Short CV

Ruud Smits (Venlo, 1950) studied physics at the University of Eindhoven (1972) and got training in system dynamics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Dartmouth College. He was active as teacher in physics, freelance researcher in the area of technology, economy and society, member of the Social Systems Working Group of the University of Nijmegen, part-time professor ‘Technology, policy and society’ at the University of Tilburg and spent the second half of 1995 as visiting fellow at the Foreward Studies Unit, the think tank of the chairman of the European Commission. The largest part of his career he spent with the TNO-Centre for Technology and Policy Studies. From 1988 till 1996 he acted as director of TNO-CTPS. Since 1999 he is full time professor ‘Technology and Innovation, more in particular the management of innovation processes’ in the Department of Innovation Studies of the University of Utrecht. Furthermore Ruud Smits is director of 'Smits Innovation Consultancy' and associate of 'Dialogic', a young and innovative consultancy firm involved in interactive strategy- and policy development in the area of innovation in services and E-commerce.
Ruud Smits acts as chairman of the Department of Innovation Studies and is member of the board of the Copernicus Research institute for Sustainable Development and Innovation. He is member of several committees dealing with research- and policy issues in the field of innovation. He furthermore is co-founder and associate editor of the International Journal of Foresight and Innovation Policy.
The focus of his work is on management of innovation processes, the development of more user-oriented types of innovation policy and -management, technology assessment and the development of instruments that facilitate the participation of relevant actors in decision-making processes on innovation and on the dynamics of innovation systems (transitions, systemic instruments, relation between processes and systems).