Iizuka, Michiko

Biography

Dr. Michiko Iizuka of Japan joined the UNU Maastricht Economic and Social Research and Training Institute on Innovation and Technology (UNU-MERIT) in 2008 as a Researcher. Her main areas of interest are (1) innovation system in the context of developing countries, (2) the role of innovation policy in development process and (3) Impact of global institutions such as standards and global agreements on local capability building. Currently she is involved in a number of projects: (1) International cooperation and knowledge creation between developed and developing countries. It is a comparative study on Science, Technology and Innovation research of UK, US, Netherlands, Japan within their development cooperation schemes (2) Understanding process of structural transformation in developing countries using innovation system approach as policy tool; and (3) Studying different cases of interaction between global and local institutions. She is also one of the coordinators for Design and Evaluation of Innovation Policy (DEIP), a training course targeted to policy makers in Developing Countries. So far she has been involved in courses in Maastricht (2008), El Salvador (2009), Pakistan (2009), Ethiopia (2010) and Senegal(2010). Apart from the training, she is also acting as a member of reference group f for Swedish International Development Agency’s strategic evaluation on research cooperation for innovation systems and cluster. Dr. Iizuka worked as a Researcher at the International Development Centre of Japan (IDCJ) formulating Development Aid policy advice. Subsequently she joined the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), advising and formulating urban environmental policy for the Latin American governments. She was also a consultant for UNIDO where she contributed in publishing positioning paper on Innovation Systems. Dr. Iizuka obtained her D.Phil. on Science, Technology and Innovation Policy from SPRU at the University of Sussex (U.K). She is currently a visiting fellow at SPRU. She holds a M.Phil. in Development Studies from IDS and a post graduate diploma in Environmental Management Policy from Imperial College London.

Research Interest

(1) innovation system in the context of developing countries, (2) the role of innovation policy in development process and (3) Impact of global institutions such as standards and global agreements on local capability building.