CIRCLE, Lund University

This week’s Research Talk featured a practical session on “Proposal Prep” led by CIRCLE member and professor of Research Policy, Merle Jacob. Key takeaways included: 🔑 Mindset shift: approaching proposal writing as an integral part of the research process, not a side task. 🔑 Structure & strategy: each proposal section should serve as a persuasive argument that is part of a whole but has a separate function - including the budget. More than a formality, the budget is a crucial part of the project’s work plan and implementation story. 🔑Planning for success (or setbacks): When awarded funding, understanding the fine print, reviewer feedback, and reporting requirements is essential. If unsuccessful, researchers should use reviewer comments constructively and explore alternative pathways to advance their work, like repurposing the proposal as a paper or rescaling the idea to carry on without a grant. 🙌 A big thank you to Merle for the valuable insights on effective proposal preparation and to the attendees for their engagement! #ResearchTalk #ResearchFunding #AcademicCareers

New article! "Alternativizing markets: the framing of moral commerce" by me and Christian Fuentes is just out in Socio-Economic Review – Open access: https://lnkd.in/epJZruG2. Drawing on extensive empirical materials, we show how markets may be organised in alternative manners to conventional, capitalist markets, and how such organisation may offer protection against commercial co-option.

📢 New CIRCLE Policy Brief 📢 How new universities can spur innovation and development in non-core regions Establishing new universities in non-core regions can unlock regional innovation and development, but success does not happen automatically. Understanding the complex processes and rationales at play is crucial for formulating effective policies and fostering strong collaborations between universities and regional actors. 🤝  Drawing from case studies of new universities in rural and semi-urban regions, Debananda Misra discusses insights and broader implications for policymakers looking to establish new universities to stimulate regional innovation and development.🌱 📖  Read the full brief here: https://lnkd.in/dwZP8xZJ #InnovationPolicy #RegionalDevelopment #RegionalInnovation #UniversityRegionCollaboration #PolicyBrief Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi

📢 If you know students interested in healthcare innovation and management, our IACH - InnovACtion in Health Care: Strategy, Performance, and Data Management Seasonal School in Pisa (March 10-14) is a fantastic opportunity! 🌟 It’s designed for students who would like to know more about strategy, performance, and data management in healthcare 📊 while building valuable connections. Applications are open until January 19! 🗓️ 📩 Feel free to write me or my colleague Sabina De Rosis a line if you’d like to know more! Giuliana Villari Network PerfeTTO CIRCLE, Lund University Sten K. Johnson Centre for Entrepreneurship at Lund University Blekinge Institute of Technology Jonas Gabrielsson Martin Andersson Diamanto Politis Rhiannon Pugh Jana Schmutzler de Uribe Sarah Jack Marina Dabić Ziad El-Awad Sascha Kraus Marie Löwegren Torben Schubert Markus Grillitsch Annalisa Caloffi Elisa Giuliani Silvia Rita Sedita Søren Jensen Maria Raffaella Martina

"The quality of CIRCLE lies in its trust-based culture, which entails respect for and curiosity about different perspectives. It leads to new ideas and research actions, but most importantly, we have fun on the way and try out new things – some of which work out while others don’t – isn’t that what innovation and experimentation is about?" – Markus Grillitsch, director of CIRCLE at Lund University. Read more about our work in the 2023 annual report (Pdf, 9 MB). #InnovationResearch #Innovation #Research #AnnualReport

📢 New Publication 🔌 Watt's Fair in Mumbai: Intermediaries' Impact on Energy Justice in Informal Settlements ⚡ This article, co-authored by Ananya Peddibhotla, CIRCLE researcher Stuti Haldar, and Amir Bazaz, explores how intermediaries—such as NGOs and community organizations—play a crucial role in ensuring marginalized communities gain access to vital infrastructure like electricity. 🏙️ Mumbai, where approximately 41% of the population lives in informal settlements, is used as a case study to demonstrate how the lack of affordable and reliable energy affects not only daily life but is also deeply entwined with other social issues like housing rights and access to essential public services. 💡 The research highlights how intermediaries take on three key roles—articulating local needs, aligning key stakeholders, and facilitating learning—to address these challenges. By doing so, they contribute to achieving distributive, recognition, and procedural justice for underserved communities. 🌍 The findings offer valuable lessons for cities across the Global South, where rapid urbanization often leaves informal settlements struggling to access critical services. 👉  Read the full paper here: https://lnkd.in/dnVUjAxT University of California, Irvine - School of Social Ecology Indian Institute for Human Settlements    #NewPublication #SustainabilityTransition #EnergyJustice #SocialJustice #GlobalSouth 

🔦 Last Wednesday, we had the pleasure of hosting a research seminar led by Anna Bergek, focusing on the challenges of “translating” Transformative Innovation Policy (TIP) research into practice. This session was part of our ongoing collaboration with SIRI - Swedish platform for System Innovation Research in Interaction, where we work alongside diverse partners to bridge academic research and policy impact. Here are some of the key themes we explored together: 🔹 Navigating directionality – The complexities of setting clear, actionable goals amid diverse views and approaches of transformation and systems innovation. 🔹 Applying system thinking – The importance of adaptable frameworks that can address the realities of implementation. 🔹 Coordinating across sectors – The need to align diverse policy goals across sectors and governance levels. 🔹 Building stakeholder trust – The imperative to engage the right people and maintain legitimacy. 🙌 Thank you to everyone who participated! We are excited to keep building connections between research and practice, driving meaningful change with our partners and community. #TransformativeInnovationPolicy #TIP #PolicyResearch #ResearchImpact 

New Paper 💡 Agency and Structure in Regional Development: In Search of a Social Science Research Programme 👉 for transformative social science In a world fraught with complex crises, understanding agency in the context of regional development has the potential to reshape how we approach transformation processes, governance, and wellbeing. Yet, have our studies on agency and structure fully lived up to this potential? In our recent article, "Agency and Structure in Regional Development: In Search of a Social Science Research Programme," we delve into this question and find that while strides have been made, there’s more ground to cover. We propose a fresh direction rooted in critical realism—a unified ontological foundation that, combined with robust mid-range theories and methods, can drive research forward with real-world impact. This social science research program is more than theoretical; it carries an emancipatory vision to enhance our collective capabilities to shape a better world. 🌱 📘 Read more and join the conversation on creating actionable social science that empowers change! https://lnkd.in/d6gPQmVc with Markku Sotarauta The Department of Human Geography, Lund University, CIRCLE, Lund University, Tampere University

🚨🤖 Our new paper, co-authored with Francesco Venturini and Ana Rincon-Aznar, has just been published! We explore the causal impact of AI innovation on firms' productivity in Europe. 🔗 Read the full paper here: https://lnkd.in/dcSsanrN #AI #Productivity #Innovation National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), The Productivity Institute, Università degli Studi di Urbino Carlo Bo, Competition and Markets Authority, CIRCLE, Lund University

🌍 Excited to have coordinated a special session on Innovation in the Global South with Rhiannon Pugh at the #DevRes2024 conference, hosted by Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS) ! Our session explored CIRCLE, Lund University researchers’ work on several crucial themes, including: • The role of universities in driving innovation in rural spaces • Insights into research collaboration and capacity building • The importance of place-based, people-centric approaches for achieving justice in regional development • Rethinking the circular economy through the integration of small-scale and informal resource conservation practices A big thank you to all the presenters and participants for your thought-provoking contributions! Looking forward to seeing how these ideas shape the future body of work relevant to emerging economies. Markus Grillitsch Annika Ralfs Jazmin Estefania Olivares ugarte Franco Arandia Arzabe Gautam Sharma and Yahia Mahmoud. #Innovation #GlobalSouth #CircularEconomy #ResearchCapacityBuilding #RegionalDevelopment #JustTransitions #DevRes2024