Rene Buck, CEO of Buck Consultants International discusses the need for clusters to help scale international water technology solutions.
Connecting international water clusters
Collaboration between “water clusters” around the world can help to accelerate the international expansion of a new water technology solutions.
And if great people come up with great solutions, then there is an urgent need to help make them global to help solve water challenges.
That’s according to Rene Buck, CEO of Buck Consultants International who recently spoke at the European Water Technology Week (EWTW) in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands.
Speaking to Aquatech Online on the side-lines of the event, Buck said: "The problems are global, so it would be a strange idea to find solutions only locally.”
A summary of the video interview can be found below:
Buck said: “Clusters of companies and organisations and academics have to work together intentionally because it gives you access to new knowhow, new markets, resources and research facilities which are not always are available.”
The CEO said when scaling companies, proximity is key to connect “great people”.
“If great people come up with great solutions then we have to find a way to get them global. And the collaboration between clusters around the world can facilitate that process of having a quick international global presence of a new technology, a new process, a new platform, a new product.”
During EWTW, Professor Anita Hardon, professor and chair of the Knowledge, Technology and Innovation Group at Wageningen University & Research (WUR) spoke about the importance of including citizens in water decision making.
Dutch company Ferr-Tech won the Water Alliance Innovation Stimulation Award (WIS) for its ferrate (VI)-based water treatment innovation.
Buck added: “If we talk about availability and supply of water, particularly in water technology and water solutions, we need people from different backgrounds. We need people who can make new devices, new equipment, new machines but we also need the biologists, chemists and ecologists to understand the issue.”
