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Dr. ir. Frans A. van der Zee

Senior researcher
Frans van der Zee
Frans A. van der Zee joined the Rathenau Instituut as a senior researcher / innovation economist in August 2021.

Expertise
Frans focuses on technology and innovation policy and the governance of innovation, the characteristics and future-proofing of the Dutch knowledge ecosystem, the transition to a sustainable economy, and new perspectives on economy and society (broad prosperity, beyond growth, planetary boundaries). 

Education and career
Frans is a political/institutional economist (MSc, with honours). He obtained his PhD from Wageningen University & Research, where he worked from 1989 to 1994 as a PhD candidate and assistant professor of agricultural economics and EU agricultural policy. He continued his career at Erasmus University Rotterdam as assistant professor of public finance, public economics and European integration. As from 1998 he joined the Netherlands Economic Institute/ECORYS to work as a senior consultant regional and rural development and EU accession. In 2005, he joined TNO as a senior strategist on the economics of innovation, technology, innovation and industrial policy, digitalisation/AI and the future of work, both at national and EU level.  As from 2010, after a two-year period as co-director of SEOR BV, the consultancy arm of the Erasmus School of Economics (EUR), he resumed his position at TNO in combination with a part-time secondment as visiting fellow/strategist at the Joint Institute for Innovation Policy (JIIP) in Brussels.