(Dr.) Dirk Koppenol

Dr. Dirk Koppenol (1987) has been active in the Rotterdam port innovation ecosystem of Rotterdam for over 10 years. He studied history and public administration. Dirk worked at TNO, the Port of Rotterdam Authority and SmartPort Rotterdam, among others; at the latter as a researcher, strategist and interim director. Since 2023 he has been active as a sr. researcher and advisor port transition at Erasmus UPT.

For more than 10 years Dirk has been actively involved in research into:

Smart and sustainable transport and logistics & sustainability of port-industrial complex. He was editor and co-author of the report: 10 SmartPort Trends 2030-2050 (2021) (linkOpens externalOpens external) In which the important opportunities for seaports have been mapped out.
Seaport development. His dissertation was about the decision-making processes of infrastructural mega projects in and around ports (published by Boom publisher: Lobby for Land (2016) (linkOpens externalOpens external). He was also involved in project research into the spatial development of the port of Rotterdam until 2050.
Development and deployment of serious games. In a team, based on scientific research, he developed the INDEEP course, which allows you to better estimate the chances of your radical innovation in 7 steps. He was also involved in the development of serious games for port development (Port Constructor) and pressure cookers for innovation acceleration.

Expertise
Dirk gets energy from developing action perspectives and decision-making information for ports, port companies and governments. This can only be done through join-fact finding - searching together for the important challenges and turning them into opportunities. He is committed at both administrative/strategic and operational level. The projects that Dirk develops are aimed at ports, but always have a system component, which also includes the chain. Because only together can you accelerate innovation.

Dirk Koppenol focuses on the following research areas at UPT:

• Opportunities of the energy transition for seaports and (port) companies
• Strategy development seaports & social innovation
• Serious game development for innovation acceleration