Arco Timmermans is public affairs analyst, writer, and speaker and works at Leiden University, the Netherlands. He obtained his PhD in the Social and Political Sciences at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy and has worked at several universities in the Netherlands and as a visiting professor abroad. He was Research Director of the Montesquieu Institute in The Hague and has held a Chair by Special Appointment in Public Affairs. His research and writing are on public affairs, coalition politics, the nexus between science and practice, use of knowledge in the policy process, and agenda-setting in a comparative perspective, on which he also gives courses at the graduate level. He designed and coordinates a Public Affairs Master Track at Leiden University and is coordinator of the master program on Management of the Public Sector. Next to his academic work Arco Timmermans also is a professional trainer, speaker, and commentator on news items. He has some 200 academic and professional publications among which four books, and has over 300 media appearances.