Elvira Uyarra is Professor of Innovation Studies at Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester,  where she is also Director of the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research. 
Her expertise sits at the intersection between innovation studies, policy studies and regional studies, working on topics such as the new rationales and policy mixes for science and innovation policy and the innovation impacts of public procurement. She is one of the experts in the EU Commission Mutual learning exercise (MLE) on the implementation of EU missions and lead researcher at the UK Innovation Procurement and Empowerment Centre (IPEC).
 Elvira has published extensively in leading journals in geography, innovation studies and management, including Research Policy, Journal of Clean Production, Regional Studies and Technological Forecasting and Social Change and has participated in research and consultancy projects funded by UKRI, the European Commission, IADB, OECD and NESTA. She is a fellow of the Regional Studies Association (RSA) and editor of Regional Studies.