Staffan Jacobsson

Staffan Jacobsson is Professor in Science and Technology Policy at the Department of Energy and Environment, Chalmers. He received his D.Phil. in Economics at the University of Sussex, U.K. in 1986 and focussed initially on technical change and industrial policy in the newly industrialising countries. In the 1990s, he worked together with a number of Swedish colleagues developing the analytical framework “technological innovation systems”. The framework was applied to a number of technologies, product groups and sectors. In addition, with Professor Bo Carlsson, he wrote a series of papers on policy. In the last decade, he has continued to develop the framework whilst applying it to new energy technologies. In this he has collaborated chiefly with Anna Bergek, Björn Sandén and Marko Hekkert. His current research interests are threefold: the transformation of the energy system into a sustainable one; b) science policy, in particular how “dominant beliefs” emerge, how they often lack empirical substance and, therefore, risk guiding policy in the wrong direction; c) “functional analysis” as a way to develop an innovation system approach in order to make it more useful to policy makers. Jacobsson teaches within the MEI programme where he runs the course “Technological Change and Industrial Transformation”. He has been honoured with three Teaching Awards from Masters and PhD students and he is co-founder of RIDE, a VINNOVA Centre of Excellence.