At the Rathenau Instituut, I am research director and head of the science system assessment department, a research center for science system studies and science policy studies. The aim of the department is to conduct research that contributes to our understanding of the dynamics and organization of science, and at the same time should inform science policy. At the moment, the department employs some 20 researchers. The Rathenau Instituut is an institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). At the Rathenau Institute we also conduct technology assessment research.
The research program is based on the idea that the science system is a complex ecosystem. In order to understand its functioning and development, and in order to develop meaningful indicators for evidence based policy, we need new and theory based approaches. Developing these is an international project, in which we collaborate with other in and outside of the Netherlands. These new approaches are among others based on the development of e-social science and (as it is called in the US) cyber-infrastructures for research.

At the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam I am professor of organization science, with a special chair on the organization and dynamics of science. Within the Network Instituut we collaborate in several research projects, such as a project about e-social science and a project on the organization and effects of interdisciplinary research institutes.

Previously, I was extraordinary professor of communication science at the University of Amsterdam (2004-2009), head of the social sciences department and director of the social science data archive (Steinmetz Archive) at NIWI-KNAW (2002-2005), and an associate professor of social informatics at the University of Amsterdam (1986-2002).

Contact me at: peter AT vandenbesselaar DOT net