Nicos Komninos is a professor emeritus at the School of Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He holds a master’s degree in Architecture-Engineering from Aristotle University, post-graduate studies in Semantics with A. J. Greimas, and a PhD in Interdisciplinary Research of City Planning from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Science Sociales (EHESS Paris) under the supervision of P.H. Chombart de Lauwe. He has taught courses “Intelligent Cities: Architectures and Strategies”, “Design and Development of Software Applications for Smart Cities”, “Strategic Planning for Urban Development”, and “Learning Regions: Innovation and Regional Development in Europe”.

He is the founder and director of URENIO Research and Intelspace Innovation Technologies and has coordinated over one hundred projects under the European research and territorial development programmes. His research interests are in two areas: (1) intelligent / smart cities: genesis and evolution, structure and ontology, architectures of intelligence, planning, strategy, and governance, smart ecosystems, digital platforms, connected intelligence, microservices and cloud computing; and (2) innovation systems: territories of innovation, cyber-physical systems of innovation, user- and data-driven innovation, innovation for climate change, innovation sandboxes, innovation strategies, smart specialisation strategies (RIS4), measuring innovation performance. These are interdependent research areas, where innovation systems fuel the creation of intelligent cities, and connected intelligence emerging in intelligent cities amplifies the effectiveness of innovation systems.

Alongside research, he worked as an expert for the European Commission in the design and assessment of science and technology parks (1994-1998), regional innovation strategies (1995-2012), research and innovation strategies for smart specialisation (2012-2021), and the assessment of Regiostars Awards (2019). He also participated in the group of experts that drafted the OECD innovation strategy and in UNIDO’s innovation activities for developing countries. He has evaluated research projects from EU counties, Nordic countries, Asia, and New Zealand. He contributed to the design and development of numerous software applications for smart cities, such as Improve-my-City, CloudFunding, Virtual Marketplace, SaferCity, Hotel Energy Solutions, and many others, the Intelligent City Software and Solutions Repository, and the 28 applications of the Online S3 Platform supporting Research and Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation.

He has authored more than 200 publications, including thirteen books, on intelligent and smart cities, urban planning, innovation strategies, and digital innovation, among which the trilogy Intelligent Cities: Innovation, knowledge systems and digital spaces (Routledge 2002), Intelligent Cities and Globalisation of Innovation Networks (Routledge 2008), and The Age of Intelligent Cities: Smart Environments and Innovation-for-all Strategies (Routledge 2014). His more recent books are Smart Cities and Connected Intelligence (Routledge, 2020) and Smart Cities in the Post-algorithmic Era (Edward Elgar, 2019). (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4656-1263)

He has been honoured with the Excellence and Innovation Award of Aristotle University for achievements in competitive research; the best paper award at the 10th International Conference on Distributed, Ambient and Pervasive Interactions (DAPI), Human-Computer-Interaction International 2022 Conference. He is an associate editor or editorial board member in fifteen academic journals, and editor of  Elsevier’s Smart Cities Book Series.