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Local Innovation Capacity

This area of research explores questions that are directly relevant to our community-based partners, and others around the world who are working to strengthen local capacity for innovation and creative problem-solving. These questions include: what capacities are needed in order to produce and sustain innovation processes at the community level? How are these capacities developed, and how do they contribute to producing innovation? Finally, what are effective methods for detecting and assessing these capacities? 

The research projects under this theme are developing empirically-grounded models for understanding local innovation capacity and methodologies for measuring changes in these capacities over time and across diverse locations.  

Related Publications and Resources 

Identifying common outcomes of CCB programs: key informant interviews with practitioners (Interim project report, 2021) 

What is capacity to innovate and how can it be assessed? A review of the literature (Peer-reviewed conference paper, 2016)

Projects
Assessing Local Innovation Capacity

Developing a framework and tools for assessing local capacity to innovate at the individual, group, and system levels…read more

ASPIRE

Strengthening higher education capacity for development-oriented research and innovation in Guatemala …read more

Team

Elizabeth Hoffecker
Principal Investigator

Elias Damtew Assefa
Postdoctoral Associate 

Eunhae Lee
Graduate Research Assistant

Collaborators

Francisco Ramos, GED  
Omar Crespo Cardona, Link4 
Universidad del Valle de Guatemala (UVG) 
AGEXPORT 
Link4 
Diversa 

Sponsors

USAID’s Innovation, Technology, and Research (ITR) Hub within the Bureau for Development, Democracy, and Innovation (DDI)

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