Trained as an innovation scientist, Matthijs investigates innovation policy and strategy. As tenured assistant professor at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Matthijs mainly focuses at industrial policy, transitions, mission-oriented innovation policy, and novel forms of smart specialization. These lines of research follow on Matthijs鈥� PhD-thesis on 鈥榮ervice innovation in an evolutionary perspective鈥� (runner-up for the ISPIM Innovation Management Dissertation Award 2016) from Eindhoven 木瓜福利影视 of Technology, and his post-doc position at the Center for International Development - Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
Matthijs' current work mainly focuses on assessing the governance and impact of 鈥榯ransformative鈥� innovation policies targeted at specific sectors, knowledge domains or societal challenges. Matthijs is coordinator of Utrecht 木瓜福利影视鈥檚 鈥楳ission-oriented Innovation Policy Observatory鈥�; see: . He fulfills various roles, including project leader and work package leader, in several research projects funded through competitive calls. Currently this includes the projects REWIRE and AMBITIONS (both funded through the Dutch Research Council NWO). He also acts as (co-)supervisor of PhD students and postdocs funded through the projects ESMEE (NWO), Oncode Accelerator (National Growth Fund), and DemoTrans (Horizon Europe), as well as of external PhD students from Rathenau Institute and earlier the Ministries of Defense and of Economic Affairs.
Over the past few years Matthijs has published in journals like Science and Public Policy, Research Evaluation, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, Cambridge Journal of Regions Economy and Society, Industry & Innovation, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Journal of Product Innovation Management, R&D Management, as well as in various innovation handbooks. He also contributes regularly to Dutch policy-oriented platforms like ESB and Me Judice. Matthijs frequently sits in (inter)national expert committees and advisory boards concerned with innovation policy and evaluation. Moreover, he regularly contributes to training programs offered to audiences like ministries and high-level policy officials.
Besides his academic affiliation, Matthijs also holds a position as Principal Scientist at Dialogic Innovation & Interaction. Often acting as project leader, he has (co-)authored about 100 studies for clients like the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, Ministry of Education Culture and Science, Ministry of Infrastructure and Watermanagement, Ministry of Finance, Rijkswaterstaat, the European Commission (notably JRC) and the OECD.