Xiaolan Fu

Professor Fu has been selected as one of ten winners in the Science and Innovation Management category of the Falling Walls Science Breakthroughs of the year 2021.

Her research interests include innovation, technology, and industrialization; trade, foreign direct investment and economic development; emerging Asian economies; innovation and productivity in UK/USA. In 2016, Professor Fu was a keynote speaker at the first Huawei European Academic Salon, where she shared her research on international innovation as well as university-industry linkages. She has published extensively in leading international journals independently or in collaboration with others. Her recent books include Innovation under the Radar (forthcoming), China's Path to Innovation, China's Role in Global Economic Recovery and The Rise of Technological Power in the South. She is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies, and serves on the Editorial Boards of Industrial and Corporate Change, International Journal of Technology Management, and four other international journals.

Professor Fu has been appointed as member of the scientific board of Globelics (Global Network for Economics of Learning, Innovation, and Competence Building Systems), member of the high-level group of the International Science Council, and has been a consultant for UNDESA, UNCTAD, UNIDO, the World Bank, OECD, European Commission, ILO, the Commonwealth Secretariat, UKTI, and the Chinese government. She serves on the Advisory Expert Group of the OECD Global Investment Forum and the DFID/ESRC Economic Growth Directorate (DEGP), and is president of the Chinese Economic Association (Europe) and CEA (UK) in 2010–2011. She has served on the Management Committee of the Oxford University China Centre since 2015. She is also a Senior Research Associate at the University of Cambridge and University of Tsinghua, and a Visiting Professor at Fudan University. As a China expert, she has participated in various interviews and panel discussions at mainstream media including BBC, Sky News, CCTV, CGTN, People's Daily, and China Daily. In 2014, she was invited to address the UN General Assembly on ‘Science, technology and innovation in developing countries’.

Professor Fu came to Oxford from Cambridge University in 2006, where she was a senior research fellow. Before coming to the UK to begin her career in academia, she had five years’ work experience in the business sector in China. She is a Fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford and is associated with Queen Elizabeth House. She testified on "the impact of China's Five-year Plans on Strategic Industries" at the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission Congressional Hearing.

Professor Fu received research grants from funding bodies including the European Commission, ESRC, EPSRC, British Academy, DFID, and the Cairncross Foundation. She has also received the European Commission EFMD Gate2Growth 2005 'European Best Paper' Award, Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2012 Outstanding Paper Award, European Association of Management (EURAM) annual conference Innovation Strategic Interest Group 2017 Best Paper Award, and the best paper award in the  ‘Corporate and start-up collaboration’ track at the 2021 R&D Management Annual Conference.

Xiaolan Fu was born in China on August 17, 1967 and she came to post graduate study at Lancaster University with her family. She completed her master's degree in a year and attained her economics doctorate in 2003. She wrote her thesis on the economics of her home country under the supervision of Vudayagi Balasubramanyam.