Paolo Gerli
paolo gerli

Dr Paolo Gerli

Associate Professor

Biography

Paolo is an Associate Professor of Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and the School Academic Lead for Innovation and Enterprise at The Business School.

He joined Edinburgh Napier in March 2021, after working as a Lecturer of Digital Enterprise at Northumbria University, where he had complete a PhD in Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Strategy.

Prior to joining academia, Paolo worked as a regulatory analyst for both private and public organisations in the Italian telecommunications sector.

Paolo's professional background reflects in his research, which revolves around business strategies and public policies for the digital transformation of the economy and society. His scholarly work has particularly focused on the development of smart places for the digital transformation of urban and rural communities. Paolo has also contributed to several consultancy projects exploring the governance of smart cities, and is now working on the World Smart City Outlook, which will inform the UN-Habitat Guidelines on People-Centered Smart Cities.

Since 2016, Paolo's research has been published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at international conferences. In 2019, he was among the recipients of the Pacific Telecommunications Council Young Scholar Programme, an award for early-career researchers of ICT markets and policies.

Esteem

Advisory panels and expert committees or witness

  • Contribution to a JRC policy report on data intermediaries
  • Academic Consultant (Governance of Smart City Projects), United Nations
  • Academic Consultant (Governance of Smart City Projects), CAF - the Development Bank of Latin America
  • RSA close session for ECRs meeting with the EU Commissioner on Regional Cohesion
  • EIP- Agri seminar on Multi-level strategies for digitising agriculture and rural areas

 

Conference Organising Activity

  • International Telecommunications Âé¶¹ÉçÇø European Conference

 

Fellowships and Awards

  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
  • Richard Beresford Bursary - Enterprise Educators UK
  • Pacific Telecommunications Council Young Scholar Program
  • ITS PhD seminar - travel grant

 

Invited Speaker

  • Invited talk at the UN-Habitat Community of Practice on Harnessing the Power of Connected Communities through Urban-Rural Linkages
  • Invited talk at Theorizing AI Workshop - Luiss University, Rome
  • Invited Talk at the 3rd International Forum on Urban-Rural Linkages (UN Habitat and People’s Government of Songyang County, China).
  • Invited talk at the UN-Habitat Expert Group Meeting : Recovering Territorial Balance by Strengthening Urban-Rural Linkages
  • Invited talk at Technological Forecasting Social Change Workshop on Post-pandemic Smart Cities, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Singapore
  • Keynote at Smart City Expo: Global study on smart city governance
  • Guest Lecture on Rural Digital Entrepreneurship for the Bandung Institute of Technology
  • Guest Lecture on the regulation of electronic communications, Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Milan)
  • Invited talk at Agriconnect, the Italian Convention on Digital Agriculture

 

Media Activity

  • The Scotsman: Smart thinking that deploys digital technology can make our cities fit for the future
  • UK Authority: Âé¶¹ÉçÇø develops smart city playbook
  • Future Scot: New global smart cities playbook developed by researchers in Edinburgh
  • Project Scotland: Âé¶¹ÉçÇø creates smart city ‘playbook’ for UN
  • Smart Cities World: UN and Napier collaborate on smart city governance playbook
  • North Edinburgh News: Edinburgh Napier researchers launch ‘smart city playbook’ for United Nations
  • Smart places: Why getting the governance right is vital to project success
  • Wired UK: Faster Home Broadband Should Be Enshrined in Law
  • Wired UK: The race to get the UK using fibre optic broadband is speeding up
  • Wired UK: The Conservatives’ own research shows why Labour’s broadband plan makes perfect sense
  • Pacific Telecommunications Council Blog: Digital in rural areas
  • ISP Review: New UK Research Paper on Delivering Faster Rural Broadband
  • Agriconnect 2017: banda ultra larga nelle aree rurali
  • Agriconnect: superare il divario digitale nelle zone rurali; agire in tempi rapidi

 

Membership of Professional Body

  • Member of the European Regional Science Association
  • Member of the Regional Study Association
  • Member and Social Media Manager of the International Telecommunications Âé¶¹ÉçÇø

 

Public/Community Engagement

  • Oor Smart Ceeties: public engagement workshops on the digital future of Scottish cities

 

Reviewing

  • Reviewer for Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (Nature)
  • Reviewer for Journal of Urban Technology
  • Reviewer for Public Policy and Administration
  • Reviewer for Habitat International
  • Reviewer for Regional Studies
  • Reviewer for Technology Analysis & Strategic Management
  • Reviewer for Technological Forecasting and Social Change
  • Reviewer for Information Policy
  • Book reviewer for Sage
  • Reviewer for Universal Access in the Information Âé¶¹ÉçÇø
  • Reviewer for Government Information Quarterly
  • Reviewer for Information Polity
  • Book reviewer for Springer
  • Reviewer for Digital Policy, Regulation and Governance
  • Reviewer for Telecommunications Policy

 

Pre-Napier Funded Projects

  • ESRC Accelerating Business Collaboration
  • Consultancy for Telus inc. on the benefits of rural digital transformation

Current Post Grad projects