Dr Maria Abreu is a regional economist, working on topics relating to creativity, higher education, migration, and local labour markets. She is a University Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of Pembroke College. Prior to coming to Cambridge she worked for the Poverty Team at the World Bank office in Jakarta, Indonesia, on policy initiatives to promote nutrition and educational transitions. She was also a policy research fellow at the Cambridge-MIT Institute, working on several projects to promote knowledge diffusion and innovation. She has worked as a consultant for the European Commission, the World Bank, the UK’s Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS/BEIS), the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA), and the Department for Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI) of Northern Ireland.