Advisory board

The Manchester Institute of Innovation Research strategic advisory board is composed of six individuals from the UK and abroad with a high level of reputation and experience in their field.

The three academic members represent the three Institute pillars of economics, management and policy, while other members represent industry, policy and the third sector. The purpose of the advisory board is to advise on: 

• the research activities and strategies of the Institute, commenting on the overall direction, complementarities, gaps, relevance and excellence;
• the visibility, positioning and networking of the Institute in the key global, national and regional academic communities it represents and engages with; and
• the societal, policy, management and economic impacts of the Institute and its related contract and networking activities.

Members

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  Mike Blackburn OBE

  Mike is Chair of the Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership which sits at the heart of Greater Manchester’s governance arrangements and ensures that business leaders are empowered to set the strategic course, determine local economic priorities and drive growth and job creation within the city.

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  Léopold Demiddeleer

  Léopold is currently Vice President of the New Business Board of Solvay, a large chemical company based in Brussels, and Board President of EIRMA. Active as a member of the EC Advisory Council on Fuel Cells, he sits at the Board of Venture funds and start-ups in Europe, US and Korea. Léopold has a PhD in Physical Chemistry. From 1981-2001, he was responsible for several research and development initiatives in catalyst, high performance materials and global polyolefins. He was recently appointed as Member Belgian Royal Academy of Science. 

  Read more about Léopold

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  Professor Stefan Kuhlmann

  Stefan is Chair of the Department of Science, Technology, and Policy Studies (STəPS) a member of the university’s Institute for Innovation and Governance Studies’ (IGS), and leader of the Twente Graduate School programme “Governance of Knowledge and Innovation”. Stefan is a member of a number of professional or academic associations in the area of research and innovation policy analysis, including founding President of the European Forum for Studies of Policies for Research and Innovation (Eu-SPRI Forum). 

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• 

  Andrew Lightfoot

  Andrew is the Strategic Director of Public Service Reform at the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.  Andrew holds a first class honours degree in International History and Politics and a master’s degree in Politics.

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• 

  Professor Maureen McKelvey

  Maureen is Professor at the University of Gothenburg and currently director of RIDE research center, R&D, Innovation and Dynamics in Economies. Her research focuses on the “Economics of Innovation”, including the broader societal and political contexts for innovations. Increasingly, she works at the intersection of “Economics of Innovation” and “Innovation Management” because firms are such crucial agents of change for innovations. 

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• 

  Professor Stephen Roper

  Stephen is Associate Dean (Academic Policy and Practice), Professor of Enterprise, Director of the Centre for SMEs, Warwick Business School. He joined WBS in the Enterprise Teaching Group and Centre for SMEs in January 2008. Prior to joining WBS, Stephen was Professor of Business Innovation at Aston Business School and before that he was Assistant Director of the Northern Ireland Economic Research Centre, Belfast. 

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