PhD. Candidate Genghao Zhang

Genghao Zhang is a first year PhD student at the University of Bristol. The anticipated end date of his program: Advanced Quantitative Methods (PhD) is 18th September 2026. His research interests are Geography of Innovation and Twin Transitions.

To get in touch with him, please use the following email address

PhD. Candidate José Joaquín Luque García

He is a pre-doctoral researcher with an FPI
contract at the University of Málaga. He specialises in Economic History. His main line of research revolves around the gas industry in
Latin Europe. In this way, he analyses, through specialised gas newspapers and the documentation generated by the main gas associations, how the knowledge and techniques of this industry circulated between France, Spain, Italy and Portugal, without losing sight of the advances and expansion of British gas. In this way, his main contribution to the history of energy is the cataloguing, systematisation and analysis of the written press specialising in this field and of the main companies operating in the sector. Finally, it is worth mentioning his participation in the Spanish Government's Project of Excellence 'Gas in Latin Europe: a comparative and global perspective (1818-1945)', PID2020-112844GB-I00.

PhD. Candidate Javier Padilla

He is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the City University of New York (CUNY). He holds a master’s degree in philosophy and public Policy from the London School of Economics. His research focuses on the fate of authoritarian elites in Latin American and South European democracies and how political parties are perceived on the left-right dimension. 

PhD. Candidate Zhuoying You

Zhuoying You is currently 3rd-year PhD candidate in the Department of Management, Strategy and Innovation (MSI), Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) at KU Leuven. Her research interests include regional innovation, environmental sustainability, and international business. Prior to her PhD project, she earned an MSc in Business Strategy and Innovation Management from the University of Southampton.

To get in touch with her, please use the following email address

Dr. Enrique Acebo

Enrique Acebo is an Assistant Professor of Management at the University of León, where he earned a PhD Summa Cum Laude in Business Economics. His research focuses on how firms can leverage new products and processes in innovation ecosystems with the purpose of value creation and environmental sustainability. To study the determinants of firm innovation activities, his research builds on ideas from various disciplines, including business strategy, economics, and geographic economic.

Furthermore, it employs various methods, from econometrics and causal inference. His research has been published in well-known journals such as Business Strategy and Environment, Science and Public Policy and the European Journal of Innovation Management.

To get in touch with him, please use the following email address

Dr. Ana-Maria Opria

She is assistant professor at the Department of Geography, Faculty of Geography and Geology, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania.

During her PhD studies, she focused on assessing the impact of the LEADER Programme and the role of Local Action Groups in the sustainable development of the Romanian countryside.

The research interest is oriented towards the field of Human Geography. Currently, her research focuses on aspects related to sustainable development, with a particular attention on topics such as: management of European and national funding programs, inequalities in the distribution of funds for sustainable development, factors leading to different performances of rural communities in absorbing financial support.

Dr. Silje Haus-Reve

She is an Associate Professor and the Head of the Department of Innovation, Management, and Marketing at the Business School of the University of Stavanger. Her research focuses on innovation, regional development, and policy, drawing on insights from innovation studies and economic geography. Her particular interest lies in examining how knowledge and skills empower firms to innovate and drive regional development.

Dr. Wioletta Kilar

She is assistant professor at the Department of Entrepreneurship and Spatial Management as well as the Director of the Institute of Geography of the Pedagogical University of Krakow. She is also a member, also until recently the head of the Entrepreneurship Education Research Team.

Her research focuses on the processes of transformation of industrial spatial structures in various spatial systems; the formation and functioning of enterprises (especially multinational corporations); factors of location, innovation and development of multinational corporations and their branches.

Prof. Pablo de Andrés Alonso

He is Professor of Finance and head of the Finance Department at the Autonoma University of Madrid. His research interests range between corporate governance, corporate finance and real options. His interest in corporate governance started early in his career, as he was awarded the European Investment Bank Prize for young researchers (1997).

He was Visiting Researcher at Harvard University in 2009 and Visiting Scholar in the Cass Business School (City University London) in Autum 2012 and Spring 2014. Lately, his research interests are toward start-up finance (digital) strategies.

Dr. Paulino Montes Solla

Paulino Montes-Solla is Assistant Professor of Fundamentals of Economic Analysis at the University of A Coruña where he has been teaching since 2019. He is also a senior researcher at the Jean Monnet Research Group on Competition and Regional Development in the European Union (GCD) where he has held the position of manager since 2007 to 2021.

He has an established research record in Economic Geography, Regional Growth and Disparities, EU Regional Policy and EU Political Economy. He presented his research at numerous international conferences, and was a visiting researcher at prestigious research centers in European and American universities, such as the European Policies Research Center (EPRC) of the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow (2013), the Institute of Capital, Creativity and Innovation (IC²) of the University of Texas at Austin (2014) or the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory (REAL) of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2018).

Cristina Carrillo Pulido is a doctoral researcher in Economics, Business and Law within the research line of Sectoral Economics and Development, and a member of the Applied Economics Research Group of the University of Jaén. She is a lecturer in the Department of Business Organisation, Marketing and Sociology at the University of Jaén, where she teaches “Business Administration and Management”, “Production Administration and Management” and “Innovation, Quality and Technology Management”.

In addition, she has been working for several years in companies as a business consultant to strengthen the business fabric leading to more innovative, intelligent and sustainable business management models. She also holds a MSc Economic and Territorial Development and a BA Business Management from the University of Jaén.

At the Cañada Blanch Centre she is working on deepening her research about the influence of institutional theory on the design, implementation and results of public innovation policies.

Dr. Richard Huddleson / Riocárd Ó hOddail

He is a postdoctoral researcher in Catalan Language and Culture at University College Dublin. His research is part of the project 'Youth Engagement in European Language Preservation' (YEELP), which is funded by the European Research Council and based in Scoil na Gaeilge, an Léinn Cheiltigh agus an Bhéaloidis. He obtained his PhD from the Centre for Catalan Studies at Queen Mary, University of London, and was an Ahmanson Getty Fellow at the William Andrew Clark Memorial Library (UCLA).

Elena Renzullo

She is a fourth-year PhD Candidate in Economics at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. During her PhD she visited the Department of Regional Science & Economic Geography of the Gran Sasso Science Institute and worked as a short-term consultant for the World Bank Group.

She holds a master’s double degree in Economics and Public Finance from the University of Turin and the University of Rennes 1 and a one-year master’s program in Public Policy and Social Change from Collegio Carlo Alberto.

Her research interest lies at the intersection of Public Economics, Political Economics, and Regional Economics. Her PhD dissertation investigates the relationship between local electoral outcomes in Southern Italy and European Cohesion Policy.

Gonzalo Reguera-Zaratiegui

He is a doctoral researcher at I-COMMUNITAS - Institute for Advanced Social Research and belongs to the research group “Rural sociology, mobilities and social research” of the Public University of Navarre. He earned a scientist career fellowship financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities to start his PhD.

His research focuses on socio-territorial cohesion and mobility. He participates in the competitive research project “Focus on the rural gap: accessibility, mobilities and social inequalities (Rural Access)” (PID2019-111201RB-I00), managed by Jesús Oliva Serrano (UPNA) and Luis A. Camarero Rioja (UNED). As a professional, he has worked in the design, development and evaluation of research projects in various fields related to local development.

Dr. Chiara Burlina

She is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Economics and Management, University of Padova. She has worked as a research fellow in Regional Science at the Gran Sasso Science Institute and as a postdoc at the Catholic University of Milan, after completing the PhD in Economics and Management from the University of Padova.

Her research interests lie at the intersection of Applied Microeconomics, Regional Economics, Economic Geography, and Institutions. Her research specifically explores how different economic factors impact the development of regions, based on a quantitative approach.

Paloma Alonso Stuyck holds a PhD in Psychology and is an Associate Professor at the International University of Catalonia.

At the Cañada Blanch Centre LSE, she is designing a workshop for university teachers, with the aim that they teach in their disciplines to read the language of nature. The main hypothesis is that this will mean a significant change in the perception of students about progress and social equity; avoiding polarizations and promoting a systemic view.

Additionally, she works as a family therapist and is a founding member of:

• Viktor Frankl Association: https://asociacionviktorfrankl.es/  
• CCMEDYA: http://www.centrodeconciliacionmediacionyarbitraje.es/index.html  
• COPOE: https://copoe.org/

Diego Loras Gimeno is a doctoral researcher and lecturer at Comillas Pontifical University, where he teaches the course "Introduction to Economics for International Relations". His research focuses on how the urban-rural gap affects inequality and poverty in Spain. He has been awarded with the "Miguel Dols Fellows Scheme" as a visiting resarcher at the London School of Economics, where he will deepen in his work on this field.

In addition, he works as a Parliamentary Assistant at the Spanish Congress of Deputies. He has worked as an advisor in the headquarters of the United Nations in New York, as a researcher in the department of studies of Oxfam, and as a research assistant at the ETNOR Foundation for Ethics in Business and Organizations. He writes articles frequently in several newspapers, blogs and other media.

He holds a MSc Economics from the Barcelona School of Economics and a MA Ethics and Democracy and BSc Economics from the University of Valencia. He has been a visiting student at the Friedrich-Alexander Universität (Nürnberg, Germany) and at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (Nairobi, Kenya). He did a Program in Leadership for Public Management at IESE Business School (Madrid).

José Carlos Tenorio Maciá

Doctoral researcher at the Jean Monnet Chair of the University of Alicante, in the Department of Contemporary Humanities. His research focuses on the British European policy from 1945 onwards, with special attention to the way the Spanish press have covered the difficult relationship between Britain and the European project during this period.

He holds a MA Contemporary History from the University of Alicante and a BA Journalism from the Madrid Open University. He has been a visiting student at the University of Manchester and at the University of Santiago de Compostela. In 2017 he worked as a trainee in the Press and Communications Department of the EPP Group in the European Parliament.

At the Cañada Blanch Centre LSE, he is working on the conversion of his recently finished PhD thesis into a book.

Pau Sendra Pons is a researcher and lecturer at the Department of Corporate Finance of the University of Valencia. He graduated in International Business and holds a Master in Corporate Finance from this institution, both with an extraordinary prize upon graduation. His research focuses on new frontiers in entrepreneurial fundraising, specially crowdfunding, as well as entrepreneurship and gender. He has published articles in international journals including European Research on Management and Business Economics, Service Business and Quality and Quantity. He has been awarded numerous research awards, including the best research from a young researcher by the European Academy of Management and Business Economics or the Fundación Cañada Blanch - London School of Economics research award. Additionally, he serves as Innovation Deputy at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Valencia as well as the Scientific Board of RESOCEM – Research Society on Entrepreneurial Motivation.