Dr. Jakob Edler is Professor of Innovation Policy and Strategy at the Alliance Manchester business School. Since January 2011 he is Executive Director of the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research (MIoIR), one of the largest academic innovation centres worldwide with 45 staff members and 40 PhD. Before becoming Executive Director, he was Research Director of MIoIR. Jakob joined AMBS and MIoIR in January 2007, after having been Head of Department for Innovation Systems and Policy at the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research, one of the largest centres on innovation studies in Europe. Jakob also leads Executive Education at MIoIR, offering courses in science and innovation policy, evaluation and foresight.
Jakob’s research interests lie in the analysis and conceptualisation of governance and policy in science and innovation. More concretely, he has worked impact of science and innovation policy and is currently leading an EU funded project to analyse evaluation practice in science and innovation policy (SIPER). One major focus in recent years has been on demand side innovation policy and public procurement of innovation, currently leading a project on collective governance for procurement at regional level. Further, Jakob has worked theoretically on issues of governance of socio-technical systems and governance of responsible research and innovation. A fourth area of research has been issues of internationalisation of research and innovation activities and related governance and policy issues.
As of October 24 2016 I have published 38 articles in peer reviewed journals, 38 book chapters, co-edited 6 books, single authored 1 book and co-authored 7 books, and wrote 59 reports to external stakeholders. As of October 2016 Jakob has 3987 google scholar citations.
Jakob’s research has been funded by the UK Research Council, international organisations (such as EU, OECD, WIPO), and numerous national and regional bodies in many European countries. In 2014 Jakob is elected member of the German National Academy for Science and Engineering (Acatech), member of the Austrian Council for Research and Technological Development and member of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. Since June 2016 Jakob is President of the association of institute in STI policy EU-SPRI.
Jakob was awarded his PhD in Political Science by the University of Mannheim (with distinction), having previously completed two separate Masters degrees at the University of Mannheim and Dartmouth College, USA (Business Administration/Management and Political Science/Economic History). During his PhD he did an internship at the European Commission.