Current Fellows

Dr. Rudy Fernández Escobedo

Rudy is a MSCA Research Fellow at the University of Galway, Ireland. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of the Basque Country (EHU), Spain, and an MBA in Finance from EGADE Business School, Mexico, and ESSEC Business School, France. He received the Extraordinary Doctorate Award 2025 for outstanding research.

As a consultant, he led strategic projects in Latin America and advised Mexican public institutions on policy evaluation and innovation. He also lectures in strategy, finance, and economics, sharing his international experience and commitment to bridging global research with local policy impact.

His research examines how digital transformation reconfigures industrial agglomerations and regional productivity across Europe. His work has appeared in the Journal of Regional Research, Competitiveness Review, and the International Journal of Information Technology & Decision Making. By linking technology, innovation, and place, his work seeks to foster more sustainable, resilient, and inclusive regional growth.

PhD candidate Alessio Costanzo Fedele

Alessio is currently a PhD student in Economic and Political Geography at the University of Chieti-Pescara “G. d’Annunzio”. He earned a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and Political Process Analysis from the University of Teramo and a Master's degree in Political Science and Government, with a specialization in Law, Institutions, and Decision-Making Processes, from the University of Milan. He completed an international study experience in Poland at the University of Warsaw.

His areas of study and research include regional economic geography, with a focus on socioeconomic and institutional imbalances, regional development policies, and the European governance of cohesion funds, the NGEU, and the PNRR. His research interests also include global geopolitics, with a focus on the crisis of Western democracies, the rise of global multipolarism (BRICS+), and the study of international relations

Dr. Susanne Frick

Dr. Frick is a Lecturer in Economic Geography at Cardiff University, which she joined in 2023. Her research examines drivers of local and regional economic development, with particular interest in designing and assessing industrial and place-based policies. Before Cardiff, she was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, studying urban development policies across European cities. Susanne completed a PhD in Economic Geography and held a Fellowship in Local Economic Development at LSE. She has experience consulting for international organisations and governments, including the World Bank, UNCTAD, and others. Prior to her doctorate, she spent several years at Dalberg Global Development Advisors, supporting clients such as the Gates Foundation and the International Trade Centre on strategic planning. She also worked in Guatemala for two years with Fundesa, a private-sector-funded think tank, collaborating with the Ministry of Economy on an inclusive development strategy.

PhD candidate Iago Mora Arcas

Iago is a PhD Candidate in History at King's College London, with joint supervision from the Department of European and International Studies. He holds a master's degree in Political Theory from the London School of Economics. His research is supported by a Ramón Areces Fellowship, and it looks at gender and sexuality in the social movements of the Spanish Transition to democracy from a transnational perspective.

PhD candidate Hugo Neves Pérez

Hugo is a predoctoral fellow in Constitutional Law at the National University of Distance Education (UNED). His research focuses on European Union law, democratic legitimacy, and cohesion policy, studying how structural and investment funds strengthen integration and public trust in the EU. He holds bachelor’s degrees in Political Science, Law, and Public Administration, and master’s degrees in Constitutional Law and in Human Rights, Democracy and Globalisation.

He has taught Constitutional Law at the Complutense University of Madrid and published articles and book chapters with recognised academic publishers. Hugo has presented his work at international conferences and participates actively in academic committees. His research excellence has been recognised with the Jean Monnet Award in Social Sciences, the Young Researchers Award of the RJUAM, and a prestigious research fellowship at Fundación Yuste derived from the Carlos V European Award.

PhD candidate Eleni Oikonomaki

Eleni is an architect, urban designer, and data scientist, currently completing her Ph.D. specializing in smart cities, innovation ecosystems, big urban data analytics, and artificial intelligence within urban environments. She graduated from UC Berkeley, California, holding a master’s degree in urban design, and from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, with a master’s in architectural engineering.

Eleni worked at the IT Center of AUTH for more than a year, contributing to the development of “myauth mobile”. Her professional experience includes working in a range of areas, from large-scale data analytics (including an environmental monitoring system for a neighborhood in Thessaloniki) and urban development initiatives to architectural and urban design proposals in Spain and the US. She has served as a Teaching Assistant in the Design and Innovation for Sustainable Cities (DISC) 2019 program at UC Berkeley.

During her most recent research visit to UC Berkeley in California, she has been analyzing the San Francisco Bay Area’s innovation hubs, using AI and geospatial data modeling to map the interplay among R&D investment, socioeconomic patterns, land-use dynamics, and innovation outputs (e.g., patenting, startup formation). Throughout this fellowship at LSE, Eleni has expressed her willingness to share her knowledge of the most well-established US innovation hubs and apply her methodology to the European context.

Dr. Robert Pollock

Dr. Pollock has worked at senior levels in government and consultancy in relation to economic and regional development in diverse geographies. Until recently, he was a Senior Advisor to the European Union’s Coal Regions in Transition Initiative and led delivery of its technical assistance programme to support a Just Transition in affected regions. His PhD from the Centre of Urban and Regional Development Studies at Newcastle University related to energy transition, multi-level governance and regional industrial development and, more recently, he researched the externalisation of the EU’s Just Transition agenda at the College of Europe in Bruges. Dr. Pollock's current research focus relates to the design and efficacy of European Just Transition policy in carbon intensive regions during a period of increasing fiscal and political uncertainty. Between 2015 and 2020, he was Chair of the Economic Development Association Scotland.

PhD candidate Kaia Solle

Kaia is a 4th-year PhD candidate in the Anthropology Department at the London School of Economics. Originally from Norway, she spent two years doing fieldwork in a village in Andalusia (Spain) as part of her PhD research. Her thesis explores how rural communities navigate economic and social transition, driven by changes in local industry and shifting migration patterns. Her project is funded by UK Research and Innovation through the London Arts and Humanities Partnership

PhD candidate Anna Solms

Anna is a PhD candidate in Economics at the Halle Institute for Economic Research in Germany. Her work lies at the intersection of applied macroeconomics, regional development, and environmental economics. She studies how economic dynamics unfold across regions, with a particular focus on disparities in growth, migration patterns, and structural transformation. In her dissertation, Anna explores the drivers of subnational inequalities, examining the roles of regional capital stocks, labor supply shocks, and energy transitions in shaping economic resilience. Her research seeks to deepen the understanding of how macroeconomic and structural transition forces interact to influence regional prosperity and long-term development paths.

PhD candidate Ioana Maria Ursache

Ioana-Maria is a PhD Candidate in Economics and International Affairs at Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, Romania. Her doctoral research investigates how digitalisation influences urban development, with a focus on digital inequalities, justice and the quality of life in European cities. Her work lies at the intersection of economics, urban studies and public policy, analysing the socio-spatial impacts of technological transformation and the governance of smart urban transitions. Beyond her research activities, Ioana has been actively involved in several national and European research and innovation projects, including Horizon Europe and NRRP-funded initiatives on urban development and innovation.

PhD candidate Genghao Zhang

Genghao is a 4th-year PhD candidate at the University of Bristol. His research interests include regional collaborative inventions of AI technologies, spatial diffusion and concentration of AI skill demand, regional labour markets, and spatial econometrics. You can see publications on his university profile here, and connect with him on LinkedIn here.

PhD candidate Tao Zou

Tao is a PhD candidate in International Economics at King’s College London and serves as a Guest Teacher in the LSE Department of Economics. Building on prior studies at LSE, where spatial economics and regional policy ignited his research interests, his current research delves into the Economic Geography of Innovation, Political Economy of Trade, and International Business Strategy.

Harbouring a profound passion for these fields, he was selected as a Counsellor of the AIB-CIBER Doctoral Academy, funded by the Sheth Foundation Fellowship. His research was recognised as a top-5 finalist for the UNCTAD-AIB Award for Best Research on Investment and Development. He also had an enriching time at UNCTAD in Geneva, conducting policy-oriented research on AI for inclusive development. 

At the Cañada Blanch Centre, he will focus on the institutional evolution of European trade and FDI amid China-US decoupling, and its impact on regional innovation