UNITY LAB - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Research Associate at the Business School of Edinburgh Napier University

Dominik is a research associate at The Business School of Edinburgh Napier University, and PhD student at the Academy of Architecture of Urban Studies of Tallinn University of Technology. He decided to take on these positions after having worked in policy consulting for more than four years. His academic background comprises a Master's of Science in Human Geography from Lund University as well as a Bachelor's of Science in Economics and Business Economics from Utrecht University. Over the past years, Dominik has been involved in the development and execution of multiple national and EU-wide strategies, evaluations and studies. In this context, topics such as governance, urban and regional development, sustainable development, circular economy, eco-innovation and entrepreneurship have all featured highly on his agenda. In his PhD, Dominik builds on this experience, and focusses on the governance of Smart City Transitions by investigating issues such as adaptive governance, multilevel governance or scale, to name a few. Feeding into this research, he is part of an academic consultant team conducting a global study on "Smart City Governance" in collaboration with the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) and the United Nations (UN-Habitat).

Clare is a lecturer in Public Sector Innovation at The Business School of Edinburgh Napier University. She hails from County Mayo in the west of Ireland and came to Edinburgh in 2010 to study for a BEng (hons) in Civil and Transportation Engineering at Edinburgh Napier University. With a keen interest in urban mobility and sustainable transport, she completed a master's degree in environmental Sustainability and has a doctoral degree in Transport Policy. Her PhD research focused on the barriers associated with bus policy implementation at a local level in Great Britain and she worked closely with local authorities, regional and national transport organisations and local bus companies. After her PhD, she joined the Active Travel team at the City of Edinburgh Council for two years before returning to the Transport Research Institute at Edinburgh Napier to pursue her passion for research. During this time, she worked on various projects including shared mobility, bicycle safety and, most recently, the HEART project (hydrogen electric and automated regional transportation), whose objective is to develop the world's first hydrogen powered, automated aircraft for sub-regional flying. Clare has presented at both national and international conferences such as the World Conference on Transport Research in Shanghai and has published in well-known academic journals such as Analytic Methods in Accident Research, Transport Policy, Case Studies on Transport Policy and Utilities Policy.

Emine holds a PhD in logistics and supply chain management; specifically focusing on urban freight transportation and governance of freight activities in cities. She is now a Lecturer at the Business School at Edinburgh Napier University. Emine has been to various parts of the world before settling in Scotland. She holds an MSc degree in Supply Chain Management and International Logistics from the Jönköping International Business School. After having completed her degree, she worked as a research associate in Jönköping University's School of Engineering in Sweden, where she collaborated with several companies to investigate the interaction between product-development-related decisions and supply chain management. Emine is interested in investigating and understanding various aspects of supply chain management and logistics. In this context, she also worked with numerous local and international logistics service providers to investigate product-service system phenomena in the realm of road freight transport. Emine studied her PhD at the Transport Research Institute of Edinburgh Napier University, where she worked with local authorities, regional and national transport organisations in Scotland, England, and Sweden to investigate public policy making in the domain of urban freight transport. She has always nurtured a genuine interest in embedding her research into her teaching and talking about supply chain related subject. She held her first lectureship at the University of Dundee, where she taught various subjects including Procurement, Operations Management, International Trade Theory and Supply Chain Strategy in the Graduate Apprenticeship Programme. Since August 2021, Emine continues with her research activities focusing doing research in public sector innovation, smart cities, and urban Innovation in the Business School and teaching subjects focusing on innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship. So far, she has published her research in several well-known journals in transport policy and logistics such as Transport Policy and International Journal of Logistics: Research and Applications. Recently, she contributed to a research activity investigating the role of science, technology, and innovation in sustainable urban development, which will be published by the United Nations (UNCTAD Secretariat).

Job Titles:

• Lecturer
• Professor Dr Luca Mora

Huong is a Lecturer in Urban Innovation at the Business School of Edinburgh Napier University. She holds a PhD from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain; DEMO programme: Doctorate in Economics, Management and Organisation) in addition to her master's and bachelor's degrees in business administration from Umeå University (Sweden) and Foreign Trade University (Vietnam), respectively. In her research, Huong investigates the governance of innovation systems, with a particular focus on how key actors are involved and how they interact to promote innovation and regional development. Her current research is mainly focused on citizen engagement and examinations of transition from the Triple- to the Quadruple-Helix model of innovation in urban contexts. She has attained several grants to present her research and participate in various academic activities such as the European Researchers' Night and European Week of Regions and Cities. Before joining Edinburgh Napier University's Unity Lab, Huong had been a teaching assistant at ESADE Business School and a Marie Sklodowska-Curie PhD fellow of the EU-funded RUNIN project (The Role of Universities in Innovation and Regional Development). Under this project, she also was an editor of a Working Paper Series and a visiting researcher at Aalborg University. Before pursuing an academic career, Huong had worked as a senior tax consultant at PwC (Vietnam).

Job Titles:

• Head of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Subject Group at the Business School of Edinburgh Napier University
• Professor
• Professor Dr Luca Mora

Luca is Professor of Urban Innovation and Head of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Subject Group at The Business School of Edinburgh Napier University. In addition, he has also been appointed Professor of Urban Innovation at the Academy of Architecture of Urban Studies of Tallinn University of Technology.

Job Titles:

• Lecturer of Digital Innovation

Paolo is a Lecturer of Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Edinburgh Napier University. He holds a PhD in Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Strategy from Newcastle Business School, where he also worked as Lecturer of Digital Entrepreneurship between 2018 and 2021. Paolo's research interests lie at the intersection between digital transformation, technology adoption and regional development with a focus on the governance of smart places, bottom-up approaches to innovation and the diffusion of digital technologies in rural and peripheral regions. His work has been presented at international conferences and published in top academic journals - such as Government Information Quarterly, World Development and Telecommunications Policy. In January 2019 he was among the recipients of the Young Scholar Programme of the Pacific Telecommunications Councils, an award for early-career researchers studying ICT markets and policies. Prior to joining academia, Paolo worked as a regulatory analysist and policy advisor for both public and private organisations in the Italian ICT sector.

Paul is a Lecturer in Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship in The Business School at Edinburgh Napier University. He has degrees in Contemporary Popular Music and in Business & Management, and he also holds a PhD in Creative Entrepreneurship. Paul has over 13 years of experience working as a lecturer and researcher. At the University of Bolton, he has set up one of the first creative industries management provisions of the United Kingdom. In addition, Paul taught on the BA (Hons) in Music Business of the University of the Highlands & Islands and led the MA in Music Industry Management programme at the University of West London. He has also presented at international conferences in Europe, the United States, and China, and has published in well-known academic journals such as Management Decision. Paul's research interests include creative entrepreneurship, digital transformation, entrepreneurial learning, smart city governance, co-creation communities, and music copyright.

With more than six years of working experience as an urban and sustainability expert with the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), Sara is currently a research associate at The Business School of Edinburgh Napier University, and PhD student at the Academy of Architecture of Urban Studies of Tallinn University of Technology. Her academic background includes two Masters and one Specialist Diploma in the fields of architecture, urban planning, and data-driven analysis through Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Since 2015, she has been working with local and national governments in various countries and regions around the world, including Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. In this context, she has been involved in a range of different topics related to sustainable urban development, including strategic urban planning, data platforms, crises response, metropolitan governance, sustainable transport, housing policies, and public space. Overall, her roles included program management activities, negotiation and development of projects, technical advice, and urban and territorial analysis. The focus of her PhD research lies on partnerships and governance models for the implementation of smart city projects, particularly investigating the creation of social, democratic, and environmental benefits. Tying into this research, she is also part of a team of academic consultants working on a global study on "Smart City Governance" for the UN and the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF).