Dr F.J.N. van Berckel Smit (Floris)

Dr. Floris van Berckel Smit is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Radboud University. He has an academic background in Public Governance (MSc, Utrecht University, 2017), Political History (MA, VU Amsterdam, 2018), and History (PhD, VU Amsterdam, 2025). His research focuses on: • applied history and the role of historical knowledge, insights, and skills in public policy, with a particular emphasis on foreign policy, security affairs and diplomacy; • organizational change in complex institutional settings; • the rise and impact of (new public) management in higher education. His research is embedded in the Applied History research group within the Faculty of Arts at Radboud University. He is currently working on the research project 'Integrating History in Public Policy'. Previously (2020), he received a grant from the Dutch Research Council to conduct PhD-research on the rise of New Public Management in university governance. He was a visiting scholar at the Centre for Higher Education Governance Ghent at Ghent University (2019-2020), and at History & Policy, Institute of Historical Research, University of London (2025). Floris has contributed to various projects involving collaboration with historians, political scientists, and organizational scientists, as well as policymakers, diplomats, and managers. His work on the varieties of New Public Management at the organizational level was recognized with the European Higher Education Society Outstanding Paper Award 2023.