Edward Truch

Edward Truch specialises in strategic planning, smart technologies, public administration reform, knowledge management and innovation through technology in national parks and smart cities.

He is a founding director of the Connected Communities Research Lab (Lancaster University). He is also a special adviser and former founding trustee of the National Park City Foundation which inspired the Mayor of London's imminent declaration of London as the World's first National Park City.

As Director of Fujitsu-ICL Consultancy, he was responsible for the design and development of major information systems and IT projects in the private and public sectors. These included the development of the strategy for the UK Government's National Grid for Leaning and advice to the No.10 policy unit and Dept. of Education on its implementation. He was a member of the steering group for the Government's white paper " Our Competitive Future - Building the Knowledge Driven Economy". He has also advised ministers in the UK and Central Europe on industrial policy, machinery of government and public administration reform.

He established the Henley Knowledge Management Research Institute and Forum, an international research centre based at Henley Business School (now part of Reading University). The centre brings together academics and business practitioners in co-managed research and has completed numerous inter-disciplinary projects involving action research, theory development, benchmarking and good practice studies for private and public sector organisations. EC-funded research has included a study into corporate reporting on intangible assets and the exploitation of intangible assets within the UK's Machinery of Government. His advisory activities have included the development of an internal knowledge management strategy for the Department of Education and an organisational knowledge management audit of the British Nuclear Group (including Sellafield) on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. He was a member of the steering group for the RSA's Connected Community project and co-authored their report on Flexible Working.

In his role of chair of the British Computer Society's management strategy panel, he organised a number of research projects with reports covering topics such as innovation through IT, transformational outsourcing, business value from IT and the contribution of the software industry to the UK's economy. A further research project explored the opportunities for closer collaboration between business schools and professional bodies such as the BCS (Chartered Institute for IT).

He is a member of the British Standards Institute (BSI) committee for Smart and Sustainable Cities and Communities.

Current research activities include societal innovation in national parks and city green spaces around the world.