Prof Luca Mora

Short bio

Luca is Professor of Urban Innovation at Edinburgh Napier University’s Business School in the UK and Founding Director of the Urban Innovation Policy Lab. The lab brings together 28 academics with expertise across the social sciences, engineering and technology management. He also holds a part-time professorship in Urban Innovation at Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech) in Estonia, where he has helped develop the FinEst Centre for Smart Cities. The £28 million initiative (approximately RMB 250 million) received support from the Estonian government and the European Commission through its Horizon 2020 programme.

Luca has over a decade of experience bringing together innovation management, public administration and urban studies. He is best known for his research on smart city governance and urban innovation. He examines how public organisations govern the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) and how these systems reshape public services and urban decision-making. His work has appeared in Public Administration Review (CABS 4*), Governance (CABS 4), Information Systems Journal (CABS 4), Organization Studies (CABS 4), Regional Studies (CABS 4), Organization (CABS 3), Technological Forecasting and Social Change (CABS 3), Technovation (CABS 3), Government Information Quarterly (CABS 3) and Nature Cities, among others.

Luca has served as an academic consultant to the European Commission, the United Nations (UN) and CAF, the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean. He has authored four UN reports on the governance of digital transformation in cities.

Luca is Editor-in-Chief of Technological Forecasting and Social Change (CABS 3) and has guest-edited more than ten special issues on digital transformation management for leading academic journals. He is featured in the Elsevier–Stanford University Top 2% Scientists list and is ranked 15th worldwide by ScholarGPS in smart city research.