This episode will be hosted by Elvira Uyarra, Professor of Innovation Studies at Alliance Manchester Business School.

In recent years, and in response to major societal challenges such as climate change, migration, or food and energy security, innovation policy has both broadened its scope for action and widened the goals it is expected to address. This implies a shift from generic and primarily R&D-based innovation support measures towards a new (or third) ‘generation’ of innovation policy - variously referred to as challenge-led, mission-orientated or transformative innovation policies.

A more targeted and challenge-oriented innovation policy should, it is argued, help to deliver desired, and not just more, innovations. This implies a more active role of the state in funding risk-taking activities and in creating - not just correcting - markets. Whilst there is much agreement that bolder, more customised and directional policies are needed to tackle the societal challenges of our time, there is less consensus about how such policies should be implemented in practice.

Drawing from her personal research journey, Professor Uyarra will discuss the rationales, challenges and particularly the key role of ‘place’ in this new policy agenda.

Elvira Uyarra is Professor of Innovation Studies at Alliance Manchester Business School (University of Manchester) where she is also Director of the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research. Her research sits at the intersection between innovation studies, policy studies and regional studies and has in the last few years focused on topics such as the role of universities in regional development, the role of regions in new generation innovation policies and the innovation impacts of public procurement.

She has authored more than 40 scholarly articles in leading journals in geography, innovation studies and management, including Research Policy, Technovation, Regional Studies and Technological Forecasting and Social Change. Her work has been funded by the UK Research Council, international organisations (such as EU, OECD, IADB), and numerous national and regional bodies internationally. She is a Fellow of the Regional Studies Association (RSA) and editor of the journal Regional Studies.

This episode will be facilitated by Philip McCann, Professor of Urban & Regional Economics at Alliance MBS.