Valentijn Bilsen, PhD, is Senior Expert Competitiveness, Green Economy and Economic Impact Studies at IDEA Consult with a track record of 25 years in studies for policy advice and more than 10 years in academics as a researcher in economics. Valentijn focuses on projects related to circular economy, environment, renewable energy, cleantech, resources and raw materials, and sustainable production, as well as sectoral value chain analyses, economic impact studies, evaluations and feasibility studies. Before joining IDEA Consult, Valentijn worked at the University of Cambridge and at Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium where he obtained a Ph.D. in economics on “Entrepreneurship and private sector development in Central European transition countries”.

Valentijn’s expertise in leading projects and managing framework contracts to a fruitful end is a clear asset. Valentijn is well experienced in organizing effective stakeholder interactions, in particular organising and performing interviews, workshops, expert panels, focus groups and creating roadmaps for policy support and implementation. Valentijn has applied various quantitative and qualitative methodologies in the context of policy evaluations, and impact assessments. He has led various studies that involved data collection (from existing sources and from surveys), econometrics and statistics in support of policy development and implementation.

Valentijn has done policy studies on numerous industries and their value chains and covered competitiveness issues, innovation, green business models, net-zero industry, industrial symbiosis, resource efficiency and energy, investment needs. Valentijn has ample sectoral expertise which covers for instance ferrous and non-ferrous metal industry, glass and ceramics, construction, demolition, food processing, industrial biotechnology, aerospace, electronics and engineering, retail and wholesale as well as clean tech sectors, ICT, and renewable energy.

Valentijn’s expertise in quantitative policy studies and knowledge about the underlying challenges and opportunities guarantee making a sound bridge between evidence-based policy analyses and subsequent policy strategy development to increase the desired and envisaged impacts.