EXPERTISE
Hen has a long and varied experience on urban planning and development. In the past 20 years he combined this with the development of international coordination projects. Hen studied Public Administration and after that he was working for 15 years in the Staff and International Division of the Dutch Ministry for Housing, Spatial Planning and Environment. In this position he was member of the Ministerial Project Team responsible for the development of the national Fourth and Fifth Note for Spatial Planning. In particular, he was responsible for the coordination with the larger Dutch cities to ensure that their views on sustainable urban development were taken into account in the development process of these national policy documents.
He co-drafted 3 transnational INTERREG programmes and in this position he ensured that urban regeneration projects were considered as a relevant topic in the strategies of these programmes. At project level he drafted policy recommendations and performed knowledge management tasks linked to brownfield development, healthy living and energy efficiency measures in historic city centers in the projects Retina (retinasee.eu), Telemedicine (Interreg IIIC) and GovernEE (governeeproject.eu).
Being a Deputy Director of the NWE programme he advised numerous organizations on how to improve project applications also those ones linked to sustainable urban development.
Finally, he was involved in 4 Urbact projects as a Lead or/and thematic expert (Repair, Re-Block; P4C, UrbenEnergy Phase 1). Recently in May 2019 he finished the Urbact project Creative Spirits as a Lead expert.
In 2007 he founded Grants Europe Consulting Kft. and in 2010 EU Liaison BV. Currently he is managing these companies but he is also working as an external thematic expert for the Interreg Europe projects Eurega and String.
Specific urban project development and management knowledge
Hen was the drafter and founding father of 5 international projects linked to Health Care with linkages to the urban environment.
In the Telemedicine project he carried out a study on the consequences of Telemedicine for Urban Planning and development.
In the RECAP project (Interreg IVC - Regional Care Portal, http://www.regionalcareportals.eu/en) which he drafted, the impacts of the setting up of integrated Care portals were studied and tested.
The Dementia project (Interreg IVB NWE, http://www.innovatedementia.eu/en/about-innovate-dementia) was dealing with stimulating physical exercise for dementia patients and how the design of public spaces could stimulate this.
In the Q-Ageing project (quality ageing in an urban environment, http://www.q-ageing.eu/) he prepared a report and moderated a project meeting on how to link the views of appointed thematic experts with the intermediate results of the transnational knowledge exchange.
In the Health for Growth project he drafted Policy recommendations and a sustainability report and presented these during a workshop at the final event (http://goo.gl/1m7Lwd, http://goo.gl/Gcosx9).
Hen has a deep rooted understanding on how to maximize the results of transnational cooperation projects in the theme Health and Urban development.
Specific experience on knowledge exchange and peer to peer learning
Hen has significant experience in organizing, delivering activities aimed at facilitating peer learning and effective working. He participated as thematic/lead expert, project drafter, thematic manager, expert on policy implementation actions in numerous international projects such as
Retina, GovernEE, Waterways Forward, Telemedicine, Health for Growth,
Re-Block, Repair,Urbenenergy, Placemaking 4 Cities or Creative Spirits.
In these projects he was involved in the conceptual phases on transnational knowledge management and peer to peer learning.
He guided and moderated more than 30 international seminars, masterclasses, study-visits and peer reviews. In order to achieve the common interest of partners he is specialised in surveying partnership knowledge level and using it for developing knowledge transfer matrixes tailored to the specific needs of the partners.
Hen has also built up specific expertise in steering and guiding urban authorities on developing integrated Local Action Plans and turn them into concrete implementation plans ready made for future funding.
