Rianne Valkenburg

Rianne Valkenburg is a part-time Research Fellow at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), affiliated with the Innovation, Technology Entrepreneurship & Marketing (ITEM) group in the Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences. She holds a master's (1992) and PhD (2000) in design engineering from Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). Her career includes roles as Assistant Professor at TU Delft (1993–2003), Professor at Hanze University of Applied Sciences (2003–2009), and Professor at The Hague University of Applied Sciences (2009–2017). She co-founded LightHouse (2012), a TU/e Innovation Lab initiative focusing on smart lighting and smart city solutions.

Research interests center on design-driven innovation, smart cities, open innovation ecosystems, and sustainable development goals (SDGs). She leads strategic initiatives like the TU/e Smart City Program and collaborates on projects such as REWIRE (2024–2028) for circular agriculture and COOPERATE (2023–2025) for European research ecosystems. Awards include the 2020 Code Re-farm Prize for transformative agricultural systems research.

Key contributions include advancing urban technology through LightHouse, co-developing frameworks for business model innovation, and advising on smart infrastructure projects like the Rotterdam/Utrecht tunnel lighting experiments. Active in 5+ international collaborations and advisory roles, including the Dutch National Research Council (NWO) and GreenTech Noord-Brabant.