The Master’s degree program in Innovation Sciences provides 4 specializations:

Living in a virtual world: the social science of the Internet
Internet, smart homes, robots, online medical advice, online communities, worldwide gaming: people live in a virtual world. This development of a virtual world and its increased importance in our daily lives has led to several new questions in social science. How do people experience virtual interaction? How do people deal with (overloads of) information? How can trust and reputation play a role online? Which principles govern the interaction with technology? What impact does the ability to live within a virtual world have on human interaction?

Four courses form the main part of this specialization. Consumer behavior Consumer Behavior provides detailed insight in psychological aspects of the online (and offline) behavior of consumers. How is the behavior of (online) consumers affected by (social) norms, emotions, motivations, unconscious processes, and information presentation? In Life online the focus is on how trust and cooperation problems are settled online, and which mechanisms can be used online to ensure smooth cooperative behavior in different online environments. Super crunchers deals with the conditions under which computer models can take over decision making and the willingness of people to adopt such innovations. Finally, Embodied and embedded computing considers the interaction between humans and technology away from the desktop.

Innovation and Sustainability
This specialization consists of four courses: 1) System Innovations and Strategic Niche Management; 2) Energy and Economy; 3) Technology and Development; 4) Ethics and the Risk Society. The main binding element in the four courses that make up this cluster is their concern with the nature and direction of modern economic growth and development, and the substantial socio-economic and environmental fallout that this process increasingly produces. The process is highly uneven in terms of (1) people's ability to control its direction, (2) people's exposure to its risks and impacts, and (3) people's capacity to exert influence and take action to avoid, mitigate or adapt effectively to these risks and impacts. The profound ethical implications of these inequalities are also considered. The courses offer a range of analytical frameworks drawn from innovation studies and growth & development theory with which students are able to deepen their understanding of these issues and reflect on them, and come to grips with the dual role played by technology and innovation in these processes. While technological progress has been a crucial vehicle for the creation of unprecedented wealth and economic growth, and has contributed to raising the living standards of billions of people over time, at the same time it has been giving rise to the very sustainability problems that our world is now facing. Still, it is also clear that a broad transformation to more sustainable ways of living – both in environmental and in social-equity terms – cannot be achieved without continued technological change. However, in many fields of knowledge this will require innovations that differ radically from existing mainstream technologies, in order to foster the reshaping of entire socio-technical paradigms and systems towards greater socio-economic inclusion and environmental regeneration. The analytical frameworks offered in some of the courses will also be used to discuss practical policy tools with which the development and uptake of these kinds of innovations can be promoted. These instruments take account of the diverse technical, ecological, politico-economic, socio-institutional and cultural factors that impede and/or induce the development and acceptance of these innovations.

Knowledge economy and society
It is widely acknowledged that we now live in a knowledge society. Our economies are no more driven primarily by access to labor or (raw) materials, but by (access to) knowledge. Those who have the knowledge have the power. Knowledge has developed into the single most powerful good in the world. In fact, innovation, one of the buzzwords of the last two decades, often comes down to a question of generation or access to and the use of knowledge in order to obtain competitive advantages. These developments have been most visible in network markets and ICT markets but are now emerging almost everywhere. In addition to traditional ways of dealing with knowledge, new concepts have emerged such as open source, open innovation and creative commons. Nowadays, policy makers are pre-occupied with knowledge and the competitive difference it can make to an economy – hence the goal of the European Union to become the ‘most intensive knowledge society of the world’ (the Lisbon objectives).

But what is knowledge exactly? How is it generated, by whom and for whom, at what costs, how does it manifest itself, how is it acquired and how is it used strategically? This cluster offers an in-depth treatment of one of the most fascinating phenomena in modern society. Its analysis of knowledge has an emphasis on the economic view on knowledge, and combines this with historical, philosophical, social and legal perspectives.

This cluster prepares students for a Master project in the field of knowledge management, which can be either quantitative or qualitative. Students develop extensive analytical skills but also learn how to apply concepts in a real-life situation. In the labor market, it offers perspectives for further academic research, as well as functions in knowledge management in private firms as well as the public sector (e.g. policy making on national / European level).

The cluster encompasses four principal courses that not only have their own focus but are also linked together into a multidisciplinary framework by bridging concepts on the creation, use and consequences of knowledge:

1. Inside the knowledge system
2. Infonomics
3. Knowledge infrastructures in a globalizing world
4. Innovation and intellectual property

Technology, Globalization and Europeanization
Globalization and Europeanization heavily affect present-day innovation and technological change. Moreover, key technology-related issues such as global poverty and development, sustainability, energy security and war have an inherently transnational character.

In this specialization students learn to interpret and analyze the dynamics of globalization, European Integration (which is the paradigmatic example for regional integration in scholarly analysis), development, and their multiple intertwinements with technological processes such as innovation, technology transfer, technological capacity building, and transnational infrastructure development. The recent ‘transnational turn’ in the social sciences is introduced as an analytical approach to investigate these topics. Four courses are offered:

• Technology and Globalization
• Technology and European Integration
• Development Economics
• Transnational Critical Infrastructure