Rasigan Maharajh

Rasigan Maharajh is currently Chief Director of the Institute for Economic Research on Innovation (IERI) based at the Tshwane University of Technology. He was previously the Head of the Policy Group at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) following his deployment as National Coordinator of the Science and Technology Policy Transition Project for South Africa’s first democratic government. During this time he was employed by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). Prior to 1994, he worked in the non-governmental sector concerned with literacy, education and human development whilst simultaneously holding elected leadership positions within various student, youth and organised labour structures of the mass democratic movement and the African National Congress. Rasigan is an active member of the Global Network for the Economics of Learning, Innovation and Competence-building Systems (GLOBELICS) where he co-coordinates the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) Research Agenda and the Universities in Development Programme (UniDev). He is an alumnus of Harvard Business School, the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, and Wits Business School whilst also having been associated with Harvard University and the Institute for Policy Research in Engineering, Science and Technology of the University of Manchester (PREST). He is concurrently a doctoral research fellow at the Forskningspolitiska Institutet of Lunds Universitets in Sweden. His research in the field of evolutionary political economy involves numerous international, continental and regional projects on the form, function and context of knowledge generation, application and diffusion in economic growth, social development and democratic governance. His latest publications include the following chapters: “International Cooperation in S&T in the New Global Geopolitical Framework: Continuities and Changes” in International Cooperation in the Knowledge Era, (2010), from the Centro de Gestão e Estudos Estratégicos and Ministério de Ciência e Tecnologia of Brazil; and “Innovation Strategies in Developing Countries” in Innovation and the Development Agenda, (2010), from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the International Development Research Centre.

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