Josephine Sassen - van Meer

Functie:
Senior Integrating Scientist System Innovation

With great pleasure, I work on TNO's strategic priority to provide system innovations for major societal challenges, together with our partners and clients. I am an expert in transdisciplinary work and systems thinking.

You can approach me about TNO's "Unlock System Transitions" methodology, in which we help our clients take concrete steps forward in addressing complex societal challenges.

MSc. Josephine Sassen – van Meer is currently the Scientific Lead for the System Innovation program at TNO in the Netherlands. She works as an expert in systems thinking and transdisciplinary collaboration, bridging theory and practice for systemic approaches to complex societal challenges. Together with her team, she is developing the methodology ‘Unlock System Transitions’; a clever mix of systemic approaches to unlock deep understanding of complex matters, while at the same time developing the competencies for transdisciplinary collaboration. Currently, the Unlock methodology is being used by ministries, municipalities, knowledge institutes, and universities while her team is still developing it further.

Josephine’s motivation in her work is to contribute to transitions that lead to an increasingly healthy, fair and more compassionate society. Her contribution lies in the domain of optimizing our collective human thinking capacity, as a precondition for making transitions possible.

Publications:

  • Sassen – van Meer, J.P., Lamain, C., Gemerden van, F. (2023). Transdisciplinary Research: If it’s so important, why aren’t we all doing it? From attractive conceptual notion to real-world applied practice. AWTI Newsletter, June 2023. See: https://repository.tno.nl/SingleDoc?find=UID%20e30d6d65-e2fc-47fa-97fbaa1043cda93e
  • Pearce, B. Sassen-van Meer, J., Lamain, C., Kapoerchan, V., Verhoef, E., Van den Eersten, A., Krabbenborg, L., Abbink, D., Forster, D., Stenneke, M. (2025). Recognising and Fostering Quality in Transdisciplinary Collaborations. NECTR whitepaper. See: transdisciplinairwerken.nl/....
  • Sassen – van Meer, J.P., de Ridder. (2022). Omarm de complexiteit bij sturen op welbevinden. ESB Artikel 22 aprilSee: https://esb.nu/omarm-de-complexiteit-bij-sturen-op-welbevinden/
  • Van der Beijl, I., Sassen-van Meer, J. (2013). Appreciative Inquiry voor kritische doelgroepen. Hoofdstuk 6 (pp93-102) in Handboek Appreciative Inquiry door Robbert Masselink. Managementboek.nl

Soesterberg

Kampweg 55
3769 DE Soesterberg
The Netherlands

Postal address

P.O. Box 23
3769 ZG Soesterberg
The Netherlands