Brendan Murtagh is a Reader in Urban Regeneration and Planning at SPACE in the Queen’s University Belfast. He has researched and written widely on urban regeneration, social economics and community based development. His particular interest is in the potential of the social economy to offer a more balanced, stable and include framework for urban growth. In particular, the capacity to learn from the Basque Country and how social innovation can be scaled and replicated in Northern Ireland is his main interest in the visit. Brendan has carried out research on the social economy for the ESRC; Community Asset Transfer for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation; and alternative economics and social inclusion for the Northern Ireland government. He is a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Oregon and was appointed Associate Professor of the East China Institute of Technology in 2008. He has also published recent books on: Understanding the Social Economy and the Third Sector; The Politics of Territory; Violence, Segregation and the City; and Authentic Dialogue. Brendan is currently involved in: a project for the Leverhulme Trust examining the role of culture and the city; a study of age and place for CARDI; and sustainable age communities for the Atlantic Philanthropies.