I am Professor of Governance and Development in the School and I am also the University Dean of Engagement for Cardiff University.

What makes places tick? That's one of the common threads running through my research interests. It's why I'm interested in how different places – cities, regions, localities – govern themselves; how and why they develop in such different ways; and how the costs and benefits of development are distributed. My research has been supported by a wide range of sponsors, including the ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council), the British Academy; European Commission; OECD; the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation/World Food Programme; Joseph Rowntree Foundation; Plunkett Foundation, and by governments and development agencies in and beyond the UK.

Between 2013-2016 I was the Principal Investigator of a consortium of ten EU universities and two regional networks that won the FP7 award for Smart Specialisation, the EU's regional innovation policy for the 2014-2020 programming period.

Our ESRC-funded project (Delivering Sustainability: The Creative Procurement of School Food in Italy, the UK and the US) was rated "outstanding" and in 2013 it won the first ever ESRC award for outstanding impact on public policy in the UK.