ABOUT BERTRIK BERFELO
Strategic advice and governance around innovation
Most organisations know what they want from technology. The harder question is how to organise it so that it holds up at board level and can actually be delivered. That is where my work sits: between strategy, project leadership, research and governance.
I move easily between people who do not speak each other's language. A teacher, a systems administrator and a board member look at the same question in completely different ways. I do not take over their role. I map the interests and the dependencies, and make sure there is something on the table you can decide on.
My field is XR, serious gaming, esports and exergaming. Through HEQED AI I extend that experience into responsible use of AI, digital learning resources and platform provision.
WHAT I DO
How I connect content, organisation and delivery
I always start with the same question: what is this supposed to deliver, and for whom? The technology comes after that. In that approach, domain knowledge, business thinking, research and governance experience all run through each other.
Strategic advice and innovation governance
New technology only becomes interesting once it is clear which problem it solves and for whom. I help organisations sharpen that early, along with the risks and the question of whether it can be delivered at all.
The difficult parts are usually not technical. Who becomes the owner? Who pays for maintenance three years from now? What does this mean for privacy and information security? I put those questions on the table, work out scenarios, and make sure the resulting choice is defensible at board level and workable in practice. My governance experience helps here: I am used to keeping roles clean and weighing competing interests against each other.
Project and programme leadership
An ambition is not yet an assignment. I turn it into a plan people can work with: who does what, by when, and on what budget. After that it is largely a matter of keeping the collaboration going, between subject experts, teaching professionals, suppliers and the people who eventually decide.
Steering on progress and money is part of it, but so are quality and continuity. What is left of this project once it ends in two years? My experience runs from small pilots and grant-funded projects to multi-year public-private programmes with dozens of partners. When something gets stuck, I am the one who makes it clear again and works towards a decision.
Educational technology and applied research
XR, serious gaming, esports, exergaming and game-based learning are my field, alongside digital learning resources and responsible use of AI. What is technically possible is usually the easy part. The more interesting question is what an application adds to learning, training, taking part or staying healthy.
I research that through pilots and user evaluations, close to everyday practice. That shows what works, what does not, and what it takes to keep it going. Those findings go back into course development, quality frameworks and to the people who have to decide.
GOVERNANCE
Governance and board-level decision making
I chair HAN's central participation council, a body of eighteen members. In that role I hold the formal dialogue with the Executive Board on strategy, budget and decisions that affect the whole organisation. It calls for independent judgement and a sharp eye for the numbers, and above all for not confusing your own role with someone else's.
I bring that way of looking at things into advisory work on innovation and digitalisation. A good proposal is not only strong on content. It is also clear about who owns it, what it means for the public task, and whether the decision behind it was reached with care.
PROJECTS
Selected projects
Across these projects I switch roles: adviser, project leader, researcher. The question underneath is always the same. How does a good idea become something funded, governable and usable?
Institution-wide implementation of VR device management
From fragmented management to one organisational base
The HAN had 231 VR headsets, spread across academies that had each arranged their management slightly differently. As subject-matter expert I took that issue from analysis through to implementation. I gathered what the academies needed, translated it into requirements, and pulled privacy, procurement, cost allocation and the balance between central and local management into a single approach.
After comparing and negotiating with suppliers, the licence price came in around 47 percent below the standard rate. I then supported the set-up of the environment and the handover of management to IT.
Gaming & Esports: The new strength of Gelderland
Programme leadership in a public-private network
At the start of 2023 I took over a multi-year regional innovation programme in Gelderland as the third project manager, after staff changes and delays had put its coherence under pressure. The programme brought together nearly forty partners from education, research, government, sport and business. Realised project costs came to €651,110, including €500,000 in provincial funding.
My contribution was in reconnecting progress on content, finances and partner contributions. I produced the interim and final accountability reports with a view of the future, and translated shared results into proposals for continuity and further funding. The results achieved were the work of the consortium as a whole.
Innovation Centre for Esports and Exergaming
From business case to a recognised part of the organisation
I initiated the Innovation Centre for Esports and Exergaming and worked out its positioning from the business case. Within one recognisable part of HAN, teaching, research and talent development come together with innovation, knowledge sharing and social application.
My role lies in strategic planning and project development, and in connecting academies, researchers, students and external partners. That gives a subject area an organisational form which makes collaboration, funding and further development possible.
Npuls: from pilot to lasting practice
Institutional advice and sector-wide knowledge sharing
As XR regional ambassador for the central Netherlands, I held conversations in a temporary assignment with vocational colleges, universities of applied sciences and research universities about the step from experiment to lasting practice. The questions concerned infrastructure, device management and teacher support, and quality frameworks, governance, funding and scaling up.
I recognised recurring patterns across institutions and translated them into targeted advice, relevant Npuls knowledge products and connections with experts. I also brought insight from practice back to the national community through sessions, blog posts and contributions to knowledge products.
Bio Game Club
Research leadership and social application
As lead researcher of the Bio Game Club, I study how gaming can contribute to social participation, belonging and confidence among children and young people with a disability. The club offers a safe, supervised setting in which participants play together and make contact.
My role lies in the research design, the interpretation of the findings and the translation towards practice and partners in education, sport and care. The project shows how a familiar technology can be put to work on a social question without losing sight of the quality of the research and the support
MORE PROJECTS: MOVE-XR · HEQED AI · BeNeCup Exergaming · Veelzijdiger in Beweging
WHO I AM
Background
Business administration, applied research and digital innovation: those are the three lines running through my background. They meet in the question I ask most often. Not whether something is technically possible, but what it takes to organise it responsibly and keep it running.
Alongside that I have governance experience at institutional level. As chair of HAN's central participation council I meet the Executive Board on strategy, budget and policy. That sharpens your eye: a proposal that is sound on content can still fall short financially or in governance terms.
The business foundation comes from my MSc in Commercial Sciences and Business Administration and from earlier management roles with budget responsibility.
In 2024 HAN named me Lecturer of the Year. That does say something about how I work: close to practice, and focused on things people can genuinely use.
WORKING TOGETHER
Who I work with
I work with educational institutions, public organisations, knowledge networks and partnerships that want to get further than a successful pilot. I am at my best where content, funding and delivery meet and nobody is quite sure whose move it is.
Through my company Bertrik I am available for strategic advice, project and programme leadership, boardroom sessions, workshops and talks.