Jakob Kofler

Versatility, flexibility and creativity

Jakob Kofler is a researcher at the Austrian Institute for SME Research. His work focuses on research, technology and innovation policy. Based on systems analysis approaches, he is particularly interested in societal transformation processes and their implications for policy design. During his interdisciplinary academic career in the social sciences, he has focused on the economics of innovation and science, technology and innovation policy, as well as industrial and social policy. Jakob completed his most recent academic endeavour with a Master in Innovation, Public Policy and Public from University College London (Prof. Mariana Mazzucato).

“What I find exciting about evaluation is that there is usually a limited amount of data, that questions are interdisciplinary and that you are usually dependent on a
functioning team in order to tackle these complex questions together. And I believe that it always requires a great deal of flexibility and creativity due to the limited data available. In my view, the biggest challenges in the area of evaluation are”

Although Jakob is a team player, he combines many skills in one person:

“I nominated Jakob because he uniquely combines all the skills you need for evaluation in one person,”

says the Deputy Director of the Institute, Peter Kaufmann, and continues:

“I am very convinced that he still has a lot to contribute to this field and that he will have a top career.”

Jakob would like to invest the prize money in the field of AI-supported analysis of unsorted data on the one hand and participatory research methods on the other.

Congratulations to our Evaluation Talent 2024!

https://youtu.be/z8gtQv_-FDs

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