The 3 PhD-projects are part of the NWO-VICI grant “The Genealogy of Novelty: An evolutionary explanation of breakthrough inventions in science, technology, and the arts” and aim to analyze the personal, institutional and geographical conditions supportive of breakthrough inventions. One student will look at personal biographies of inventive individuals in science, business and the arts. A second student will reconstruct technological breakthroughs using empirical data on product characteristics characteristics.