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Sander van der Waal

Sander van der WaalResearch Director

As Waag’s research director, Sander van der Waal is responsible for its research agenda, working in close collaboration with the four heads of the research groups and leads of the 14 constituent labs. His focus is on ensuring Waag's research contributes to lasting positive change locally in Amsterdam, nationally in The Netherlands, and on the European level, in line with Waag's principles of openness, fairness and inclusivity. He maintains and develops a strong network of research partners and represents Waag on stage in debates, events and webinars.

Earlier, Sander was lead of the Future Internet Lab at Waag, working to ensure that human values are core to how technology and data are designed and deployed in society.

Sander has an educational background in computer science and philosophy, and has solid expertise and experience in open source software development, open data and knowledge, and data infrastructures.

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Current projects

Air pollution in Europe
Smart Citizens Lab

Enforce

The European project Enforce focuses on the challenges, for both residents and authorities, in reporting data so that it is usable for environmental enforcement.
Man op zijn telefoon in de metro
Future Internet Lab

Mobifree

Mobifree aims to bring about change in the development and use of mobile software in Europe by citizens, businesses, non-profit organisations and governments.
Platformcoöp Accelerator
Smart Citizens Lab

MeentCoop

With a broad coalition of social organisations, Waag works to strengthen the local, cooperative community economy in the Amsterdam metropolitan area.
Masterclass Netpolitiek, Waag, 2022
Future Internet Lab

Masterclass Net Politics 2022

Together with ISOC, Waag organises an annual Masterclass Net Politics where people working on digital society learn about topics such as digital transparency, public values on the internet and decision-making regarding large tech platforms.
Waag opent haar deuren
Future Internet Lab

Tactical Media Room

The Tactical Media Room aims to support independent tactical media, journalists, newsrooms and civic initiatives from Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus.
CATRIN project, Waaag, 2022
Future Internet Lab

CATRIN

Controllable, Accountable, Transparent: the Responsible Internet. Waag is working on a foundation for a new internet to increase trust in the digital world.
Digitale Identiteit visual
Future Internet Lab

Proof of Provenance

Tackling disinformation by guaranteeing the authenticity of messages? Waag is working on a way to do this through digital certificates.
Evening air traffic in Europe
Future Internet Lab

ACROSS

ACROSS improves privacy-friendly data exchange between EU member states' public services.
Expeditie: toekomst campagnebeeld
 

Expedition to planet B

Waag embarked on an expedition to planet B in order to design and create a desired future that is open, fair and inclusive.
Public Stack Summit
Future Internet Lab

Public Stack Design Proces

Together with INFO, TU Delft (Cities of Things Lab), Waag dives into the design process of an open source service and a commercial service.
Chris Julien bij Nieuwsuur
Future Internet Lab

DEPS

DEPS (Digital European Public Spaces) has the goal to research and facilitate digital European public spaces that are open, democratic, and sustainable.
PublicSpaces Conference 2024
Future Internet Lab

PublicSpaces

Waag is a co-initiator of the PublicSpaces Foundation, a coalition of now 70 public organisations working together on a digital ecosystem based on public values.

Closed projects

Mensen in een groene omgeving met op de achtergrond een kas met zonnepanelen
Smart Citizens Lab

Social Initiative in the Energy Transition

Commissioned by the Nationaal Klimaat Platform (NKP), Waag Futurelab worked on the design of a programme on Social Initiative in the Energy Transition.
Code voor kinderrechten, Waag, 2020
Future Internet Lab

Code for Children's Rights

Waag works together with Leiden University to create a Code for children's rights, creating a safer digital environment for children.
Transparante Laadpaal (The Incredible Machine)
Future Internet Lab

Public Stack: charging infrastructure for electric vehicles

Commissioned by the RVO, Waag is developing a Public Stack for the charging infrastructure of electric vehicles.
Public Stack visual
Future Internet Lab

Public Stack: the alternative internet

The internet is broken, but alternatives are available. We call the collection of these open, fair and safe alternatives the Public Stack.
campagnebeeld hdgs
Future Internet Lab

Hackathon de groene stad

In het project hackathon groene steden komen initiatieven bijeen die zich focussen op het vergroenen van steden. Waag organiseert vier groen-expedities en een hackathon.
Brein AI visual
Future Internet Lab

Algorithms: practical guidelines

The government is working on a framework for the use of algorithms. Waag investigates how this framework works in practice. Does it ask relevant questions? Can decisions be explained? Is it clear what the impact and responsibilities are?
Dutch Design Week - Embassy of Health
Smart Citizens Lab

Embassy of Health

The Embassy of Health explores challenges within healthcare and unites different perspectives on the crossings of technology, design, science, arts and healthcare.
Open data congres Eindhoven
Future Internet Lab

Masterclass Netpolitics

Bits of Freedom, Waag, Netwerk Democratie, Open State Foundation and Kennisland organise a Masterclass Net Politics .