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Keynotes

At each day of the Conference, a plenary keynote address will be given on one of the main Conference themes.

Robert W. Grubbström

Robert W. Grubbström has been Professor of Production Economics at Linköping Institute of Technology, Sweden, since 1972, and is now Emeritus Professor. He is Licentiate of Technology and Doctor of Economics, and has received honorary doctoral degrees from Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland, Corvinus University, Budapest, Hungary, and Leopold-Franzens-Universität, Innsbruck, Austria. He has Master’s degrees from the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, and the Stockholm School of Economics. He is currently President of the Senate and Dean of the Faculty, Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies, Šempeter pri Gorici, Slovenia.


Among the recognitions awarded him are Knight (First Class) of the Order of the White Rose of Finland, Commander of the Order of the Lion of Finland, Award of Recognition for Outstanding Contributions to the Development of the Faculty, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, (where he also is Honorary Visiting Professor) and Honorary Corporal, Kungl. Svea Trängregemente, Sweden. He is Honorary Research Fellow, Lancaster University, Honorary Professor, University of Nottingham Business School, United Kingdom, and Honorary President of the Economic Club of Linköping. He is Past President and Fellow of the International Society for Inventory Research (ISIR) and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering Sciences.


He is Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Production Economics (Elsevier) and is author/co-author/editor of some 15 books and has written about 300 articles and working papers, including publications in the International Journal of Production Economics, Management Science, The Mathematical Scientist, International Journal of Production Research, Journal of Cybernetics, European Journal of Operational Research, Managerial and Decision Economics, Kybernetes, Omega, Economic Systems Research, Applied Energy, Annual Reviews in Control, and International Journal of Energy Optimization and Engineering.


His current educational interests include modern information technology applied to interactive educational processes, such as designing the International Logistics Management Game (ILMG), used by several European universities and for vocational training. His scientific interests are focused on the development of a general theory for multi-level, multi-stage production-inventory systems applying Laplace transforms and input-output analysis (MRP Theory), and on the integration of economics and thermodynamics.

Paul Benneworth

Paul Benneworth is a senior researcher at the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS) at the University of Twente in the The Netherlands and a visiting professor in University-community engagement at Central Queensland University, Australia.


He is also a Project Leader for a research project within the UK Economic and Social Research Council’s Initiative “The regional economic impact of HEIs”, at the Centre for Knowledge, Innovation, Technology and Enterprise. The project is entitled “Universities and community engagement: learning with excluded communities,” and aims to study how universities are engaging with a range of excluded communities in the regions of the North East, North West and Scotland. It will develop a typology of university-community engagement that will help identify a number of successful case-studies across these regions. With a method of in-depth qualitative research, the project will examine the impact of university-community collaboration on social capital and learning within the relevant excluded communities as well as inform future policy frameworks.


Mr. Benneworth’s research interests are related to the relationships between knowledge production and society, through university-society interaction, technological clusters, innovation and technological development, and its relation to wider societal and governance systems.  For the last decade he has been working with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in the area of universities, innovation and regional development.  He is an associate of the PASCAL network, and editor of the recently published volumes Higher education and regional development (together with Romulo Pinheiro and Glen A. Scott) and University engagement with socially excluded communities.

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