Klaas Jan Noorman (1964), originally trained as a biologist, has a PhD in environmental sciences of the University of Groningen (1995). From 1990 to 1994 he was affiliated as a research fellow at the Center for Energy and Environmental Studies (IVEM) of the University of Groningen.
From 1995 to 2000 he was a staff member of IVEM. During this period his major areas of research interest were natural capital accounting and energy analysis studies. In 2000 he was one of the two founders and co-director of KNN Milieu, a research and consultancy firm on energy and sustainability issues. He was mainly involved in energy and climate projects and projects aimed at including sustainability principles in policy making.
In 2009 he started proDO Consult B.V. As director and senior consultant he was involved in many energy-related projects. From 2012 to 2014 he was employed at the Energy Valley Foundation as a senior manager Research and Education and seconded to the Energy Academy Europe. At the Energy Academy Europe he was manager Research and Education and responsible for setting up new research and educational programs for energy.
He had -among other- special responsibility for the development of hotspots for vocational training in the North of the Netherlands, for organizing Transition Debates at an academic level about the new energy future and for developing new training methods. In 2009 he was founder and Director of ProDO Consult. Research & Consultancy Company on Energy Transition Issues.
Since then he has been involved in many energy projects as researcher, consultant, project leader and interim programme manager. In 2017 he started as a professor Energy Innovation at the Centre of Expertise Energy of the Hanze University of Applied Sciences (Hanze UAS) in Groningen. Hanze UAS is the leader in applied research into renewable energy.
It is one of the universities of applied sciences where students from various disciplines are trained in energy education and are involved in research into energy matters. As part of the Centre of Expertise Energy, the Energy Transition Centre (EnTranCe) plays a key role as a testing ground for applied sciences and innovations. EnTranCe is the hotspot of applied sciences for businesses and innovations. It has the facilities, technologies and the best possible network to develop plans into the energy products and services the energy market demands.
