Wouter Boon appointed Professor of Innovation and Transition Studies

Innovation researcher Dr Wouter Boon from the Faculty of Geosciences’ Department of Sustainable Development has been appointed as Professor of Innovation and Transition Studies as of 1 November 2023. “The Faculty of Geosciences is very pleased with Wouter Boon’s appointment”, says Dr Wilco Hazeleger, Dean of the Faculty of Geosciences. “He is the perfect person to connect scientific research and education with societal partners who are innovating and going through transitions.”

Wouter Boon has been affiliated with the Department of Sustainable Development since 2013. Before that, he conducted his PhD research at the department and worked at innovation studies groups in other universities and the Rathenau Institute. Innovation studies is an interdisciplinary field of expertise that investigates the origins of innovation and its impact on society. The field studies how businesses, governments and other societal actors can contribute to the development, distribution and implementation of new products and services. Innovation studies has a long tradition at Utrecht University: since 1999 the Innovation Studies group has become a leading group in innovation and transition research and has sustained successful teaching programmes on innovation.

Social impact

The field of innovation studies has long paid attention to the impact that new technologies, such as biotechnology, nanotechnology, and energy technology, have on society. And to the question of how we can address their future effects in a socially responsible manner during the design of an innovation. “In our field, we’ve placed more emphasis on how innovations can contribute to major societal challenges over the past few years, especially in the areas of sustainability and health”, explains Boon. “In that context, we study transitions in socio-technological systems in a variety of empiric domains, including energy, mobility, housing, food and health.”

Scaling up in a responsible manner

Innovation scientists are also placing more and more emphasis on the role of digitisation in transitions and the role played by innovation policy to promote transitions in the context of societal challenges. In many of these transitions, creating new technology is no longer the highest priority. “It’s more about the question of how innovation can be scaled up responsibly”, says Wouter Boon, “so that it can be useful in more places in an effective and fair manner. This is an important topic for future research”.