Dr. Ates is an associate professor with particular interest in social innovation, social entrepreneurship, sustainable development, socio-technical transformation, design thinking, blockchain for social impact and gamification. Dr. Ates has obtained graduate and undergraduate degrees from Vienna University of Economics and PhD degree (Doktor der Sozial- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften) from Vienna University of Technology in 2011. He was a visiting scholar at Harvard University in 2016-2017. Along with teaching and research activities, he has been involved in projects at UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization) and EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) as investigator and country expert. With the belief that social innovation is key to overcome so called "middle welfare trap" by sustaining and improving the wellbeing of the people beyond increasing the monetary term welfare, Dr. Ates has founded Bostan Institute for Social Innovation in 2015.