Dr David Arkell

David's research and practice is interdisciplinary. Through Masters degrees in civil engineering, transport planning, management and marketing, he came to focus on promoting the sustainable built environment.

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Background

Working as Head of Service at Cambridgeshire County Council, David brokered strategic partnerships of industry, government and education to raise some £27m of EU and match funding to pioneer smart cities thinking and large-scale projects. In 2004 he founded and was director of SmartLIFE (educating and promoting to students, industry and professionals in joined-up ways of working in modern methods of construction and renewable energy technologies); with two centres in Cambridge, one in Hamburg and another in Malmö, a substantial international partnership proved influential.

Building on the SmartLIFE successes over recent years, he has been the originator and promoter of a multi-million pound enterprise and skills park in Cambridge which connects start-ups, SMEs and social enterprises in clean-tech and environmental fields.

David has successfully worked in partnership with the Faculty of Business and Law and IIMP to draw down external funding from the Intellectual Property Office and a Smart City demonstrator agency to deliver high profile results.

David has a PhD in corporate strategy, specialising in reflective practice into emotions in organisations. He has been supervising doctorate students at the Faculty of Business and Law for some years and is a tutor at Cambridge University's Interdisciplinary Design for the Built Environment Master's degree course. He is also an occasional external examiner for Cambridge University's Masters dissertations in engineering and architecture disciplines.