Anamaria Vrabie, PhD

Summary

Anamaria is a behavioural-informed economist and leader of urban innovation practices with over 15 years of international experience. In her work she strongly combines her experiences as social innovator and researcher to both create and support knowledge formation and exchange around future-oriented topics such as: (1) new governance frameworks and public sector innovation labs, (2) future of work and skills, (3) role of arts and culture, as well as wellbeing norms and standards for strengthening social connection, purpose and a growth model beyond GDP, (4) climate adaptation. 

She is founder of Urban INC- Urban Insights Center and works regularly with URBACT, the European Urban Initiative, UN-Habitat and World Bank.

Based on her cross-sectoral expertise of systems thinking and new governance models, she has supported as Lead Expert two URBACT networks- Urb-inclusion (on urban poverty topic) and Tourism-friendly Cities (on sustainable tourism). Moreover, she has been ad-hoc expert for several other networks (Gendered Landscape, DigiPlace, Playful Paradigm II, Co4Cities,) and has been an invited contributor and speaker to the URBACT e-Universities, Festivals and Campus.

Anamaria holds an MA in International Affairs with a specialization in International development and cities and urbanization from The New School for Public Engagement, New York City, USA (graduated in 2012) and a PhD in Economics from Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania (awarded in 2021) on the topic of behavioural principles for municipal innovation public policies. She has been awarded several scholarships for her academic work- including the prestigious Fulbright Award.

Other key achievements:

• Managed and co-designed, Cluj Future of Work, funded through the Urban Innovative Actions call III and co-financed through ERDF 2014-2021.  Coordinated the work of the 10 partner’s consortium, in cooperation with Cluj-Napoca municipality. The actions implemented included: 3 research reports on work patterns and local economy structure, 2 upskilling and entrepreneurship program, place-based interventions for an inclusion programme, innovation grants and key investments in R&D infrastructure related to culture and creative industries and digital transition in order to prepare the city for the major transformations around work patterns in the next 20 years. The project has received significant European recognition for its contributions towards Cohesion Policy implementation, being selected by the UIA Secretariat both as a good practice example of an integrated approach and of a green transition approach.
• Lead Researcher for the study on good practices for Integrated Approach in Urban Innovative Actions (UIA) projects.
• Founder of Romania’s first urban public innovation lab between 2017-2022.