Christina Kakderi is an Assistant Professor of Spatial Development and RTDI Policies in the EU at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), School of Spatial Planning and Development. 

As a member of Urban and Regional Innovation Research Unit – URENIO and, previously, of Spatial Development Research Unit, she has been involved in many EU and national funded projects related to smart cities and innovation policy. Her research interests focus on two main areas: a) intelligent ecosystems and innovation environments (use of technologies, emergence of intelligence, evolution, governance and resilience of smart cities and innovation ecosystems) and b) policies and strategies for regional and urban development including RTD (formation of smart city/ digital transformation strategies as well as of smart specialisation strategies (RIS3); technology assisted solutions for evidence-based decision making etc.).