About

Dr. Ward Ooms is Associate Professor of Innovation Management with the Faculty of Management at the Open Universiteit (the Netherlands). He is also the Vice dean of Education at the faculty (2025-present), responsible for innovation and management of all Bachelor, Master, executive and life-long learning programs. Previously, he held the role of Academic Director of the Bachelor in Business Administration (2019-2025).

Ward is particularly interested in studying collaborative and open innovation and in doing frontier work on the topic of inclusive innovation and research. His research is devoted to understanding how firms, other organizations, and individuals within organizations can collaborate effectively in order to speed up innovation processes, to avoid barriers in innovation, and to innovate responsibly. Studies by Ward Ooms were published in academic journals, such as Technovation, California Management Review, Journal of Business Research, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, and Regional Studies. His work has received praise via various awards (e.g. Kremers Award for Best PhD Dissertation) and nominations (e.g. runner-up Best Emering Scholar at WOIC).