Rebecca Hanlin

Biography

As Director of the Science, Technology, Innovation, Knowledge and Society (STIKS) Programme of Work at ACTS in Kenya, I oversee a portfolio of 7 projects that consider the linkages between STI and society; many of these at a continental Africa level. I am Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator on many of these, including the Innovation in Renewable Energy in Kenya (IREK) project; the AfricaLics Research Capacity Building Project and; the Science Granting Councils Initiative’s collaboration project. Across these projects I am actively engaged in research in the following areas: 1. Science, technology and innovation research and policy and their ability to promote innovative activity for inclusive development. 2. Technological capabilities building and the implications for indigenous African organisations; specifically, how they benefit or otherwise from involvement in large scale projects and/or inclusion in global value chains and international trade. 3. Innovation in low carbon technologies and their ability to promote inclusive development. Across my work I am also highly passionate about research capacity strengthening. I am particularly interested in how to improve training and support offerings to policy makers across a range of portfolio areas (notably research, innovation, industry, education and finance) and also have a specific interest in how to promote innovation studies training at university and vocational training levels and its linkage to existing training on entrepreneurship. I have a PhD in Science and Technology Studies from University of Edinburgh in the UK and have published widely including Energy Policy, Research Policy, Science and Public Policy, European Journal of Development Research and the Journal of International Development.