- Attila Varga Early Career Awards recognise contributions to the literature on climate policy mixes, in particular how to measure and evaluate them;
- Paper 'Attributing Increases in Green Patenting to Climate Policy Mixes' is being written in collaboration with colleagues from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Change Research
University of Oxford DPhil student Nils Rochowicz has been recognised with an early career award for his research on green patenting.
Nils, who is part of the INET Oxford's Complexity Economics programme under the supervision of Professor J. Doyne Farmer and Dr. Neave O'Clery, won second place for his paper 'Attributing Increases in Green Patenting to Climate Policy Mixes', which he is writing in collaboration with colleagues from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Change Research.
The award was presented by economist Ron A. Boschma at the Geography of Innovation Conference 2026 (GeoInno26), held from 28-30 January in Budapest. The awarding panel recognised the contributions of the paper to the literature on climate policy mixes, in particular how to measure and evaluate them.
The paper aims to understand which climate policies and climate policy mixes can be linked to large increases in green patenting across time, countries, and technologies. It highlights that only few climate policies are effective in driving green innovation, and how they can be combined to achieve breakthrough innovations.
New ways of identifying increases in green patenting
Nils said that the award would encourage him to further develop his research agenda, and provide novel methodologies into how countries can generate breakthrough innovations and facilitate the green transition.
"I am deeply honoured and humbled to be receiving this award. I'm particularly happy to get this recognition from the GeoInno conference, which provides such an outstanding environment, both academically and as a community.
"The paper proposes a new way of identifying large increases in green patenting across countries and technologies, and which policies and policy mixes support these large increases. We find that particularly policies that increase the price of fossil fuels, as well as combinations of policies that are atypical compared to the rest of the world, enable countries to boost green innovation substantially.
"The award encourages me to further develop my research agenda, providing novel methodologies and data-driven insights into how countries can generate breakthrough innovations and facilitate the green transition.
"This paper and this award was very much a team effort: First and foremost my fantastic primary collaborator Patrick Klösel, as well as the amazing whole team Laura Menicacci, Annika Stechemesser, Lorenzo Romero-Fernández, and Nicolas Koch. This paper owes a lot to each of them, and I'm happy to be working with such great co-authors.
"Now I'm looking forward to getting this paper over the finish line, stay tuned for a working paper out soon!"
Attila Varga Early Career Award
Being an outstanding person and an exceptional scholar, Attila Varga (1958–2023) was not only a pioneer in spatial knowledge spillovers and regional economic modelling. He was a beloved mentor and a friend of many Hungarian economic geographers and one of the initiators of the Geography of Innovation community.
The Attila Varga Early Career Award was established in 2024, at the 7th Geography of Innovation Conference, in Manchester with the aim to commemorate Attila’s indisputable contribution to research and talent support and to recognize outstanding achievements of Early Career researchers.
The recipient of the Attila Varga Early Career Award in 2024 was Gabriele Piazza (London School of Economics) with his paper “Where the God Particle Touches the Ground: The Local Impact of Research Infrastructure Procurement in Italy”.
Attila is remembered with deep gratitude for his tremendous contribution and support to the Hungarian community of regional scientists and economic geographers.
The Attila Varga Award Committee consisted of Ron Boschma (Utrecht University), Raquel Ortega-Argiles (University of Manchester), Tamás Sebestyén (University of Pécs) and Roberta Rabellotti (Università di Pavia).
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