This is the third article in a series of blogposts in which we will share our experiences of IRPdelft, a non-profit foundation which provides master students a challenging international and educational experience abroad during the summer. Throughout the year, we will share our experiences.
The International Research Projects Delft Team. (Photo: IRPDelft)
It has been a while since our last blog post, but the IRPteam has not sat still these past two months. It all started with an acquisition course back in January. We took this course because of the challenge of finding five research projects at different companies ourselves every year. Even though a lot of companies have done projects with IRPdelft in the past, and are very satisfied, it is still a challenge to find five projects every year. During the training, given by Arthur Sevenstern of ‘Excellent Presenteren’, we went in depth on the theory and practice of a successful acquisition strategy. Key learning point: do research before you contact a company so that you can anticipate their needs.
Apart from the acquisition training, a coaching session with a group of psychologists was scheduled for early February. This session was given by Caro Nieuwenhuis, the first female leadership coach in the history of the Dutch navy. Caro gave us valuable insights into inner-group dynamics, including the personal roles one can take in a group (the famous Belbin roles). This will most certainly help us during the summer when we will spend two months in Argentina together!
A lot has been happening in Argentina
So now an update about Argentina. Since our last blog post, a lot of things have been happening here. As we pointed out in our last post, the political climate has stabilised since Mauricio Macri won decisive victories in key districts in Argentina last October. This mid-term election is very significant as it is widely regarded as a referendum on the performance of the centre-right leader.
Shortly after this mid-term election, the Dutch government organised a trade mission. This trade mission was key in maintaining Dutch-Argentinian relationships. A driver for organising this mission was also the fact that under the leadership of the government of president Macri, Argentina will implement major economic reforms. Argentina plans to spend 5 billion dollars in the next few years on the development of their ports alone! Given the fact that the Dutch have a lot of expertise in this area – thanks to the ports of Rotterdam and Amsterdam – a Dutch-Argentinian alliance can be very beneficial for both countries. This economic development will provide IRPdelft with a lot of possibilities as well.
In the next two months, IRPdelft hopes to finalise the projects and at the beginning of May it will announce the definitive project teams. However, first we will go on a well-deserved break with our entire team next week!
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