The System Innovations and Sustainability Transitions' (SI&ST) research program has several notable characteristics.

1. It is inter-disciplinary. We mobilise and use insights from sociology of technology (STS), evolutionary economics, innovation studies, and history of technology.

2. Our work on Strategic Niche Management and experimental projects is trans-disciplinary and oriented towards practice and policy. We work together with the Competence Centre Transitions to translate our theoretical knowledge into practical tools and competence kits for transition practitioners. We interact with practitioners to learn from them and to see if our tools and competence kits work. We contribute to the post-doctoral course 'transition management for practitioners', organised by the Dutch Research Institute for Transitions (EUR). And we interact with policy makers at the national level and regional level (Province Noord-Brabant).

3. Our research is socio-technical. We not only look at the development of new technology (R&D, innovation), but also at the introduction in society. This entails not only market adoption, but also broader processes of societal embedding, including regulation, infrastructure, user practices and cultural meanings.

4. Our research focuses on long-term processes (5-40 years). It takes the issues of path dependence, lock-in, and structural trends seriously. Future transitions do not simply start in the present, but are rooted in the past. Also the emergence of radical sustainable technologies is a long-term process, resulting from gradual accumulations and non-linear feedback loops through interactions with society.

5. Historical research and historical sensitivities are important for understanding transitions and developing policy tools. One reason is that existing socio-technical systems are stable because of path dependencies and lock-in. Studies of future sustainability transitions should not only focus on promising radical innovations in the present, but also on path dependencies of existing systems and structural trends in the past 20-30 years. Secondly, historical research is important to test and develop analytical ideas about the dynamics of transitions. Historical cases are the only way to study the entire lifecycle of transitions. Thirdly, historical examples can be used as mirror for the present and create heightened reflexivity with policy makers and practitioners.

Close cooperation with the history of technology group is a particular strength of the System Innovations and Sustainability Transitions (SI&ST) group. Both groups are situated within the School of Innovation Sciences and are located in the same building. Johan Schot and Geert Verbong actually participate in both groups, having backgrounds in both history and sociology of technology.

6. Expertise is particularly strong in empirical domains such as transport, energy, and sustainable technologies. We aim to diversity to agriculture and the medical domain.

7. Our academic work style has the following characteristics:

• We do not shy away from ‘big questions’ and ‘big topics’ (societal transitions, long-term processes).
• Conceptual work consists of process theories, not variance approaches.
• Theory development is qualitative and appreciative. Our conceptual perspectives aim to understand and stylise complexity, not reduce it to single drivers or variables.
• Empirical work is often based on detailed case studies, focusing on 'process tracing' and 'pattern recognition'. We also explore quantitative approaches.
• Most research occurs in the context of projects and programs. This stimulates interactions between researchers and facilitates directed accumulation.