Main profile

Professor

European Union Centre

RMIT University

Melbourne

Australia

Summary biography: 

Professor Bruce Wilson is Visiting Professor in Education at the University of Glasgow, Director of the European Union Centre at RMIT University, and RMIT's Director of Research for Regional Development at its Hamilton site in western Victoria. He was formerly Co-Director of the PASCAL International Observatory

Bruce was the founding Dean of the School of Global Studies, Social Sciences and Planning at RMIT University. Prior to joining RMIT, Bruce founded the Youth Research Centre at the University of Melbourne, and the Union Research Centre on Organisation and Technology (URCOT), where he was its Director for eleven years. He has had experience working with local government, and is a member of the Hume Global Learning Village Committee and Advisory Board. Bruce also collaborates closely with the Office of Knowledge Capital at Melbourne City Council.

The European Union Centre at RMIT is one of only three EU Centres in Australia belonging to a network of 26 centres which are co-funded worldwide by the External Relations Directorate of the European Commission. It is responsible for increasing engagement with the EU through academic studies on the European Union, encouraging mobility for staff and students, and for building partnerships between Australian universities and organisations, and their European counterparts.

Through his research on formal and informal learning networks and their importance in economic, social and public innovation in city-regions, Bruce was leader of RMIT’s involvement in the major European project on ’City-Regions as Intelligent Territories: Inclusion, Competitiveness and Learning’ (2003-07). As Co-Director of the PASCAL International Observatory, Bruce helped to link an international network of researchers and policy makers with city and regional governments in policy formation related to social and economic policy, lifelong learning and environment. He was at the core of the major PASCAL Universities Regional Engagement (PURE) project from 2008-2014, working in collaboration with Mike Osborne and Chris Duke. Currently, he is engaged in projects addressing the importance of knowledge in urban and regional development. He has led projects on social inclusion and cohesion, innovation, learning, organisational and work design, and social and economic development, involving collaboration amongst public, private and community sector organisations, including projects funded through the Jean Monnet programme on Implementing the SDGs in the Asia Pacific, and Smart Regional specialisation, within which the University of Glasgow have been partners.

He teaches courses on transforming organisations, economic and regional development, and European Union issues. He also supervises doctoral candidates in these areas.