Diana van der Sloot

Ever since her student days, Diana van der Sloot has been passionate about sustainability. As a recently appointed EIRES Program Manager, she aspires to build bridges amongst and between scientists and industrial partners to bring brilliant ideas into daily practice and make the energy transition happen.

What is your educational background?
‘I completed my Master’s in Building Technology here at Eindhoven University of Technology in 2009. My graduation project was about cradle to cradle developments, which was a topic that had just started to gain momentum back then. Under the supervision of Jouke Post, I drafted a manual on how to apply the cradle to cradle principle to the entire building process, ranging from the design of a building and how to position it with respect to for example sun or wind, to the choice of materials, and a critical assessment of what installations are really needed and what can be left out if you take a smart approach to the required specifications.’

Where did you go from there?
‘Since my graduation, I have held a variety of jobs, all in the field of consultancy on cradle to cradle and sustainability. Over the years I have both worked as an employer at different companies and as a self-employed strategist. This provided me with the opportunity to broaden my expertise, which came in very handy when several years ago, I joined the municipality of Deurne as a Policy Developer and later Program Manager Sustainability.’

What did your job there entail?
‘Sustainability can be a very broad topic, especially in the context of a municipality. When I started in Deurne back in 2018, the main focus though was on the energy transition. Over the years, I managed to expand the topic of sustainability to also include climate, circularity, and the sustainable society, and to collaborate within Metropolitan Region Eindhoven. In the end, I was involved in discussions and projects ranging from how to best recycle household waste into renewable materials and how to make the municipal organization itself more sustainable, to introducing subsidies to stimulate sustainable behavior amongst the inhabitants.’

And how did you end up at TU/e from there?
‘I like to build new things. I felt that I had played my part in Deurne and it was time for me to move on towards an environment that was more at the forefront of innovation.’

What is your ambition as an EIRES Program Manager?
‘To me, I am successful if I can help establish the connections necessary to indeed accelerate the energy transition. To that end, I will focus on strengthening and expanding the EIRES community. In my first few days here, I have already seen so many new, exciting and promising ideas that society so desperately needs… I want to help build the bridges that are necessary to turn these ideas into actual products and services that help us as a society transition towards a more sustainable future, and to do so as fast as possible.’