Simona Iammarino (p)

Over the past thirty years I have explored the role of multinational corporations (MNCs) and technological innovation in shaping regional economic development. My current research projects on Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) bring these three themes together in the context of the ongoing digital and green economic transitions.
CRMs are essential inputs and work as a (for now) irreplaceable material basis of important new technologies. My recent research, revisiting the role of natural resources in technological paradigm shifts, proposed the notion of material-based technological regime underlying innovation in industries crucial to the dual transition.
At the same time, CRM global supply and value chains are subject to significant geopolitical risks and vulnerability; affect the balance in development opportunities - the winners and the losers - among different peripheral places in both the global south and within the global north; and determine MNC choices and strategies.
The lecture emphasises the urgency of carefully assessing the problems of economic development and spatial equity in the employment of the natural resources critical to the dual technological transition, with implications for current European Union strategies.