Emeritus professor of Science and Innovation Studies at Leiden University. Professor at Stellenbosch University (South Africa). Robert’s current interests focus on contributions of universities and higher education institutions to local or regional socio-economic development.

More information about Robert Tijssen

Robert Tijssen is emeritus professor at Leiden University since May 2021. He is one of the founding staff members of CWTS.

Robert is also affiliated to the African Studies Centre at Leiden University. His professional ties to Africa include a professorship at Stellenbosch University (South Africa), and board membership of South Africa’s DST-NRF Center of Excellence in Scientometrics and Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (SciSTIP).

He is also one of the project leaders at the LDE International Center of Frugal Innovation - a collaborative initiative of the Leiden, Delft and Erasmus universities in the Netherlands - as well as an international research partner and co-investigator at the Centre for Global Higher Education (United Kingdom).

His scholarly interests and research activities cover a range of topics within science, technology and innovation studies, as well as related issues in higher education studies. Addressing information gaps and policy-relevant questions, a significant share of Robert’s current academic activities focusses on measuring and mapping the varied contributions of universities and higher education institutions to local or regional socio-economic development. The latest additions to his research portfolio include an EC-funded study of European research-intensive, traditional universities as well as a series of case studies among of Universities of Applied Sciences in Europe.

Robert’s expertise includes several decades of commissioned work in science policy and research management projects. Most of his advisory and consultancy work relates to monitoring and evaluation of university performance, with a strong focus on the development and application of analytical tools and indicators in the context of quality assurance systems, reward and incentive systems, knowledge transfer mechanisms, and commercialization of university research, indicator-based assessments of research programs, and developing evaluation systems of regional innovation impact by universities.

Google Scholar Citations provides a full bibliographic overview of his academic research, comprising more than 250 publications that have accumulated more than 9 000 citations in the global academic literature.

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