IO's week: reinventing yourself

Our weekly overview offers an overview of the most interesting stories around key innovations every Sunday.

Each week, in our Sunday newsletter, we look back on the past seven days. Regarding content, we always do so at the initiative of our cartoonist, Albert Jan Rasker. He chooses a subject, draws a picture, and we take it from there.

It has been on my to-do list for a long time: the passwords for all the accounts I have improved everywhere and nowhere. I can't say much about it—for obvious reasons—but in Albert Jan's cartoon, I'm the bald guy.

In the series Cracked by Jordens, colleague Elcke investigates the cyber security of consumers and businesses in the Netherlands. This week, the topic was passwords. One tip: Come up with phrases instead of your child's (or your dog's...) name.

November 14 is the day we launch IO+, our brand-new platform. And we're going to celebrate. Under the theme Reinventing Yourself, we have invited two speakers to do a live interview.

The first guest is Martha Riemsma, director of ANP. With her extensive experience in journalism and her vision of innovation within the media world, she knows better than anyone how to constantly reinvent yourself as an organization in a changing landscape.

The second guest is Jelle Prins, co-founder of Cradle. Jelle is a creative entrepreneur with an impressive career, including his work at Uber. In 2021, he founded Cradle, an AI platform for developing new proteins.

So, mark it in your calendar. The walk-in is at 16.00, and the program starts around 16.15. The event occurs in Microstad (5 minutes from Eindhoven station). You can register via this link.

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Gerard & Anton success all around

That winning a Gerard & Anton Award brings success was again evident this week. Onward Medical raised €50 million this week and won TIME's Best Inventions award. Whispp was also on the prestigious magazine's list. G&A alumni Antennex and RIFT also received substantial investments.

• Dutch medical innovator Onward Medical honored in TIME’s Best Inventions of 2024

• Whispp is TIME’s Best Invention of 2024

• New funding for ANTENNEX: Measuring antennas that couldn’t be measured

• Iron fuel startup RIFT secures €11 million

Here’s what else struck us last week:

• Must read of this week: ‘Climate change is solvable, but capital is missing’

• Revolution in agriculture: plants grow without sunlight

• Solar feed-in tariffs climb 18% in six months

• Elcke’s What if… column: If the Internet, our lifeline, suddenly breaks down

• More and more ‘spoofing’: cybercriminals use random number for scams

• Research that changes society: why intellectual property is crucial

• Brain-inspired computing makes chips future-proof

• Wageningen University starts research in algae-based solar fuel

• Meet the three Dutch startups offering protein alternatives

Have a good week!

Aafke Eppinga
editor-in-chief at Innovation Origins