Raf joined MERIT as a research fellow in February of 2000.
After his study he joined a Master's programme in the European Network for Science Society and Technology (ESST). As part of this study he lived in Denmark for several months, where he specialized in Innovation, Regional Integration and Globalization. He wrote his MA thesis under close supervision of Roskilde University Centre, Denmark, Maastricht University, as well as Limburg University Centre, Belgium. The involvement of this third party in Belgium is due to the subject of his MA thesis, in which Raf evaluated the SPIN-OFF innovation project. Raf joined MERIT as a research fellow in February of 2000. He is currently specializing in the different aspects of the common knowledge economy. More specifically, strategic management and the creation of added value, is the overall subject for his PhD dissertation.