GDBC initiators

Digital companies have revolutionized the international economy in recent decades. The wide range of opportunities offered by the internet has enabled young, innovative companies to challenge the established order. These disruptive developments have not gone unnoticed in the academic world: the national science agenda regards big data and digitization as the most important driving forces behind the changes in the market.

The GDBC will actively work with this development, in both academic and practical terms. The GDBC was initiated by the following parties:

University of Groningen, Faculty of Economics and Business
Various new course units and degree programmes in the fields of big data, data science and marketing analysis have been introduced at the University of Groningen over the past years. The Faculty of Economics and Business knows better than anyone that collaborating with businesses is essential in order to conduct relevant research. The GDBC is therefore happy to join forces with digital companies in the Northern Netherlands and elsewhere in an effort to structurally strengthen the digital sector in the North.

University of Groningen, Faculty of Science and Engineering
Digitization is strongly driven by technological developments. The Faculty of Science and Engineering has long been looking into the development and application of new algorithms and methods, such as machine learning, to analyse large data files. In addition, ample attention is paid to the processing, analysis and visualization of large data files. These technologies will be further developed in the coming years to incorporate specific applications, such as the analysis of unstructured data and blockchain.

The FSE is therefore delighted that the curriculum will increasingly pay more attention to the application of these technologies within companies. In addition, FSE students and staff will be able to put their acquired knowledge into practice by doing internships or conducting research at companies in the Northern Netherlands.

Noordelijke Online Ondernemers
Countless progressive, successful digital companies have emerged in the North of the Netherlands over the past decades. A number of these groundbreaking companies have joined forces in an alliance called the Noordelijke Online Ondernemers, or Northern Netherlands Online Entrepreneurs (NOO). A collective of over 40 established online companies, the NOO grew out of the need to exchange knowledge about online entrepreneurship.

The online entrepreneurs involved in the NOO are experiencing a growing demand for academically trained experts in the field of digital science and big data. This growing demand and the need for academic knowledge led the NOO to approach the University of Groningen with the question how we could tackle this issue together. The main wish was to strengthen the digital sector in the Northern Netherlands together. The result is clear: we have established a new centre for digital entrepreneurship together, the Groningen Digital Business Centre.