Image: © WRR / Photographer: Arenda Oomen

Working at the WRR, an interdisciplinary institute that operates across domains and with a long-term vision at the intersection of science, policy and politics, challenges me almost every day and offers many learning opportunities, even at this late stage of my career.

After graduating with an MA degree in political science from Erasmus University Rotterdam in 1986, he transferred to Leiden University, where he obtained his doctorate in 1990 cum laude for Groupthink in Government: A Study of Small Groups and Policy Failure. He remained at Leiden until 2002, first as a Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) postodoctoral fellow, then as an assistant professor and since 1998 as full professor of Public Administration.

In 1987, ’t Hart co-founded the Crisis Investigation Team. As a member of this team, he was involved in numerous evaluations, training programmes and consultancy projects in the fields of public order, security, police and criminal justice. In the early 1990s, he was seconded to the Dutch Intelligence Service.

In 2002, he joined Utrecht University part-time, became associate dean at the Netherlands School of Public Administration, and an adjunct  professor of Public Management at the Defence University of Sweden in Stockholm. From 2006 to 2011, ’t Hart lived in Canberra and served as professor of Political Science at the Australian National University and core faculty member at the Australia New Zealand School of Government.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, he facilitated reflection sessions for ministers and senior public servants in the Netherlands, Sweden, Australia and Canada. He also evaluated the City of Utrecht’s response to the pandemic. In addition, ’t Hart served as editor of Political Psychology and president of the Dutch Society for Public Administration (VB). He was elected to the KNAW in 2014. In 2024 he received the Dutch National Science Foundation’s Stevin Prize, and in 2025 the VB’s Van de Spiegel lifetime achievement award.

He has been a member of the WRR since 2023, serving as its vice-chair since September 2024.

Additional positions/roles

List of ancillary activities: https://www.uu.nl/medewerkers/PtHart1/Nevenfuncties

Paid:

  • Member of the Advisory Board of the Directorate-General for Customs
  • Teaching faculty member, the Australia New Zealand School of Government

Unpaid:

  • Member of the Advisory Board of PBL, the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency 
  • Member of the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities (KHMW)
  • Member of the International Scientific Advisory Board for the GOVTRUST research programme at the University of Antwerp, Belgium
  • Editor of the Successful Public Governance book series for Edward Elgar Publishing
  • Chair of the Programme Committee of the national research programme ‘What Works in Policing’ at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement

WRR projects

’t Hart has contributed to the following completed projects:

He is currently working on the following ongoing projects:

  • Synthetic drugs
  • Democracy and the Rule of Law in the Grey Zone

WRR publications

’t Hart has contributed to the following WRR publications: