Sjaak Wolfert appointed Special Professor

His ambition builds on a question that has been central to his work since his PhD: how can we make sustainable agriculture work in practice? Digital innovation is not an end in itself, but a means of making agricultural and food systems more sustainable, resilient and future-proof.

Wolfert has worked at WUR since 2001 and is a Strategic Senior Scientist and Theme Ambassador for Digital Innovation at Wageningen Social & Economic Research. Over the past two decades, he has become an internationally recognised and widely cited expert on digital innovation in the agri-food sector. He has contributed to major European programmes on big data, data sharing, artificial intelligence and digital agriculture, including IoF2020, SmartAgriHubs, Data4Food2030 en het Agriculture of Data partnership.

According to Wolfert, successful digitalisation is not just about technology. Collaboration, trust, common standards and clear agreements are equally important to make innovations work in practice. Bringing these elements together in innovation ecosystems is central to his new role as professor.

Wolfert aims to gain a better understanding of how such digital innovation ecosystems can be organised. His research will explore responsible data sharing, collaboration between organisations and the conditions needed for new technologies to deliver real value to society. In doing so, his work connects technological developments with organisational, economic and governance challenges.

Alongside his research, Wolfert will contribute to teaching and the supervision of PhD candidates and master's students. He also aims to strengthen collaboration between social sciences, information technology, businesses, policymakers and other stakeholders in the agri-food system. In this way, he hopes to help position WUR as a global leader in digital innovation for agri-food systems.