Seven Economic Geographers from Hannover presented at the sixth Global Conference on Economic Geography (GCEG), which took place early in June in Dublin. Louis Knuepling presented “The role of external knowledge and collaboration for regional technological change”. It turns out that it is not interregional cooperation per se, but access to specific knowledge that promotes change. Dr Kerstin Schaefer organized two special sessions on "Global Knowledge Flows, R&D and Multilocational Firms" together with Prof David Rigby. During this she presented joint work with Prof Riccardo Crescenzi on "Disconnected research and development: The (temporary) spatial patterns of innovation", showing that using a patent data indicator based on technology classes can reveal the knowledge-sourcing strategy of firm's R&D internationalization.
On the third day of the conference, Sebastian Losacker presented preliminary results of his ongoing research on the diffusion of green technologies in peripheral regions in China. His findings indicate that peripheral regions often lack the ability to meet local demand for green technologies and therefore rely on technology transfer. In a following session (“Geographies of Knowledge Production and Knowledge Flow”), Lennart Schott presented the results of a joint paper with Kerstin Schaefer. In addition to the economic and strategic importance of international standardization for China, his presentation also highlighted the role as well as the access and influence opportunities of Chinese latecomers in international ICT standardization. In the session about "Understanding the connection between science and innovation", Florian Schneider discussed the influence of the type of knowledge as well as the motivation and abilities of the knowledge sender and the knowledge receiver on the occurrence of a university knowledge transfer. Even a failure can lead to learning effects in the region that favour knowledge transfer in the future. Chris Brück held a presentation on “AI Clusters for Environmental Protection: China's Green and Digital Transformation” which is part of the research project ChiKUBIG. In his presentation, he discussed the China-specific approach of using artificial intelligence for environmental innovations and addressed the question of how this combination of digital and green technologies is organized in large-scale research clusters in China. Prof Ingo Liefner organized two special sessions on “Eco-Innovations and Sustainability Transitions in Agricultural Production in the Global South” and on “Asian Approaches to Environmental Innovation and Sustainability Transitions, Organizer and Presenter”. During this, he presented his work on “A Comparative View on Asian Approaches to Environmental Innovation“.
