Johan Stierna is team leader and scientific advisor on EU policy in JRC-Seville. He is specialised in R&I policy development and university policy at EU, national and regional level, currently leading the team on smart specialisation and place-based innovation for sustainability. Before joining the Joint Research Centre in 2019, he worked for 15 years with R&I policy development at DG Research and Innovation in Brussels, in particular on the co-design of a mission-oriented EU R&I policy and a policy for transformative innovation. 2015-2019, Dr Stierna was responsible for the Sherpa support to the RISE high-level advisory group to EU Commissioner for Science, Research and Innovation. Previously headed the EU economic analysis and the use of indicators in R&I policy making, editing the Innovation Union Competitiveness report 2011 and 2013. He joined the European Commission in 1998 for DG Education and Culture, where he contributed to European higher education policy in the Erasmus action, eLearning and the preparation of the Bologna process. Dr Stierna worked for four years on EU development aid focusing on education and human development in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific in DG Development.

Johan Stierna holds a PhD from the University of Lund, Sweden. Previous to joining the Commission, he was researcher at the University of Lund and at the Universidad Autónoma, Madrid. His research focused on entrepreneurial networks, cultural change, bilateral trade and migration between Sweden, Spain and cross-EU.