Dr Carlos López-Gómez

Dr Carlos López-Gómez is the head of Policy Links, IfM Engage, University of Cambridge. Policy Links is a not-for-profit innovation consultancy unit that works with governments to develop effective industrial innovation policies.

Carlos has extensive research and advisory experience in the fields of industrial and innovation policy. He has advised several national and regional governments as well as international organisations including UNIDO, OECD, ADB, UNCTAD and the World Economic Forum. He has published in academic journals, international organization reports, and specialised magazines.

Carlos started his career with quality control and automation engineering roles at Toyota and General Electric, and has work experience in Japan, Austria, Mexico and the UK. In 2015, he was seconded at Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and was a visiting researcher at the Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Tokyo. Carlos holds a PhD in industrial and innovation policy from the University of Cambridge.

He is a member of Downing College and Churchill College.

Recent media articles

• ‘UK’s post Brexit industrial economy hinges on SME innovation’ (The Manufacturer, December 2017). In this article, we discuss the need for SMEs to be integrated into the national system of innovation if British industries are to prosper post-Brexit.
• ‘Opening up the black box’ (New Statesman, July 2017). In this article, we argue that in order to make effective technology and innovation policy, the UK needs to know more about how innovation really happens in modern industries.
• ‘The UK’s post Brexit economy hinges on small businesses and innovation’ (The Conversation, July 2017). In this opinion piece, we argue that SMEs (which constitute 99.9% of all businesses in the UK) have a critical role to play if the UK is to tackle key challenges holding the economy back, which could be further accentuated by Brexit, including a large trade deficit and low levels of SME engagement in innovation.
• ‘What does “Made in Britain” means’ (Prospect, December 2016). Written in collaboration with Professor Andy Neely, this article discusses the question of how UK manufacturing might fare post-Brexit, discussing data to highlight the degree of dependency of UK manufacturing on access to the EU single market.

Recent publications and working papers

• Blancas, A., & López-Gómez, C. (Forthcoming). Technological and financial integration of SMEs in Mexico: towards a new industrialisation policy. In Industrial Challenges in Mexico (Ed.). School of Economics, National Polytechnic Institute. [Book chapter in Spanish].
• López-Gómez, C., O’Sullivan, E., Gregory, M., Fleury, A., & Gomes, L. (2012). Emerging Trends in Global Manufacturing Industries and Implications for Latin America. An Institute for Manufacturing Submission to UNIDO-ECLAC’s Study on “Industrial Diversification in Latin America”.
• López-Gómez, C. and O’Sullivan, E. (2012). National and regional value-capture in evolving industrial systems: insights from Singapore’s aerospace industry. University of Cambridge Centre for Industry and Government Working Paper. An earlier version of this paper was presented in March 2012 at the Institute for Technology, Enterprise and Competitiveness (ITEC), Doshisha University.
• Andreoni, A. and López-Gómez, C. (2011). Can we live on services? Exploring the black box of manufacturing-services interfaces for operations management and industrial policy design. Presented at the Singapore Economic Review Conference 2011, Singapore. A revised version was presented at the DRUID Academy Conference 2012, Cambridge.
• López-Gómez, C. and O’Sullivan, E. (2011). Aligning industrial policy & evolving industrial systems: An enhanced framework to structure industry analysis. Presented at the Gulf Research Meeting 2011, Cambridge University.
• López-Gómez, C. and Gregory, M. (2009). Exploring the links between national manufacturing policies and firm level manufacturing strategies. In proceedings of the 16th International Annual EurOMA Conference, Gothenburg, 2009.