Honoray lecture Prof. Dominique Foray

Introduction by Prof. Rüdiger Fahlenbrach, Director of the College of Management of Technology and Prof. Daniel Kuhn, Director of the Institute of Management of Technology and Entrepreneurship
Time: 17h15-18h30, followed by an apéritif
Room: SV1717

For those out of town, the event can also be followed online.
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"Good Innovation Economics for Hard Times"
The innovation economy of the 20th century was admirable. It triggered a spectacular improvement in daily life conditions and sustained an incredible growth of standards of living in the West and beyond. But this innovation economy was also disappointing. It has produced four big problems –  climate and biodiversity crisis,  inequalities, declining capacity of our economies to create ‘’good jobs’’ and poor regulation of ‘’bad innovations’’. A new innovation economy is needed to get a better control on innovation by society. However, previous successes were partly based on some key institutions and values such as freedom to experiment and autonomy of innovators vis-à vis governments. How to solve this tension between freedom and control ? How to create a new innovation economy which will keep some of the ingredients which are so important to sustain economic dynamism while developing new policy instruments to orient innovation towards the grand societal challenges and their solutions?

Bio Dominique Foray:
After an early career in France (CNRS, Ecole Centrale) and at OECD, Prof. Dominique Foray joined EPFL in 2004 as a full professor, holding the Chair of Economics and Management of Innovation until his retirement in 2022. During his tenure, he served as dean of the College of Management of Technology from 2018 to 2022, and as director of the doctoral school in Management of Technology from 2012 until 2018.
He previously served as a member of the Swiss National Research Council (2007-2015) and as chairman of the Advisory Board of the Swiss Economic Research Institute (KOF) (2016 – 2020). Between 2008 and 2011, he chaired the expert group “Knowledge for Growth” for the European Commission, developing the concept of smart specialization which is now a key instrument of the EU cohesion policy. He also served on the Expert Commission for Research and Innovation of Germany (2013-2016).
His research interests cover essentially innovation economics and policy. He has published many academic articles and numerous books. For example: ‘’Technology and the Wealth of Nations” with C. Freeman (Pinter); ‘’Advancing Knowledge and the Knowledge Economy’’ with B. Kahin (MIT Press); ‘’The Economics of Knowledge’’ (MIT Press); ‘’The New Economics of Technology Policy ‘’ (Edward Elgar) and “Smart Specialization: Opportunities and Challenges for Regional Innovation Policy’’ (Routledge).
He received the Medal of CNRS in 2000 and is Doctor Honoris Causa of the University Babes-Bolyai.
Prof. Foray is a member of the Swiss Council for Science (SWR) and is still teaching at EPFL (Bachelor and doctoral courses).