Robert-Jan Smits is the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Naturalis, the natural history museum and biodiversity research center in The Netherlands. Next to this, he is member of several national and international supervisory and advisory bodies such as the Senat of the Leibniz Gemeinschaft (Germany) and the Hochschulrat of the Ludwig Maximilian University (Germany).

Mr. Smits was the President of the Eindhoven University of Technology (2019-2025) where he transformed the university to become a showcase of the Fourth Generation University concept, an orchestrator of a flourishing innovation ecosystem: Brainport Eindhoven. Prior to his assignment in Eindhoven, he was the Director-General of Research and Innovation at the European Commission (2010-2018). In this capacity he was the architect of Horizon 2020, the 80 billion EU Research and Innovation program. Smits was also instrumental in shaping the successor program Horizon Europe (budget: 95 billion). In his last year in Brussels (2019), Robert-Jan Smits was the Open Access Envoy of the European Commission and developed concrete policy proposals aimed to ensure that all academic publications resulting from publicly funded research are widely available and accessible through Open Access. Throughout his career, Mr. Smits has been involved in numerous national and international science and innovation policy reviews.

Mr. Smits has received several recognitions and awards for his contribution to European science and innovation. He received the Academy Medal of the Royal Dutch Academy, the Gold Medal from Academia Europaea, the Graphene Award of ESOF, the Lifetime Achievements Award of EuroScience, the Excellence in Global Science Award in South Africa, the Medal of Honour of the KU Leuven. He was part of “Nature’s 10“, holds an honorary degree from Edinburgh University, is a honorary member of Academia Europaea and is a fellow of the Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen.