Innovative Models for Generating Actionable Academic Research (original) (raw)

In our talk, we explore models for innovative university-based research institutes that bring together academics, practitioners and policy makers. Using the example of the Institute for Money, Technology and Financial Inclusion (IMTFI), established and run by Professor Bill Maurer at the University of California, Irvine with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, we present a number of ways in which academic research, in this case on poor people’s everyday innovations with mobile money, can be made actionable. We focus on four aspects of IMTFI’s model in particular: its open source approach; its external advisory board made up of industry and NGO practitioners; its use of design to generate actionable research and its building of research capacity in the Global South by funding local researchers. We will conclude our talk by exploring what a similar academic research model could look like for a research institution focusing on humanitarian innovation and design.