Active Northern thinking and acting pays off! That proves Jouke de Vries, chairman of the board of the University of Groningen with his 'University for the North'. On Thursday 9 January he was awarded the Langman Prize 2019. This happened during the New Year's reception in the Northern Netherlands. 

De Vries received the prize because he wants to involve the entire North in the university. For example, he opened Campus Fryslân in Leeuwarden and this year, in collaboration with our business cluster, a master track Mechanical Engineering Smart Factories in our ICD Shared Facility Center in Drachten. The University of Groningen also has plans for an IT hub in Hoogeveen and research facilities at the chemical cluster Delfzijl, Eemshaven and Emmen. “This active Northern thinking and acting is more than sufficient reason for the jury to award Jouke de Vries the prize”, according to the jury report.

Langman

It is the third time that the Langman Prize has been awarded. The prize is awarded to a person or organization that thinks, acts, manages, undertakes without borders and thus gives impulses to Northern opinion-forming or economic development. The namesake of the prize, the Frisian Harrie Langman, was of great importance to the Northern Netherlands as minister of economic affairs. In the early 1970s, he was responsible for supporting the economically weak regions of Limburg and the North. He also initiated the relocation of government services to Groningen and Friesland. He also stood at the basis of billions in support for the North, the so-called Langman funds.