Bruce Wilson is Director of the European Union Centre of Excellence at RMIT.
In this role, he provides insights to and leads research and debate on EU-Australian relations, encouraging mobility for staff and students, and for building partnerships between Australian universities and organisations and their European counterparts.
In this capacity, he leads the Centre of Excellence on Smart Specialisation and Regional Policy, which has developed Smart Specialisation as a resource for policy-makers. For the last five years, he has contributed as a Co-Chief Investigator to the Latrobe Valley Authority’s implementation of Smart Specialisation in Gippsland, and for three years, he led RMIT’s participation in Regional Research Connections, a policy-oriented initiative of the Regional Australia Institute.
He also led the Australian participation in the EU’s World Cities initiative in 2016-18 and is Coordinator of the Australasian participation in the EU’s International Urban and Regional Cooperation project, 2021-23.
He has presented keynote presentations in EU Joint Research Centre forums on Smart Specialisation and placed-based innovation and sustainability. He is also co-editor of the Australasian Journal of Regional Studies (2015-18 and 2021-22).
He also leads Jean Monnet Networks on social and scientific innovation and the EU’s engagement with the SDGs in Asia Pacific, a partnership project that was recognised recently as an outstanding global example of the role of universities in implementation of SDG 17. The Networks have made a significant contribution to promoting awareness of the SDGs in Australia, and promoting better understanding of the EU’s contribution in leading partnerships for transformation.
He was a founding Co-Director of Pascal (Place, Social Capital and Learning) International Observatory and a member of the Advisory Board and Committee of the Hume Global Learning Village. He is currently an active member of the Australian Coalition for Education and Development, and is a Councillor for the Australian and New Zealand Regional Science Association International.
He has had long experience in working with all levels of government on organisational and social change, and is committed to linking researchers and policy makers with city and regional governments on social and economic policy, innovation, lifelong learning and environment.
