Researcher & Partners
Project Lead
The project PI, Dr Julie Miao, is an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Fellow, Associate Professor in Property and Economic Development at the University of Melbourne, and an honorary Research Fellow in Shanghai Jiaotong and Henan Universities, China. Dr Miao obtained her PhD in economic geography and planning from the University College London, supervised by the late Professor Sir Peter Hall, after graduating with a 1st Class master’s degree in Real Estate Economics and Planning from Renmin University of China.
As a fast-rising and ambitious scholar, Dr Miao has been devoting her energy into establishing and developing two unique research agendas where she is attaining international reputation:
- The first one is on ‘innovation-space’, which explores the linkages between the working and lived spaces of innovation, and associated socioeconomic impact. This agenda aims to advance knowledge on the physical, social and economic connections between our built environment and the knowledge economy. Her edited book on this theme, ‘Making 21st Century Knowledge Complexes’, was selected for the 2017 Routledge Best Book Award with a Chinese version published in 2021. She currently supervises three PhD students investigating related topics.
- Her second research niche lies on the ‘intrapreneurial state’, i.e., (re)structuring within the large state bureaucracies in dealing with socioeconomic, environmental, and political challenges – a quality that is ever more important in a post-COVID comeback. The defining paper won a prestigious ‘Best Policy Impact Award’ in the British Academy Knowledge Frontiers Forum. She supervises two PhDs exploring urban financialization and Belt and Road under this framework.
Dr Miao has published widely on these themes (see research output) and conducted multiple projects funded by the Australian Research Council, UK Economic and Social Research Council, the British Academy, The Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Chinese Ministry of Land and Resources, and the Victorian Government in Australia.
The project is kindly supported by a Stakeholder Board and an Expert Advisory Board.