Matthijs is an innovation scientist with a MSc and PhD degree from Eindhoven University of Technology. Before joining Utrecht University’s Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, where he is a tenured assistant professor now, Matthijs held a position as Growth Lab fellow at the Center for International Development – Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
For more than a decade now, Matthijs has been investigating and evaluating a wide variety of innovation policies. His current focus concerns the interface between industrial policy, (mission-oriented) innovation policy, and transitions. Based on his expertise in these fields, Matthijs regularly sits in expert committees tasked with the development and/or application of new frameworks and methods for evaluating novel types of innovation policies. Recent examples include his membership of a Dutch working group proposing evaluation methods for ‘systemic and transformative policies’ as well as his role as international expert in the evaluation of the Australian Industrial Growth Centre Initiative.
Apart from his affiliation at Utrecht University, Matthijs also works as a Principal Scientist at research and consultancy agency Dialogic (Utrecht). Over the past ten years he has (co)-authored around 40 reports. Many of the research projects Matthijs contributes to are commissioned by public authorities at regional level, national level (Ministries of Economic Affairs / Infrastructure and the Environment) or supranational level (OECD, European Commission).