Grzegorz Gorzelak is a professor of economics, specialising in regional and local development policies and strategy building. Between 1996 and 2016 he was director of the Centre for European Regional and Local Studies (EUROREG) at the University of Warsaw. He has coordinated several national and international research projects, most recently the ESPON TERCO project on territorial cooperation, and the FP7 project “Growth – Innovation – Competitiveness: Fostering Cohesion in Central and Eastern Europe” (GRINCOH). He has collaborated with the World Bank, the OECD, DG Regio of the European Commission, several agencies of the Polish and Ukrainian governments, as well as regional and local authorities. G.Gorzelak has published (as author and editor) over 60 books (several of them in English) and over 260 articles. He is Editor-in Chief of a quarterly scientific journal “Studia Regionalne i Lokalne” and was formerly president of the Polish Section of the Regional Studies Association.