Hannes Leo has been analysing various dimensions of innovative activities and innovation policy for more than 20 years and has pioneered new ways in online decision making. Presently he is managing cbased (community-based innovation systems GmbH) which he co-founded. cbased designs and organises online decision making processes, develops software tools for this purpose, provides in depth economic research and analysis and launched discuto.io.

Hannes acted as deputy director of WIFO (Austrian Institute of Economic Research) from 2005 to 2007 and was director of the Institute for the Study of Labour (IZA) in Bonn from January to April 2008. He is delegate to the Consultative Commission on Industrial Change (CCMI) of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and member of the UNECE Bureau for the Team of Specialist on Innovation and Competitiveness Policies (TOS-ICP). Hannes was a research fellow at SPRU (University of Sussex, Brighton) in 1994, the Istituto di Studi sulla Ricerca e Documentazione Scientifica, (Consiglio Nationale delle Ricerche, Rome) in 1995, a visiting economist at OFTEL (Office of Telecommunications, London) in 1996 and a research fellow of the University of California, Berkeley, in 2001.