Dave Carter (independent consultant)

Freelance member of MD since August 2014 having been one of the founder members as part of Manchester City Council's Economic Initiatives Group (EIG - up until 2004) and then as Head of the Manchester Digital Development Agency (MDDA) from 2004 until 2014. I am currently doing research on smart cities and digital inclusion at the Manchester Urban Institute (MUI) at the University of Manchester and have a number of voluntary roles supporting innovation in the city, including as Chair of the Advisory Board at the Manchester Digital Lab (MadLab), Chair of Trustees at the Manchester Digital Music Archive and a Trustee at Future's Venture Foundation (radical independent arts fund). 

I am currently Honorary Knowledge Exchange Fellow in Planning and Environmental Management at the University of Manchester, working on smart cities and digital inclusion. Previously I was Head of the Manchester Digital Development Agency (MDDA), part of Manchester City Council, from 2004 to 2014. MDDA coordinates the Manchester Living Lab, an innovation centre focusing on digital technologies and their applications to support smart, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, and is responsible for strategic initiatives and projects across the Greater Manchester city-region and European funded projects. I am a founder member of the Telecities network set up in 1993, now the Eurocities Knowledge Society Forum (KSF), and the first President of Telecities (1994-96), and a founder member of the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL). I am Chair of the European Connected Smart Cities Network, which supports projects funded under the ‘Future Internet enabled services in Smart Cities’ theme of the EU Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP) and was Chair of the Eurocities KSF Smart Cities Working Group (2010-14). MDDA was also involved in projects supported through the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) and the Interreg programme. Prior to the setting up of the MDDA in 2004 I was Head of Economic Development for Manchester City Council (2002-04) and previously Deputy Head of Economic Development (1999-2002). I started working in the Economic Development Dept. of Manchester City Council in 1987 having worked in the voluntary sector, the trade union movement and at the North West Industry Research Unit in the Geography Dept. at the University of Manchester.

As a freelance member of MD I am happy to discuss the possibility of taking on new challenges, paid or unpaid, which might fit in with my research and local and European networking interests.