Conference Agenda

The Geological Survey of the Netherlands (GDN), part of research and technology organisation TNO, recently updated its strategy in response to a geopolitically driven need for strategic autonomy, the energy and materials transitions, climate adaptation, increasing pressure on land use, and the AI revolution. The GDN focuses on four strategic priorities. "Future-proof land use" examines the interaction between the built environment and the subsurface. "Groundwater stewardship" seeks to balance groundwater quality and availability with growing competition between water abstraction and thermal energy storage. "Geo-energy" supports the energy transition through geothermal energy, heat networks, and the underground storage of CO₂ and hydrogen, while facilitating the phase-down of hydrocarbon production and the safe abandonment or repurposing of associated infrastructure. "Raw materials" is a new priority addressing both the geological potential of critical raw materials and the risks associated with their supply chains. While the strategic priorities define why the GDN acts and what it focuses on, the organisation's digital strategy determines how it delivers its mission. Conventional strategies are poorly suited to the adoption of the disruptive digital technologies emerging today. Rather than defining a fixed set of long-term goals and technology roadmaps, the GDN has adopted a flexible digital strategy based on the principles of data centricity, agility, and connectivity. It is built around the key concepts of value chains, which transform data into actionable insights, and data spaces, which enable secure collaboration between organisations. Implementation is guided by enterprise architecture, pilot-based testing of major changes, the incremental integration of smaller changes, and alignment with existing digital transformation programmes. Beyond technology, the digital strategy has organisation-wide implications and requires careful management of change across the workforce.