Roland Ortt (1964) is appointed endowed professor in Urban Innovation Management at Erasmus University Rotterdam as of 1 May 2022. The chair has been established by the Netherlands Study Centre for Technology Trends (STT) and is embedded in the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Centre for BOLD Cities. Roland Ortt is also associate professor of technology and innovation management at the faculty of Technology, Policy and Management of Delft University of Technology.

Roland is dean of the European NiTiM network of researchers in innovation and technology management and is member of the board of the ICE-conference, the IAMOT Conference and of the editorial board of Transactions on Engineering Management. He has published articles in leading innovation management journals and won several best-paper awards. He is passionate about education and received multiple teaching awards. Roland started as a PhD at the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering of Delft University of Technology.

After completing his PhD-thesis, Roland worked as Research & Development manager for a telecommunication company. His research focuses on development and application of technological innovations, from the perspective of companies, municipalities or governments. His entire career focuses on three research questions. Firstly, what happens after the invention of a radically new technology? This question describes the pattern of development and diffusion of technological innovations. Secondly, why does it take so long and sometimes so short before inventions are turned into innovations that are applied on a large scale? This question explains the pattern of development and diffusion of technological innovations. Thirdly, what are the strategies that companies and the policies that municipalities and governments can adopt during this pattern? This question revolves around actions and interventions during this pattern.