Testimonial Niels Bosma

Associate Professor of Social Entrepreneurship at the Faculty of Law, Economics and Governance

Social Entrepreneurship

Niels Bosma: “During my PhD programme at the Faculty of Geosciences, I started to develop my research interest: social entrepreneurship. Within that field, the societal goal has the highest priority. Making a profit is more a means than an end in itself.

“At the Utrecht University School of Economics, I was given the opportunity to shape my interests. Together with others from the Faculty of Law, Economics and Governance I founded the Social Entrepreneurship Initiative. This initiative once started with an event and expanded into a university-wide hub in the field of social entrepreneurship. Hubs are interdisciplinary research teams that work on social issues with national and international partners. The fact that we were given the opportunity to set up a hub immediately indicates that there are many opportunities at Utrecht University. All you have to do is to seize them.”

“I like to look for the combination between education, research and the market.”

Collaborating with partners in the field

“What I like about my work is the diversity: I like to look for the combination between education, research and the market. Through our hubs, we collaborate with partners in the field, such as Tony’s Chocolonely, ABN Amro and Van Doorne Advocaten. That way, we are able to link our education and research to external companies in a very concrete way. That makes it fun and challenging. We have just completed a research project for the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs. The project examines a legal form of social entrepreneurship; it is interesting to see what opportunities interdisciplinary research can offer.”