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Prof Dr R.P.M. Kemp

What this world needs is a different world (Kamagurka).

How to make the world more sustainable , fair and tolerant is something I do research on.  I am doing this as a critical pluralist, who feels that all theories and methods have advantages and limitations which are best acknowledged and faced.

In my own research on  eco-innovation, transition dynamics, social innovation,  plastics recycling and governance for sustainable development, I try to combine insights, methods and frameworks from different fields.  I am well-known for my work on transition management and (reflexive) governance for sustainable development. 

The last years my research is often done with practitioners. In TransB I help water companies deal with multiple transition challenges and in SYSCHEMIQ I am tasked with the creation of a transition strategy for plastics recycling in the Meuse-Rhine region. 

At the School of Business and Economics (in Maastricht), I co-lead the MORSE initiative about problem-based research, which encourages researchers to work across disciplines and fields on complex, real-world questions, together with stakeholders on the topics of resilience, responsibility and sustainability. 

I am professor of Innovation and Sustainable Development at MSI and UNU-MERIT (since 2010). For fun I collect aphorisms and dualisms. 

My personal website is https://kemp.unu-merit.nl/ 

Expertises

I am an innovation expert with domain expertise in green energy, electric mobility, waste management and the circular economy, the water sector. I have expertise in (environmental) economics and innovation studies, the sociology of knowledge, institutional theory, governance, political economy. My publications on transition management, strategic niche management and reflexive governance for sustainable development are seminal. I am a keen learner and want to do research that contributes to a better world.  I am an expert of knowledge integration: I can bring together the findings of different studies in an integrative way.

Career history
  • 1987 – 1988           Researcher at Faculty of Economics and Business Administration of UM.
  • 1987 – 1998           Researcher at MERIT
  • 1997 – 1998           Postdoc researcher at University of Twente
  • 1997                       Visiting fellow at IPTS in Seville (Spain)
  • 1998 –2009            Senior research fellow at MERIT
  • 2001                       Scientific director of STEP in Oslo (Norway) (half time)
  • 2002                       Visiting researcher at Harvard (US) and Foscari University in Venice (Italy)
  • 2002 – 2005           Senior Advisor of TNO-STB (NL) (one day a week)
  • 2005 – 2009           Senior researcher at DRIFT (Dutch Research Institute for Transitions), Erasmus University Rotterdam (NL) (2 days a week, from June 2008 on 1 day a week)
  • 2005 – 2009           Senior researcher at ICIS (International Center of Integrated Assessment and Sustainable Development) of Maastricht University (NL) (from June 2009 on for 2.5 day a week)
  • 2006                       Visiting researcher at SPRU (UK)
  • 2007                       Visiting researcher at CIRUS (Switzerland)
  • 2009 – present     Professor of innovation and sustainable development at ICIS and professorial fellow UNU-MERIT
  • 2014 – 2015         Visiting professor at AIRC, Australia