He is an expert in searching for opportunities for novel appliances and services that make cities and their regions an inclusive society and a more habitable place for people to live, work and play in pleasantly.

Next to a broad general knowledge in this field Mr. Vermast specialises in citizens engagement and governance- and finance models to facilitate collaboration in a quintuple helix. He concentrates on helping cities facilitate their (digital) transitions via open innovation platforms as well as cross silo approaches.

His objectives are to facilitate social innovation and a sustainable-liveable environment to boost social and economic benefits based on open data and open algorithms. Ethics, gaining (back) trust of citizens and ownership of data to citizens are important topics he focusses on too. Furthermore, Mr. Vermast has extensive Dutch, European and global knowledge and extensive experience in facilitating the participation of local governments, municipalities and communities in these initiatives.

He is a visiting speaker at Leiden University and Radboud University Nijmegen and a guest lecturer at the Universities of Applied Sciences of The Hague and HAN. Mr. Vermast is experienced in national and international training both professional and as a volunteer with political parties. Mr. Vermast is also a sought-after facilitator, moderator and day chair for conferences, strategy sessions and workshops.