Within the capacity group Technology, Innovation & Society group of members in the chair of Economics (Henny Romijn, Saurabh Arora, Annelies Balkema, Evelien de Hoop and Yuti Ariani Padmadinata) are specialised in the study of globalisation and international development, and how technology & innovation foster and hinder these processes. Research executed and supervised by the TDG staff tends to be highly multidisciplinary. A variety of innovation theories, approaches and methods deriving from innovation studies, development studies, development economics and environmental sciences are used. The main focus is on the study of introduction, development and diffusion of innovations in developing countries, and how these processes are influenced by technological, economic, socio-cultural and institutional factors. Examples of research projects using such frameworks include:

• the study of opportunities of and barriers to successful incubation & upscaling of sustainable new 'niche' technologies, using evolutionary innovation models such as strategic niche management and process-oriented approaches to development projects;
• analysis of expected financial, social, economic and environmental costs and benefits of new technologies for the support of decision & policy makers, by means of quantitative methodologies such as cost-benefit, multi-criteria and environmental life cycle analysis;
• analyses of learning processes and sustainable innovation capacity building in social and knowledge networks;
• critical analyses of globalization processes driven by base-of-the-pyramid strategies of multi-national corporations, and private enterprise development policies promoted by international institutions such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organisation;

Technologies studied include: renewable energy, waste (including e-waste and construction waste), water and sanitation, ICT, housing, agricultural technologies.

In 2011 we started a large NWO MVI research titled "Biofuels; sustainable innovation or gold rush".

Interested students can contact:

Henny Romijn, h.a.romijn@remove-this.tue.nl, IPO 2.17 (http://home.tm.tue.nl/hromijn/publications.htm)

Saurabh Arora, s.arora@remove-this.tue.nl, IPO 2.39

Annelies Balkema, a.j.balkema@remove-this.tue.nl, IPO 2.11

Evelien de Hoop, E.d.Hoop@remove-this.tue.nl, IPO 2.11

Yuti Ariani Padmadinata, Y.A.F.Padmadinata@remove-this.tue.nl, IPO 2.11