Panel I: Opening and inaugural Panel

Mon, 16 Aug

Panel I: Opening and inaugural Panel

Bengt Ake Lundvall (Inaugural address): Bengt-Åke Lundvall is professor emeritus in economics at Department of Business and Management at Aalborg University. His research is organized around a broad set of issues related to innovation systems, and learning economies. Since 1985, he has published more than 200 publications as books, journal articles, and book chapters (see www.vbn.aau.dk) including:

Lundvall B.-Å., (1985), Product innovation and user-producer interaction, Aalborg, Aalborg University Press.

Lundvall, B.-Å. and Johnson, B. (1994), 'The Learning Economy', Journal of Industry Studies, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 23-42.

Lundvall, B.-Å., (ed.) (2010), National Systems of Innovation: Towards a Theory of Innovation and Interactive Learning. London, Anthem.

Lundvall, B.-Å. (2016), The Learning Economy and the Economics of Hope, London, Anthem.

 

Peter Gammeltoft (CHAIR): My research interest concerns economic and technological change in an international perspective, particularly the globalization of innovation. I apply institutional and politico-economic approaches and my area specialization is emerging economies, especially East Asia. My current research focuses on outward investments from emerging economies (OFDI), particularly strategic asset-seeking investments. I run a biennial conference series on OFDI (http://sf.cbs.dk/ofdi/conferences). Among my publication outlets are Asia-Pacific Journal of Management, Journal of International Management, International Journal of Technology Management, European Management Journal, and International Migration. I have carried out consultancies for the European Commission and the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I teach subjects on international management and strategy and on emerging economies. Before pursuing an academic career, I worked as a senior consultant at Accenture with organizational development in finance and information systems in healthcare.

 Luc Soete (born 15 September 1950, Sint-Jans-Molenbeek) is a Belgian economist, former Rector Magnificus and professor of International Economic Relations at the School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University, and former director of UNU-MERIT, a joint research institute of the United Nations University (UNU) and Maastricht University. Luc Soete is a member of the Dutch scientific advisory body (AWTI) and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) since 2010.[1]

Luc Soete studied general economic sciences and development economy at Ghent University and started his career as researcher at the Economy Department of the University of Antwerp. In 1978 he obtained his PhD in Economy at the University of Sussex. He has closely worked and co-authored several publications with his mentor Christopher Freeman.

He worked for the Institute of Development Studies and the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), both of the University of Sussex, and at the Economy Department of Stanford University. In 1986 he became professor at the Rijksuniversiteit Limburg (now Maastricht University), in Maastricht, the Netherlands, where in 1988 he founded the Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT). In 2006 MERIT merged with the UNU Institute for New Technologies (UNU-INTECH), which had been founded in 1990.

Charles Edquist: I have been the Holder of the Ruben Rausing Chair in Innovation Research at CIRCLE, Lund University, Sweden, since February 2003 and have previously held a Chair at the University of Linköping. My publications include books and articles on innovation processes, innovation systems and innovation policy. Of these, the edited volumes “Systems of Innovation: Technologies, Institutions and Organizations” (1997), “Small Country Innovation Systems: Globalization, Change and Policy in Asia and Europe” (2008; in 2012 also in Chinese), and my latest “Public Procurement for Innovation” (2015) constitute contributions to the development of the so-called Systems of Innovation (SI) Approach. So does the chapter “Systems of Innovation: Perspectives and Challenges” (2005), in the Oxford Handbook of Innovation. 

I have made many contributions to the field of innovation policy and governance of innovation systems, the latest being articles in Science and Public Policy (2015) and R & D Management (2015). That I am among the 50 (or so) most cited innovation researchers (out of 6 – 7 000) in the world is testimony to the impact of my research. My most cited book is on public procurement for innovation. I was given the award for best paper for “Competence Building: A Systemic Approach to Innovation Policy” at the Atlanta Conference of Science & Innovation Policy, Georgia, USA, 26-28 September 2013.

Norman Clark: Norman Clark was awarded his PhD from the Department of Economics at Edinburgh University in 1971. After a period as a post-doctoral fellow at the Science Policy Research Unit [SPRU], Sussex University, he spent 7 years as a lecturer at Glasgow University [International Economic Studies] before re-joining SPRU as its founding Director of Graduate Studies In 1980. In 1996 he was appointed Professor of Environmental Studies & Director, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, University of Strathclyde before taking up the position of Vice Chancellor at Kabarak University in Kenya in 2004. He subsequently spent a period as Research Professor in Innovation Systems and Development at the Open University [Arts and Social Science Faculty] before retiring in 2013. He holds emeritus professorial positions at the Open University and Strathclyde University. His research interests include science and technology development in Africa and South Asia, a field in which he has acted also as an adviser to relevant agencies including the World Bank, UNCTAD, UNDP, DFID, NEPAD and the CGIAR. He continues to serve on the Governing Council of the African Centre for Technology Studies [ACTS, Nairobi, Kenya].

Xiaolan Fu: Founding Director of the Technology and Management Centre for Development (TMCD), 

Professor of Technology and International Development, University of Oxford.

Her research interests include innovation and technology policy and management; trade, foreign direct investment and economic development. Her current research concerns innovation collaboration, digital technologies and inclusive development, knowledge transfer within and between organisations, and green innovation policy. She is appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to the Governing Council of the Technology Bank of the UN and to the Ten-Member High Level Advisory Group of the UN Technology Facilitation Mechanism. Her recent books include Innovation Under the Radar, China’s Path to Innovation, China’s Role in Global Economic Recovery, and The Rise of Technological Power in the South. Prof Fu has received the EFMD Gate2Growth 2005 'European Best Paper' Award, 2017 EURAM Annual Conference Best Paper Award, 2018 International Business Review Best Journal Paper Award. She has been awarded research grants from the ESRC, EPSRC, DFID, British Academy, and European Commission. 

Mammo Muchie: Prof. Muchie is currently a DST/NRF Research Professor at the Faculty of Management Sciences, Tshwane University of Technology, South Africa. He previously served as a Director of the Research Centre on Development Studies and International Relations, Department of History, International and Social Studies, Aalborg University in Denmark. Muchie was educated in USA and in Europe. He obtained his MPhil and DPhil degrees in development economics and science, technology and innovation studies from Sussex University, England under the supervision of the renowned innovation scholar, the late Freeman of the IDS/SPRU. He also studied Measurement Science in Petrograd, Russia. He has taught and researched at various universities in the USA and Europe including Cambridge University and the Middlesex University (UK); the University of Aalborg (Denmark) and Amsterdam University (Netherlands). He is a fellow of the South African Academy of Sciences and the African Academy of Sciences. He is also currently adjunct Professor at the Adama Science, Technology University, Addis Ababa University and University of Gondar, Ethiopia. He has been a Senior Research Associate at the Oxford University.

He is currently the chairman of the advisory board of African Talent hub of the Community Interest Company (registration no.10461990) to raise funds for making Africa the talent, innovation, entrepreneurship, creativity and knowledge hub of the world. He has been appointed as special distinguished advisor to the Africa Union’s Student Council and a mentor for the African Entrepreneurship award. He has initiated the African Unity for Renaissance and Knowledge Exchange series of conferences since the last six years. He is a founding scientific advisor to ´the African Solar network, founding chairman of the Network of Ethiopian scholars.

He is a founding board member of Globelics, focusing research on the challenges of building African innovation systems. He has served as scientific board members in a variety of networks including Medalics. He has taken major initiatives for running Doctoral and Masters Academy in various universities in Africa and all over the world. He has been appointed as a consultant on UNESCO’s higher education, Research and Knowledge forum. He has served as a post-doctoral mentor in the NRF national postdoctoral Forum. Prof. Mammo is the chief editor and in the editorial board of many scholarly international journals including the African Journal of Science, Technology, Innovation and Development, the Ethiopian Electronic Journal for Research & Innovation Foresight (Ee-JRIF); Innovation and Development among many others. He has published in the areas of: international political economy, development economics of innovation and the making of African systems of innovation, and new technologies and development across disciplines. Since 1985, he has produced over 375 publications, including books, chapters in books, and articles in internationally accredited journals and entries in institutional publications.

 

Lukovi Hylde-Mbuta SEKE: Lukovi Seke is a quantitative economist with a master’s degree in Economics of Trade and Investment from the University of Pretoria and a Bachelor (Honours} degree in Mathematical Economics from the University of Kinshasa (D.R. Congo). For the last 14 years, Seke is still part of in the African Union (AU) system working and providing technical backstopping (capacity building) to AU member States in data collection and analysis on research and development (R&D) and innovation to produce core STI indicators.  

Between 2000 and 2008, Seke served on several occasions as Chairperson in various International, regional, national and academic civil society youth organisations and networks. Seke worked in the media for 5 years up to 2005.