Dr. Kim Putters appointed as University Professor of Broad Prosperity at Tilburg University
Dr. Kim Putters, president of the Social and Economic Council of the Netherlands (SER), has been appointed as University Professor of ‘Broad Prosperity’ at Tilburg University for one day a week, effective September 16, 2022. A University Professor is a special position for a leading professor with a distinguished academic reputation who is broadly interested in academic and policy issues. As an ambassador of the university, this professor generates academic and social impact.
Wim van de Donk, Rector Magnificus of Tilburg University: “We are extremely pleased with this appointment. We know Professor Putters to be an exceptionally inspiring researcher and lecturer, who, moreover, has succeeded in showing how academic insights can be useful and instrumental in setting the agenda for the great social issues of our time and for ways in which we can provide appropriate solutions. Understanding society, the motto of our university, suits Professor Putters to a T.”
Broad Prosperity
Kim Putters will be working on ‘Broad Prosperity’, an important strategic theme for Tilburg University, centralizing three interdisciplinary research themes: the sustainability transition, inequality, and health and wellbeing. These broad social themes are not unique, but will be studied with a distinctly Tilburg approach, including a combination of law and legislation, markets and organizations, civil society, and technology and data.
Dean of the Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences Antoinette de Bont and Dean of the Tilburg School of Economics and Management Lex Meijdam: “We are looking forward to working together with Kim Putters. Harnessing all Tilburg University’s disciplines, we want to support his academic and social agenda for Broad Prosperity from the perspective of civil society. Together we face the challenge of helping to shape a sustainable society with comprehensive attention for both economic growth as well as nature and the environment, social cohesion, and inclusion.”
Kim Putters: “It is a tremendous honor for me to be invited to work at Tilburg University as a University Professor on the theme of Broad Prosperity. Especially understanding the meaning of the fundamental changes in our economy and society, e.g., in the fields of sustainability, social inequality, and technological progress, for steering and governance. It is also very valuable to me, given my new challenges as the next president of the Social and Economic Council. I am looking forward to working together in a multidisciplinary fashion with students and colleagues across the university, and to learn and to inspire. I will terminate my activities as a professor at Erasmus University Rotterdam. After a wonderful time in Rotterdam, it feels good to be back in Tilburg.” (Photo by Martijn Beekman.)
About Kim Putters
Kim Putters has been appointed as the next president of the Social and Economic Council of the Netherlands (SER), effective September 16, 2022. SER is the most important advisory body on social and economic issues for the government and parliament of the Netherlands. SER is a collaboration of entrepreneurs, workers, and Crown-appointed members.
From 2013 to 2022, Putters was the director of the Netherlands Institute for Social Research (SCP). In addition, he works as a Professor of Policy and Management of Care in the Changing Welfare State at the School of Health Policy & Management of Erasmus University Rotterdam until September 2022. From 2008 to 2013, he was Professor of Management of Care Institutions at the same university. Between 2003 and 2008, Dr. Putters was an Assistant Professor at the Tilburg School of Politics and Administration. In 2022, the Open University awarded Kim Putters an honorary doctorate because of the appealing and evidence-based way in which he makes complex social issues accessible to a wide audience.
Between 2003 and 2013, Putters was a member and First Deputy President of the Dutch Senate. Furthermore, he is a member of the National Committee for 4 and 5 May and vice-president of social welfare foundation Oranje Fonds, and he already was a Crown-appointed member of the SER.