Turning innovation into economic opportunity

Now is the time for universities such as Manchester to step up as catalysts of place-based growth and to act with urgency and ambition in driving the regional innovation agenda.

Yet building successful regional innovation ecosystems and districts requires more than investment or ambition alone.

At this special event, world‑leading scholar Professor César Hidalgo, Honorary Professor at AMBS, will draw on core ideas from his recent book The Infinite Alphabet to explain how knowledge accumulates, moves, and combines to generate productive, innovative places.

Using examples from historical industrial centres to contemporary innovation hubs, he will explore how patterns of knowledge accumulation and local network structures shape the capacity of regions to support sustained innovation‑led growth.

He will also be joined for a panel debate by Elvira Uyarra, Professor of Innovation Studies at AMBS, and other invited innovation experts.

Professor Hidalgo is Professor at the the Toulouse School of Economics’ (TSE) Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, as well as head of the Center for Collective Learning at Institute for Advanced Study (IAST) at TSE and the Corvinus Institute of Advanced Studies (CIAS) at Corvinus University of Budapest. He is also Director of the Centre for Collective Learning and co-founder and co-CEO of Datawheel.

Professor César A. Hidalgo

César A. Hidalgo is a Chilean-Spanish-American scholar known for his contributions to economic complexity and for his applied work on data visualization and artificial intelligence.

Hidalgo is a tenured professor at the Toulouse School of Economics’ (TSE) Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences and the head of the Center for Collective Learning a multidisciplinary research laboratory with offices at Institute for Advanced Study (IAST) at TSE and the Corvinus Institute of Advanced Studies (CIAS) at Corvinus University of Budapest.

He is also an Honorary Professor at the Alliance Manchester Business School of the University of Manchester.

Professor Elvira Uyarra

Elvira Uyarra is Professor of Innovation Studies at Alliance Manchester Business School (University of Manchester) where she is also Director of the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research.

Elvira has a degree in Economics from The University of the Basque Country (Spain), an MSc in 'Technical Change and Regional Development' from Cardiff University and a PhD in Science and Technology Policy from the University of Manchester. She is a fellow of the Regional Studies Association (RSA) and editor and editor of the journals Regional Studies and the Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society (CJRES).