Per Mickwitz is a professor of environmental policy and was director of the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE) in 2019–2020. He has worked for many years at the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE) in roles such as researcher and research professor, and was research director for seven years. Per Mickwitz earned his PhD in 2006 from Tampere University where he is an associate professor.

His research has focused on environmental and sustainability policy, how politics can be evaluated, how innovations occur and in particular how system transitions towards sustainability can be supported. Per Mickwitz is also vice chair of the board for the Academy of Finland (the Finnish equivalent of the Swedish Research Council) and was previously chair of the Strategic Research Council. Since 2017 he has been the chair of the scientific committee at the European Environment Agency (EEA).