Teis Hansen
Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen. He serves as Vice-Chair of the Scientific Committee of the European Environment Agency and as Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions. He is also a Senior Research Scientist at SINTEF in Norway.
His research focuses on sustainability transitions, transformative innovation policy, the geography of green industrial change, and the bioeconomy. He examines how institutions, policy mixes, and place-based dynamics shape the development and adoption of sustainable technologies in sectors such as energy-intensive industry, maritime transport, and agri-food. He has published highly cited work on the geography of sustainability transitions and innovation policy for grand challenges.
Specialization
Sustainability transitions, transformative innovation policy, geography of green industrial change, bioeconomy and green innovation, and technological innovation systems
Main Themes Addressed in the Lecture
- Critique of the development model based on high-tech and export-oriented industries
- Three main challenges: intra-regional inequality, inter-regional inequality, and environmental sustainability
- Foundational Economy approach: focus on essential services instead of high-tech industries
- Promise of reducing social inequality through employment and service quality
- Limitations in less-developed regions: weak prioritization and institutional capacity
- Weak attention to environmental sustainability and trade-offs between social and environmental priorities
- Need for a holistic view: combining foundational and export industries, not fully replacing one with the other