Nyangala Zolho
she/theyDriving forces and mechanisms behind pathways to innovation careers
Nyangala is a Policy Learning Designer for the Innovation Growth Lab (IGL). Nyangala is based in IGL’s offices at the Barcelona School of Economics. Here she designs and delivers learning experiences to guide policymakers and practitioners working on innovation and growth policies to become more experimental. A key area of interest for her is helping policymakers rethink how they support innovators from diverse communities to drive more inclusive forms of innovation. Her previous design research has focused on combining data and design methods to map pathways to innovative careers, with particular focus on who is marginalised in this process. Nyangala has also mapped the current and future role of innovation agencies, and compared prospects for these bodies in Europe and Latin America.
Blog
Project
How can policy support the growth of innovative sectors while ensuring that traditionally marginalised groups are given equal opportunities to excel within the many fields that make up the knowledge economy? This design research project explores the multiple pathways to innovative careers in both the Arts and Sciences in two municipalities in Europe with the goal of understanding the driving forces and mechanisms supporting local creative and innovative economies. By combining data-driven methods that uncover insights from educational and occupational data with design-led mapping techniques that help build a clear picture of where and why would-be creative inventors are lost at a local (municipal) level, this research looks to answer key questions such as: whether parental educational background impacts Sciences and Arts pathways equally? Whether women and girls drop out of Arts and Science pathways at the same rate, and at the same points? And if funding gets awarded to the same diverse applicants in both Arts and Sciences? The motivation behind this project is to support evidence-based policymaking aimed at driving more inclusive innovation.
