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Dan Hill appointed Visiting Professor and Innovator in Residence
26 May 2017
The Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose (IIPP) has appointed Dan Hill to be its first Innovator in Residence. Dan will also be a Visiting Professor and join the IIPP Advisory Board.
IIPP’s Innovator in Residence scheme will involve thought leaders who have worked in international public organizations driven by public purpose missions. We aim to learn from their experiences as we develop a dynamic public purpose framework that complements the way policy making is traditionally framed.
Dan is Associate Director at Arup and Head of Arup Digital Studio. A designer and urbanist, Dan’s previous leadership positions have produced innovative, influential projects and organisations, ranging across built environment (Arup in Australia, Future Cities Catapult in UK), education and research (Fabrica in Italy), government and social innovation (SITRA in Finland), and media (BBC and Monocle in UK), each one transformed positively via digital technology and a holistic approach to design.
Dan will work with IIPP researchers on how new measures of ‘value’ combined with new forms of strategic design can be used to better justify, deploy and evaluate "mission-oriented" investments in cities. The goal is to rethink how to create shared spaces, cultures, infrastructures and resources that generate lasting public value.
Dan Hill said: "We find ourselves at a time of great conflict and confusion when it comes to devising, deploying and developing progressive approaches to living together in an increasingly urban age. And yet contemporary and forthcoming technologies, allied to appropriately human-centred design and decision-making cultures, both provide us with unparalleled opportunities to transform our approach to cities.
“The key to unlocking this contradiction may be in understanding how a more holistic approach to innovation, with a bold public agenda, can help frame better questions and deliver more productive answers. I'm delighted to be joining the Advisory Board of the IIPP, and working with Prof. Mazzucato, to explore how to do just this, through action-oriented research and practice with her team at UCL Bartlett."
IIPP Director, Professor Mariana Mazzucato said: “I’m thrilled that Dan has agreed to join IIPP to work with us both at a strategic level on the Advisory Board and as an Visiting Professor and Innovator in Residence. His wide-ranging experience in innovative organisations around the world—from Sitra in Finalnd to the UK Future Cities Catapults—will be critical in shaping our research agenda, particularly in the context of cities.”