Koen Borghys is a PhD Researcher focusing on the monitoring of progress by public and private local actors within the Brussels Capital Region towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). His PhD project is titled ‘Data Driven Coaching of Local Communities in Achieving SDG Goals’. Koen writes his PhD together with IDEA Consult and Studies in Media, Innovation and Technology (SMIT), a research group at the Faculty of Social Sciences & Solvay Business School within the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. The project combines several of his personal interests: cities and municipalities (the local level), data-driven policymaking and sustainability.

At IDEA, Koen applies his expertise regarding SDGs and policy evaluation towards local authorities, the Flemish government, the federal government and the European Parliament.
Before his PhD, Koen was already working several years with local governments to help them build a strategy and a vision around smart city and (open) data. Before that he gained experience as a lawyer to legally support and advise technology companies and venture capital funds.

Koen holds a Master of Laws and a Master of Science in General Economics (Cum Laude) from Ghent University.