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FOREWORD
This Strategic Plan will introduce you to the world of Deltares. We will tell you about the
major, complex issues facing the world that make living in deltas a challenge. That is our
field. Deltares has an important job to do. This Strategic Plan describes how we plan to
achieve our goals.
The previous Strategic Plan was due for an overhaul, even though the period it officially
covered had not yet come to an end. The world around us is changing rapidly. So rapidly,
that a new plan is needed to keep us on a tighter course. In addition, this time round, we
are publishing the plan at the same time as the other institutes for applied research (the
TO2 institutes) to make it easier to establish links between these plans. That was also a
request from the Ministry of Economic Affairs with which we were happy to comply.
This plan was established in extensive consultation with others. It is the result of a shared
production process with our staff, clients (business and government authorities) and
other players in our field of operations. Approximately 100 members of staff have been
involved in elaborating the overall content of the plan. We have arranged 80 interviews
with people in our field to map out important new developments, questions and wishes for
the future. That generated valuable input, alongside all the substantive input received
previously from, among other sources, the Knowledge Impact Audit conducted at Deltares
recently by an independent international committee. The Deltares management then
collaborated with a number of committed employees who had volunteered their services
to further elaborate the plan and put it into writing. As a result, this plan is much more
than a simple document. It is a dialogue with our organisation and our field about our
work, our ambitions and the opportunities open to us. This Strategic Plan is a record of
that dialogue.
It covers the period 2015-2018 and constitutes the framework for our knowledge, market
and annual operational plans. However, the time horizon for our business extends well
beyond those four years. Looking a long way ahead is our job; an adaptive approach is
vitally important. So we will have to make regular adjustments to our ambitions and
focus if social issues require it. Should it prove necessary to re-calibrate this plan as early
as 2017 in response to developments in our field, we will not hesitate to do so.
Deltares Strategic Plan
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