Page 14 - ARUBA TODAY

A14 LOCAL
Wednesday 18 september 2019
Thaïs Franken Obtains her Masters of Science in Maastricht
MAASTRICHT — On Augustus 29th 2019 Thaïs Franken successfully
defended her thesis titled “The Road Towards an Innovative Aruba:
A Q-Analysis on the Synergy Between the Creative Industry and
Knowledge Economy as a Driver to Stimulate Socio-Economic De-
velopment in Aruba’s Local Innovation System” before the Grad-
uation Committee consisting of dr. Serdar Türkeli and Mr. Otiama
Chuks. With this she obtained her double Masters of Science (MSc.)
degree in Public Policy and Human Development at the University of
Maastricht (UM) y the United Nations University Maastricht Economic
and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (UNU-
MERIT).
Back in 2018 Thaïs graduated from the Universidad di Aruba (UA)
and investigated the possible socio-economic and cultural devel-
opment impact of the Aruban Creative Industry. The thesis titled
“Placing Culture at the Heart of Aruba’s Sustainable Development”
was also successful and received the “best thesis award” for the
academic year 2017-2018. In Maastricht taking into account her
passion for innovation and sustainable development,
Thaïs decided to specialize in Innovation, Institutions and Devel-
opment, and once more dedicated her thesis to her dearest is-
land, Aruba. This time her thesis focused on the possible synergy
(policy-wise) between the Aruban Creative Industry and Knowl-
edge Economy to stimulate more innovation on the island.
Thaïs completed a Q-Method research study which is known as a
mixed research method where simply qualitative data is quanti-
fied with the purpose of providing evidence-based recommen-
dations for policy practice and further research. A total of 28 rele-
vant stakeholders in Aruba representing the public sector, private
sector, academia, non-government organizations (NGOs) and
the community of Aruba participated in this research. From the
results it can be concluded that Aruba is still not ready for a syn-
ergy between the Creative Industry and Knowledge Economy,
even though theories and previous research indicate that this is
the best way to stimulate innovative development in a country.
However, the results also show that the stakeholders do recognize
the relationship between creativity, knowledge and innovation.
This means that the road towards and innovative Aruba is pos-
sible but will require concrete and inclusive evidence-based poli-
cy making. Thaïs concludes her report with a list of recommenda-
tions and highlights that all stakeholders need to start considering
the development of both creativity (culture) and knowledge (e.g
fields in science, technology, engineering and math) as comple-
mentary and important for the innovative future of Aruba.
In the end, Thaïs thanks everyone who participated in making
her research a reality. The intention now is to share her results with
the participants and the entire Aruban community. For those
who are interested in the dialogue regarding innovation through
creativity and knowledge can follow her column in Aruba Today
called “Creative Islander” bi-weekly on Thursdays. The road to-
wards a sustainable and innovative Aruba through this synergy
is extremely important and necessary. It might be a road with
challenges, but for sure not impossible. For any questions or more
information regarding this research you can freely contact Thaïs
through email: thais.franken@gmail.com.
Aruba Today is proud of her columnist! Thais writes bi weekly on
Thursday for our newspaper and how she is graduated. As we say
in Papiamento: Pabien Thais!q