Matthijs Janssen

Biography

Trained as an innovation scientist, Matthijs investigates innovation policy and strategy. His research activities involve both quantitative and qualitative analyses, based on methods like statistical modelling, survey research, interviews and case studies. As assistant professor at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Matthijs mainly focuses at industrial policy, transitions, mission-oriented innovation policy, and novel forms of smart specialization. These lines of research follow on Matthijs’ PhD-thesis on ‘service innovation in an evolutionary perspective’ (runner-up for the ISPIM Innovation Management Dissertation Award 2016) from Eindhoven University of Technology, and his post-doc position at the Center for International Development - Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Matthijs' current work mainly focuses on assessing the governance and impact of ‘transformative’ innovation policies targeted at specific sectors, knowledge domains or societal challenges. Matthijs is coordinator of Utrecht University’s ‘Mission-oriented Innovation Policy Observatory’; see: www.uu.nl/en/research/copernicus-institute-of-sustainable-development/mission-oriented-innovation-policy-observatory. Matthijs also holds a position as Principal Scientist at Dialogic Innovation & Interaction. Often acting as project leader, he has (co-)authored about 40 studies for clients like the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, Ministry of Education Culture and Science, Ministry of Infrastructure and Watermanagement, Ministry of Finance, Rijkswaterstaat, the European Commission and the OECD.