INNOVATION GROWTH LAB - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Head of Policy Engagement and Learning
Alex is the Head of Policy Engagement and Learning at the Innovation Growth Lab (IGL).
She leads engagement work with IGL's international network of innovation policymakers, supporting them to embed experimentation practices in how they work and facilitating learning opportunities between them. Current projects include a comparative study of more than 40 innovation agencies across Europe and Latin America in partnership with the TAFTIE network and the Inter-American Development Bank, and management of stakeholder engagement activities within a major EU project on engaging citizens in the work of research and innovation funding organisations.
Before joining IGL in 2020, Alex held a number of different roles at Nesta, conducting research on inclusive innovation policies, and working with government innovation agencies around the world on strategy development. Prior to this, she worked at the Institute for Public Policy Research and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, managing research and policy projects relating to migration, international development, integration and diversity. She is an accredited coach, and works with individuals and teams on leadership development. She is also co-author of Inclusive Innovation (2022) a title in the Routledge Studies in Innovation, Organizations and Technology series.
David is a Data Scientist at the Innovation Growth Lab (IGL).
His role at the Lab focuses on helping grow the team's capability for using data analysis and statistics to uncover and pursue opportunities to improve the effectiveness and equity of innovation and business policy.
Prior to joining the IGL in 2022, David worked as a Research Fellow at the Data Center of the Barcelona School of Economics (BSE). His work involved the development of state-of-the-art sequential decision-making algorithms, with a particular focus on Bayesian Optimization and multi-armed bandits. He also contributed to multiple political economy projects, helping develop and implement improved methodologies using novel data sources and techniques. As a member of the Center, David has taught text-based deep learning courses at the Summer School of the BSE for several years now. Before this, David worked as an economic consultant for FocusEconomics, a macroeconomic research and forecasting institute.
David holds a one-year MSc in Data Science Methodology from the Barcelona School of Economics, and a two-year MRes in Analysis and Policy in Economics at the Paris School of Economics. He also has a BA in International Economics from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
In this role, Edoardo contributes to the development and growth of IGL's programme of work to create more experimental policy ecosystems.
Before joining IGL in 2022, Edoardo was the Senior Policy Manager of the Abdul Latif Jameel Policy Action Lab (J-PAL) office for Latin America and the Caribbean in Santiago, Chile. For three years he led J-PAL LAC's policy team in identifying opportunities to promote the use of evidence in policy making, built partnerships with governments, donors and civil society organisations across the region, and provided technical assistance for the scale-up and replication of successful interventions. He joined J-PAL LAC in 2017 as a Senior Research Associate working on a White Paper on youth crime and violence prevention in Mexico. Previously, he worked in Colombia with J-PAL LAC and Innovations for Poverty Action on a project for the institutionalisation of evidence use within the Monitoring and Public Policy Evaluation Unit of Colombia's National Department of Planning.
Edoardo also conducted field research in Bolivia and Colombia, and interned at the Democratic Governance Unit of the United Nations Development Programme in the Dominican Republic. Edoardo has an MSc in Sustainable Development - International Development from Utrecht University and a BA in Economics from Bocconi University.
Edoardo Trimarchi is Policy Lead for the Innovation Growth Lab (IGL).
Hugo is the Senior Policy Analyst at the Innovation Growth Lab (IGL).
Hugo has worked since 2018 in the intersection between the Research and the Policy teams at IGL, supporting policymakers in the early stages of policy development and helping them decide where to introduce experimentation to increase the impact of entrepreneurship and business support programmes. He leads successful projects and publications to promote experimentation and supports the design, implementation and evaluation of several government programmes across OECD countries.
Before joining Nesta, Hugo was a policy evaluation advisor for the Costa Rican government. He also evaluated employment and entrepreneurship programs for the German Development Agency (GIZ) in Central America and worked with various research institutes and consultancies in Europe and Southeast Asia. He holds a BA in Political Science and a Master of Public Policy (MPP) at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin. In 2020, he was included in the Santander-CIDOB "35 under 35 List" for his leadership in policy innovation and transformation in Europe.
James is Deputy Director at the Innovation Growth Lab (IGL).
Since joining IGL in 2016, James has overseen efforts to encourage policymakers to apply an experimental approach within innovation, entrepreneurship and business growth policy. He has worked with government ministries and innovation agencies around the world to develop and evaluate new ideas.
Notable projects include BEIS's Business Basics Fund, where James was pivotal to the experimental approach that was used to test and explore many different ways of encouraging small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to take up productivity-boosting ways of working and technology.
Before joining Nesta, James was Head of Enterprise Policy Development and Evaluation at the UK Business Department, where he led research into the rationale and effectiveness of public support for entrepreneurship and business growth. He was also instrumental in the department becoming more experimental and rigorous in its evaluation, which included a range of policy experiments from small messaging trials through to the £30m Growth Vouchers Programme.
Layla is Operations Manager at the Innovation Growth Lab (IGL).
Layla joined IGL in 2020 and her role both contributes to the strategy and development of the team's portfolio of work and ensures smooth business functioning within the team. She manages the day-to-day IGL operations ensuring that they are as effective and efficient as they can be. Layla joined Nesta in 2011 and has extensive operational experience managing interconnected projects, creating and managing budgets, and developing and streamlining processes.
In previous roles at Nesta, Layla managed the operations of the Innovation Skills team, which provided content, learning experiences, and strategic support to improve and embed innovation skills. She also supported the Creative Economy Team with the delivery of innovation programmes.
Rob is the Evaluation Manager at the Innovation Growth Lab.
He is responsible for working with project teams, funders and researchers to deliver high-quality evaluations that can be used to inform policy decisions.
Prior to joining Nesta, Rob worked on randomised controlled trials and quasi-experimental impact evaluations in the international development field. Most recently he worked with an impact investor, AgDevCo, managing the monitoring and evaluation activities of a programme providing support to agricultural SMEs in sub-Saharan Africa. Rob has an MSc in Economics from the University of Edinburgh and a BSc in Mathematics and Statistics from Birkbeck, University of London.
Job Titles:
- IGL As a Senior Researcher
Sara García Arteagoitia joined IGL as a Senior Researcher in 2022. In her role, she helps identify experimental research opportunities with our global government partners and bring them to fruition.
Before joining IGL, Sara worked as a consultant and instructor in behavioural design with private companies and government agencies in Spain and Latin America, helping them improve their structures and programmes to achieve higher impact. Prior to that, she was the Senior Assistant Director of the Center for Decision Research at the University of Chicago, where she worked on developing partnerships and research structures to propel and promulgate experimental behavioural research.
She started her career in experimental research as a research assistant for different projects at the University of Chicago and the Max-Planck Institute for Collective Goods. Sara holds a BA in Political Science and a MA in Political Psychology from the University of Heidelberg, Germany.
Teo Firpo is a Senior Researcher at the Innovation Growth Lab (IGL).
His role focuses on using experimental methods to help innovation agencies and other public organisations test new or improved programmes. He leads IGL's work on using experiments to make the funding of science and innovation more efficient, effective and fairer.
Teo also holds a position as Research Associate at the Einstein Center Digital Future in Berlin, where he studies the adoption of digital technologies and the impact of digitalisation on the labour market in a project funded by the German developed agency.
He is a PhD candidate in economics at Humboldt University in Berlin. He holds a master's in Economics and Public Policy and a BA in Social Science from Sciences Po Paris, and a PgCert in Econometrics from Birkbeck, University of London.
Wanda is Research and Policy Engagement Coordinator at the Innovation Growth Lab (IGL).
In her role, she is responsible for enhancing IGL's outreach, communications, and engagement offer. She also provides project management support across various IGL projects.
Prior to joining IGL, she worked as Deputy Editor for a human rights journal and as Officer in a Sustainability team. She also has experience working with NGOs and Think Tanks to help grassroots organisations spread awareness and devise strategies for current socioeconomic issues. She holds a BA in International Development from King's College London and an MSc in International Social and Public Policy from the London School of Economics.