Helena Lenihan

Biography

Professor Helena Lenihan is an Economist at the Kemmy Business School (KBS), University of Limerick (UL). She has published extensively on the economics of innovation; innovation policy; industrial/enterprise policy development; enterprise and innovation policy evaluation and firm performance and growth. From 2009-2014, she was Assistant Dean, Research at the KBS. In 2008/09, she was an invited Visiting Fellow at Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, UK. She was also a Visiting Fellow at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge where she is now a lifetime member. She has been a visiting academic at numerous other universities including University of Warwick, UK. She was conference chair of the 9th European Network on Industrial Policy (EUNIP) International Conference which she hosted at UL. In 2011, she co-chaired a EUNIP International Workshop on ‘Evaluating Innovation Policy: Methods and Applications’, Florence, Italy (co-organised with The Tuscany’s Regional Institute Economic Planning of Tuscany (IRPET, Italy) and Aston University (UK)). In 2009, Helena was awarded one of the first National Excellence in Teaching Awards by the National Academy for Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (NAIRTL). She has also been twice awarded the UL Excellence in Teaching Award and is a member of Ireland’s Íontas Alliance (an association for Ireland’s National Awardees of teaching excellence in Higher Education). Helena has authored and co-authored many internationally refereed journal articles, edited books, book chapters and commissioned reports. She has also been invited to deliver many keynote addresses both nationally and internationally. She regularly publishes articles in highly ranked international journals. These include inter-alia: Research Policy; Small Business Economics; Regional Studies, Environment and Planning C-Government and Policy, Evaluation and Program Planning and Entrepreneurship and Regional Development. Helena has generated significant research funding from both academic (e.g. HEA, EU-FP7, IRCHSS/IRC, RIA) and policy-making sources (Enterprise Ireland). Helena is particularly interested in demonstrating the impact of her research on the economy and society more broadly. As a researcher, the chance to make an impact on society through research is a prospect that Helena is very passionate about. She champions UL’s Research Impact initiative and chairs, UL’s Research Impact Working Group (www.ul.ie/researchimpact). Helena regularly briefs policymakers on matters related to her areas of research expertise. Examples include her commissioned work for Enterprise Ireland on evaluating the impacts of its grant assistance, and since 2013, Helena has served as the independent expert on a steering committee at the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation which addresses industrial and innovation policy evaluation.

Research Interest

Economics.