Ruben Nicolas a postdoctoral researcher at the Utrecht School of Economics (U.S.E.). His work concentrates on the public sector and builds on Organizational, Innovation and Environmental Economics. 

His current research areas concern: 

• the organization design and governance of public service and public-private collaborations, and; 

• the effects of (green) public procurement on firms' pollution abatement, innovation and growth.

Ruben teaches Public Procurement in the Master’s programme Science and Business Management and he supervises Bachelor theses for the minor in Law and Economics. 

Ruben completed his PhD on Sustainable Public Procurement in May 2025. The chair is funded by the Ministries of Defence, BZK/DGOO and J&V, Municipalities Amsterdam & The Hague, the Tax Authority, National Police, RIS, UWV, Stichting Rijk in collaboration with Nevi. For additional research projects, funding was obtained from the EU (Demotrans) and the IKEA foundation (SKAO CO2 Performance Ladder).