The European Union Centre at RMIT is very pleased to invite you to a public event on Wednesday the 26th of August, with Professor Kevin Morgan, entitled "Regional Innovation Repertoires and the Embedded State". 

European Union policy towards regional development has been through several iterations over the past 25 years. Most recently, for the 2014-20 period, the European Union has focused on ‘smart specialisation’ as a strategy for not only enabling poorer regions to increase their rate of economic development but also equipping all regions to strengthen their innovation systems and improve their participation in global value chains. Professor Morgan will outline some of this history, and the thinking behind the latest iteration. He will explore issues related to the role of the public sector, the importance of place-based innovation, and implications of different regional innovation policy approaches.

Professor Kevin Morgan is Professor of Governance and Development in the School of Planning and Geography at Cardiff University. He has been awarded 9 ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) awards to date and has secured research grants from a wide array of other funding bodies, including: British Academy; European Commission; Gates Foundation/World Food Programme; Joseph Rowntree Foundation; OECD; Plunkett Foundation, as well as government and development agencies in and beyond the UK. Currently, he is the Principal Investigator of a consortium of ten EU universities and two regional networks that won the FP7 award for Smart Specialisation (which began in July 2013). The most recent ESRC award (Delivering Sustainability: The Creative Procurement of School Food in Italy, the UK and the US) was rated “outstanding” and in 2013 it won the first ever ESRC award for outstanding impact on public policy in the UK.

RSVP: [email protected]

A light lunch will be served

European Union Centre at RMIT
Building 5, Level 2, Room 21
T:   +61 3 9925 8214
F:   +61 3 9925 8820
E:   eucentre@rmit.edu.au
W: rmit.edu.au/eucentre