Rob van Haren

Rob van Haren is a professor of Transition Circular Bioeconomy at the Biobased Economy Knowledge Centre. The professorship Transition Circular Bioeconomy focuses on three themes: a transition to green entrepreneurship; a transition to green process technology and ingredients and a transition to sustainable products. Within these research lines, Rob deals with "Fuzzy Front End" processes in innovation; supercritical CO2 extraction processes and New Product Development with sustainable ingredients.

As professor of Transition Circular Bioeconomy, Van Haren was the scientific coordinator of the Horizon2020 project LIBBIO on behalf of Hanze University of Applied Sciences. Within this large European project, the cultivation, yield, biorefinery and application of Andean lupin are being investigated.

Van Haren holds a PhD in theoretical biology from the Free University in Amsterdam. Besides his work as a lecturer, he guides SME entrepreneurs in 'private label innovations' and develops new food and lifestyle products. He previously served as director of Kiemkracht, an innovative alliance of the Productschap Akkerbouw (Product Board Arable Farming) and the Ministry of Economic Affairs' Innovation Network. He was also a professor of 'Innovation and Knowledge Transfer Agribusiness' at the University of Groningen. Before that, Van Haren worked as manager innovation sustainable chain management at AVEBE, a Dutch potato processor, and as senior researcher agroecology at Wageningen University & Research (WUR).