Elias Giannakis is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development of the Agricultural University of Athens. He holds a Ph.D. (2011), M.Sc. (2006) and BSc (2004) from the Agricultural University of Athens. Prior to joining the Agricultural University of Athens, he has worked as a Special Scientist at the Cyprus University of Technology, Department of Agricultural Sciences, Biotechnology and Food Science, as a Postdoctoral Researcher and Associate Research Scientist at the Cyprus Institute, Energy, Environment and Water Research Center, and as a Visiting Researcher at the University of Cyprus, Economics Research Center. His research work has been published in high-ranking international journals such as Regional Studies, Papers in Regional Science, The Annals of Regional Science, European Planning Studies, Ecological Economics, Science of the Total Environment, Energy Strategy Reviews, Land Use Policy. He has participated as researcher in many national and European research projects.

His research interests include regional economics, quantitative methods in regional development, rural development, design and implementation of regional development policies, productivity and environment.