Marking a track of recognition by academia and industry, the 7th Research & Innovation Forum (Rii Forum) and the family of academic events associated with it, invite you to Barcelona, Spain, to share academically sound and practice-driven insights into how to leverage breakthrough technologies, innovation, and quality education for competitiveness, sustainable growth, well-being and informed policy making today.
Rii Forum is an annual conference that brings together researchers, academics, and practitioners to engage them in conceptually sound, inter- and multi-disciplinary, empirically driven debate on key issues influencing the dynamics of social interaction today. Technology, innovation, and education, as well as issues and topics located at their intersection, define the key dimensions of all discussions held during each successive edition of the Rii Forum.
The focus of the Rii Forum 2025, which includes competitiveness, sustainable growth and innovation, is driven by the recognition that technology, innovation and education need to go hand-in-hand together if the imperatives of human-centric, resilient, and sustainable growth and development are to be attained.
THE KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Professor
Johan Magnusson
Johan Magnusson, Ph.D., is professor of information systems and Director of the Swedish Center for Digital Innovation (www.scdi.se) at the University of Gothenburg. His research covers issues pertaining to how governance needs to be designed to facilitate transformation. Professor Magnusson is highly visible in the national debate concerning digital and green transformation, and ranked as one of the most influential individuals in tech.
Prof. Johan Magnusson
THE CONFERENCE VENUE
UOC – Open University of Catalonia
*The Rii Forum 2025 will be held in a hybrid mode, thus enabling onsite and on-line participation. Depending on the number of abstracts/papers accepted, to ensure quality and efficiency, the presentations and discussion may be scheduled April 21 & 22, 2025.
SOCIAL IMPACT
At the Research & Innovation Forum, we support our friends & colleagues at the el sistema greece.
THE MAJOR THEME
The major theme of the Rii Forum 2025 is “Competitiveness, growth and well-being through technology, innovation and education”. In a seemingly ever more complex world, where sources of risks and threats to safety and security mount, and concerns about well-being, inclusion, and equal opportunities remain as valid as ever, it is paramount that the academic community and practitioners engage in debate on how to preempt nascent risks, how to exploit emerging opportunities, and how to ensure that forward-looking strategies aimed at attaining sustainability (environmental, social, economic, business-related) are devised locally, regionally, and globally. The objective of the Rii Forum 2025 is to encourage conceptually sound and evidence-based conversation on these complex topics.
INNOVATION & SOCIETY
The Rii Forum 2025 seeks to encourage debate on ways of leveraging breakthrough digital technologies and sustainability for the sake of boosting innovation, enhancing quality education, and increasing the efficiency of policy making at the local, regional, and global levels. This includes the role of community & organizations (public, private, voluntary). It also includes approaches and strategies implemented in domains such as education, public policy, economic policy, security and defense, management, and, for instance, the medicine and healthcare cluster.
COMPETITIVENESS
An equally important aspect of the discussion on competitiveness, sustainable growth and well-being is the question of its local, regional, international, & global implications, for instance for the Global North — Global South divide as well as for the South-South relations. While a substantial body of research exists that dwells on these issues, there is much more to it. The Rii Forum 2025 seeks to identify and explore this yet unclaimed area of research.
TRACKS
TRACK 1:
The individual, the state and technology: cities, urbanism, platforms, participation, democracy, sustainability, resilience
TRACK 2:
Innovation, quality and technology management and its local, regional, and global contexts
TRACK 3:
Education in the GenAI era: from course content, through instruction, to managerial implications
TRACK 4:
Design thinking, future studies, scenarios and the black box of agile of methodologies
TRACK 5:
Regulatory frameworks and policy making for competitiveness, growth and well-being
TRACK 6:
Early career researchers’ track: nurturing nascent ideas
EARLY CAREER RESEARCHERS
From its inception, the Rii Forum has always sought to encouraging and support nascent talent and emerging voices, including those of early career researchers, including Ph.D. students, as well as those from under-privileged locations. At Rii Forum, the emphasis is placed on “community“. We are engaged with nourishing talent and building sustainable professional networks underpinned by academic integrity, research excellence, and trust.
WHERE SCIENCE & INNOVATION MEET
The Rii Forum prides itself on serving as a venue (1) where science and policy making meet; (2) where sustainable networking takes place; (3) where publication opportunities (usual disclaimers apply) are created; and (4) where each and every piece of research is respected. Since 2019, six volumes of Rii Forum proceedings have been published in collaboration with SpringerNature, several edited book projects have been accomplished (Routledge, Elgar, Emerald), several papers have been published in prestigious journals, and a great number of academic careers have been advanced.
Rii Forum Proceedings
Number of delegates
Delegates’ Satisfaction
since 2019 Research & Innovation Forum
The Research & Innovation Forum (Rii Forum) is all about excellence in research, personal and professional integrity, teamwork and the pursuit of topics and issues that matter for us, the researchers, personally, and for society at large. Marking a tradition of more than six years, the Rii Forum (#RiiForum) has consolidated as a place of excellence in research, where research outcomes are fed into and transferred to the policy-making process at the local, regional, and international levels. Above all, the Rii Forum stands for building a community of professionals, young and more seasoned, concerned about and committed to ensuring excellence in research, and the preservation of values and principles, such as trust, honesty and loyalty, and therefore building #goodacademia. Feel free to browse excerpts (below) documenting the Rii Forum journey so far.
THE CHAIRS
Anna Visvizi, Ph.D. (dr hab.), Professor, SGH Warsaw School of Economics, Poland
Orlando Troisi, Ph.D., Professor, University of Salerno, Italy
Enric Serradell-López, Ph.D., Professor, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain
THE STEERING COMMITTEE
Xavier Baraza-Sanchez, Ph.D., Professor, Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain
Vincenzo Corvello, Ph.D., Professor, University of Calabria, Italy
Mara Grimaldi, Ph.D., Research Fellow, University of Salerno, Fisciano, Italy
Giuseppe Ioppolo, Ph.D., Professor, University of Messina, Italy
Jolanta Klemens, MD, PSYCHOMedical, Poland
Higinio Mora, Ph.D., Professor, University of Alicante, Spain
Maria Jesús Martínez-Argüelles, Ph.D., Vice-rector of Governance and Academic Policy, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain
Francesco Polese, Ph.D., Professor, Director of SIMAS [Centre for Innovation Systems and Health Management], University of Salerno, Fisciano, Italy
Jordi Sanchez-Navarro, Ph.D., Professor, Dean of the Faculty of Information and Communication Sciences, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain
Orlando Troisi, Ph.D., Professor, University of Salerno, Fisciano, Italy
Anna Visvizi, Ph.D. (dr hab.), Professor, SGH Warsaw School of Economics, Warsaw, Poland
Yves Wautelet, Ph.D., Professor, KU Leuven, Brussels Campus, Belgium
THE ACADEMIC COMMITTEE
Andrew Buks, MBA Program Director, School of Business at Black Hills State University in Spearfish, South Dakota, USA
Antonio Botti, Ph.D., Professor, University of Salerno, Fisciano, Italy
Igor Calzada, Ph.D., Professor, University of the Basque Country/Basque Science Foundation, Spain & Cardiff University/WISERD, UK
Nicola Cobelli, Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of Verona, Italy
Linda Daniela, Ph.D., Professor, Dean of the Faculty of Education, Psychology and Art, University of Latvia
Amal Elasri-Ejjaberi, Ph.D., Associate Dean of the Faculty of Business and Economics, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain
Raquel Ferreras-Garcia, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
Pablo Lara, Ph.D., Professor, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain
Roberto de Luca, Ph.D., Professor, University of Salerno, Fisciano, Italy
Alberto Ferraris, Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of Torino, Italy
Akinul I. Jony, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain
Jari Jussila, Ph.D., Director of HAMK Design Factory, Häme University of Applied Sciences, Finland
Krzysztof Kozłowski, Ph.D., Professor, Vice-Rector for Students and Teaching, SGH Warsaw School of Economics, Warsaw, Poland
Mady Mohamed, Ph.D., Effat University, Jeddah, KSA
Anna Moni, Instructional Designer, The American College of Greece, Athens, Greece
Cintia Pla-Garcia, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Academic Director of Permanent Marketing Training, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain
Placido Pinheiro, Ph.D., Professor, University of Fortaleza, Brazil
Jose Carlos Ramos, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain
Lucie Rohlikova, Ph.D., Professor, University of Western Bohemia, Plzen, Czechia
Annika Steiber, Ph.D., Stanford University, California, USA
Katarzyna Szopik-Depczyńska, Ph.D., Professor, University of Szczecin, Poland
Lloyd George Waller, Ph.D., Professor, University of the West Indies (Mona Campus), Kingston, Jamaica; Chairman of the Broadcasting Commission, Jamaica