Luca Mora, Visiting Professor: “As a Researcher, Mobility is Part of the Game”

Luca Mora is a Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Business School of Edinburgh Napier University and a Research Affiliate at Edinburgh Napier University’s Centre for Smart Cities. He has been invited by EMLV for a research stay.

Currently working on a book and several articles, Luca Mora will also host a seminar of the De Vinci Research Center’s Business Group.

The road to a PhD in Innovation Management

Born in Italy, Luca Mora completed his undergraduate studies in science of architecture and architecture at Politecnico di Milano. He completed a PhD in Design and Technologies for Cultural Heritage.

Selected as one of the best 25 PhD students of all three Italian Politecnico, he started working on another PhD and a post-doc, this time in Innovation Management and Product Development. A pronounced taste for research led him to restructure his background and expand his areas of expertise.

An Early Career Research Grant had Luca move to Edinburgh, where he has lived, taught and researched since 2016. Luca has specialized in ICT-driven urban and regional innovation. His research is focused on the production of new insights into the sustainable development of urbanized territories through digital innovations and smart technologies.

Research broadens the horizon

Luca Mora started collaborating with Francesco Paolo Appio, Head of the Business Research Group and Associate Professor at EMLV a year ago, for they had a common research interest: smart cities. Luca seized the opportunity of a research stay in Paris, a city he had only been to a few days at a time.

“I was curious to see a French academic environment, in a business school of more or less the same dimension as Napier’s. Staying at EMLV has been a pleasant experience so far”.

As a researcher, Luca Mora is used to international work contexts. He describes Edinburgh as a “vibrant environment for a researcher”, because of the excellence of its higher education institutions, the many different events taking place there and the outstanding work connections with academics. However, who knows where research opportunities might take him in the months to come?

Boosting interdisciplinary and collaborative research

While at EMLV, Luca Mora and Francesco Paolo Appio work on several publications they intend to submit to high ranking journals. The researcher is also writing a book he must turn in by November.

Furthermore, he will end his research stay by hosting a seminar for the De Vinci Research Center’s Business Group on the use of bibliometric and science mapping techniques to boost interdisciplinary and collaborative research in higher education institutions. Luca will present a methodology he has successfully deployed for the Urban Research and Education Knowledge Alliance, producing an interdisciplinary and collaborative research strategy.

More information about the De Vinci Research Center’s Business Group and the seminars to come.