry out its task in recent years. Increasingly, they have been in the news negatively with reports such as poor conditions in Ter Apel, hopeless waiting times for applicants and having to pay penalty payments. Besides the media attention, it is also a point of discussion in politics at national and European level. The complex policy that will follow from this makes for a situation of tension for the IND. In order to respond appropriately to both politics and applicants, it is important for the IND to be agile and responsive as an organisation. To achieve this, the IND wants to become more innovative, which partly means retrieving ideas from the organisation and then experimenting with them with the aim of improving processes, also known as bottom-up innovation. Currently, one team within the IND, the Einsteinbrigade, is responsible for facilitating this bottom-up innovation. Although this team is very effective in identifying which innovations are of value to the organisation, they do not always manage to convey this value to those responsible for implementation.

This thesis project explores what exactly underlies this phenomenon, and how design can address it. Through qualitative research methods, the following research question is dissected and explored:

Why are some of the Einsteinbrigades completed experiments not followed up with an implementation project?

The insights obtained revealed the root cause of this problem, but more importantly which bottlenecks lie below. These bottlenecks were translated into design goals from which a direction was chosen for the continuation of the project. It reads as follows:

With my to be designed intervention, I want to achieve that Clients within the IND respond to the needs of the Business by making the Einsteinbrigade capable of effectively conveying the value of an experiment to the Client.

Within this design goal, 6 principles were identified that have been proven to help implementation; (1)The expected benefit; (2)The compatibility; (3)Sensing surprise; (4)Perceiving multiples, (5)Embodying alternatives, and (6)Verbal Mastery. From testing these principles, strengths emerged that were incorporated into the final design.

The design took the form of a framework in which the insights gained from the experiment can be compiled from which an interaction can be designed appropriate to the Client and the experiment. The interaction creates a unique experience for the Client, but above all makes it tangible and recognisable what impact the innovation is having.

During the evaluation, it emerged that the interactions provide a unique moment within IND’s current meeting culture, and strongly contribute to conveying the value of the results. In addition, In addition, placing the insights in the framework allows new insights and connections to emerge, contributing to the narrative, and ultimately interaction. In addition, designing the interaction stimulates creativity, which was recognised as a necessary replacement instead of the current way of presenting results.

In conclusion, it must be acknowledged that this design is not conclusive for the Einsteinbrigade problem. It is a first step in the right direction of making the IND a mature organisation where bottom-up innovation is central to improving processes. Ultimately, it is recommended that to execute successful bottom-up innovation, there must be an organisation-wide leadership with corresponding clear agreements.

Kelp Blue is a company whose top priority is the well-being of the planet. Through the cultivation of giant kelp on offshore farms, they create several sustainable products, new job opportunities in regions where they are needed, enhance biodiversity in the water, and above all, sequester tons of CO2 from the air. The start-up is still in its research and development phase, but plans to be building farms on a large scale in just a few years. Despite their knowledge in engineering, the company still needs consulting on certain elements. Therefore the company invited a group of students from the Delft University of Technology to Lüderitz, Namibia for a consultancy project. The project involved creating a procedure for the company to scale up in a sustainable manner. The students decided that this complex problem should be divided into sub-problems. One workstream focused on reducing the carbon emissions during upscaling, while the other workstream focused on analyzing and improving the company’s current design and installation of the farms. Following, both parts of the project are shortly summarized: Part I: Improving the company’s current design Kelp Blue is currently in the pilot phase, in which they’re installing their first large giant kelp farms. Before, they were focusing on the complete installation, including planting the kelp on the submerged netting structure, and the review of this. For the company’s commercial phase, where they want to be able to place farms daily on a large scale, designs were still developed and analyzed. For the commercial phase, this workstream made a new design and installation method. It required an installation where buoys would need to be submerged, the structure locked in place at the desired depth, without the use of scuba divers or remote operated vehicles. Despite the fact that these requirements were challenging, an outstanding result was achieved. The main problem was divided into subproblems, and for each of those a suitable solution was created. Hopes are that the company will consider the given advice as helpful and maybe implement some parts of (or the whole) new design. Part II: Reducing carbon emissions during upscaling First, interviews and desk research were conducted to get a good idea of the challenge of sustainability. This included reading reports, speaking with employees, policy makers and experts with experience within the area. With this information, the challenge could be mapped out and the solution space became clear in terms of legislation and technical possibilities. Climate information was also requested that could later be used to run simulations. During the determination of the possible solutions, research was done on the realistic possibilities, where eventually the use of either solar or wind energy was most appropriate. After conducting a multi-criteria analysis that was put together with the management of Kelp Blue, investing in a solar plant proved to be the most appropriate solution.