Stephan van Dijk

Background

About Stephan van Dijk

As the Director of Innovation at the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions (AMS Institute), I enable researchers, tech talents and our partners to develop solutions that foster sustainable and resilient cities. My role involves developing research and innovation programs that drive positive change in cities, and leading our teams of startup support, prototyping and tech transfer. Over the past 10 years we developed and executed more than 230M of R&D projects, and we supported the growth of +75 startups dedicated to building sustainable, resilient, and smarter urban environments. The AMS Institute stands at the forefront of urban research and innovation, and was founded by academic partners Delft University of Technology, Wageningen University & Research, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, together with the city of Amsterdam. Prior to joining AMS Institute, my experience as a program manager at Delft University of Technology centered on building public-private partnerships and joint research projects in the fields of sustainable mobility and smart cities. In addition, I managed a shared incubator for clean-tech startups in Rotterdam and supported one of the first seed investment funds of Delft university of Technology. I earned my PhD at Eindhoven University of Technology on innovation strategies of high-tech companies in 2008. In I graduated with honors from Wageningen University in System Sciences and Operations Research.