MsocSc Antti Alaja works as an expert at the Finnish Centre for New Economic Analysis (UTAK). Alaja is in charge of UTAK`s industrial policy work and oversees think tank communications and events. Alaja has previously worked on a research project based at the University of Helsinki and Hanken School of Economics from 2018 to 2023 and in various positions at the think tank Kalevi Sorsa Foundation from 2009 to 2018.   

Alaja has published various think tank reports that have tackled policy issues, such as the entrepreneurial role of the state in the Finnish economy. Alaja is currently finalising his sociology PhD thesis on Finnish innovation policy. Alaja has published articles in academic journals, such as Science and Public Policy, Innovation: the European Journal of Social Science Research, and European Journal of Industrial Relations. 

In 2025 and 2026, Alaja will lead UTAK`s efforts to produce complexity economics analyses on the Finnish economy and its industrial policy choices. Alaja has written a Finnish-language academic book “Ideas in public policy” with his academic colleagues Ville-Pekka Sorsa and Joel Kaitila, which was published in October 2025.