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Professor Dinar Kale

Dinar Kale

Profile summary

  • Central Academic Staff
  • Professor of Innovation & Development
  • Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences
  • School of Social Sciences & Global Studies
  • Development
  • dinar.kale

Professional biography

I am currently working as a Professor of Innovation and Development at the Development Policy and Practice (DPP) group. I hold an MSc in Organic Chemistry (University of Pune), an MBA in Marketing Management (University of Pune) and a PhD in Innovation Management (The Open University Business School). My work concerns investigating industrial innovation, health access, and equity issues in developing countries. Before starting my PhD studies, I worked in India with a biotechnology company and a highly respected medical device company managing operations in the Western India region. After completing my PhD, I joined DPP on an ESRC funded project, ‘Issues involved in the diffusion of knowledge through migration of scientific labour in India’, followed by a Research Fellowship at the School of Management at the University of Surrey.

I am also Head of Development discipline and director of Centre of Innovation, Knowledge and Development (IKD) at the Open University. I am also co-director at the Innogen Institute and an affiliated member of the Centre for Technology, Innovation and Economic Research (CTIER), a leading think tank in India.  

 

Research interests

My research focuses on the issues of knowledge transfer, dynamics of innovation and industrial policy in life science industries from emerging countries. My doctoral and post-doctoral research involved significant research on industrial dynamics in developing countries, specifically focusing on the evolution of capabilities, technology strategies and firm-level issues involved in innovation management. In my ESRC funded post-doctoral project, I investigated the role of skilled migration in the effective transfer of knowledge in the life science industries in developing countries in my ESRC funded post-doctoral project and highlighted complexities associated with the effective transfer of tacit knowledge through migration.

Building on that, I focused on investigating various issues associated with technology strategy, industrial development and inclusive innovation in developing countries. It involved studying the role of regulation and intermediaries such as industry associations in facilitating inclusive innovation in life-science industries in the Leverhulme Trust funded project. This project concentrated on the life-science sector and covered institutional and firm-level issues in the medical device and biotechnology industries in India and South Africa. The broader aim was to understand the implication of inclusive innovations in ensuring affordable and accessible healthcare for poor people in developing countries. My work on the Indian medical device industry reveals a disconnection between industrial technology policy and healthcare objectives in emerging countries, which hinders the development of the medical devices industries. Over the years, I have published my research in leading journals in the area of Business Studies (BS), Development Studies (DS) and Innovation Studies (IS), such as the British Journal of Management, Research Policy, World Development and Technological Forecasting and Social Change. 

Continuing the research stream, I am currently leading work packages on the two ESRC-GCRF funded projects looking at 'Innovation for Cancer Care in Africa'' and 'Migration of Inclusive Growth in Africa'. 

 

Teaching interests

Over the years, I led the production of three post-graduate modules (T877, DD870, DD871) and also contributed to the development of two UG modules (TD223, DD319) and one PG module (T878) in the Open University. I have also contributed to the development of the PG Certificate course (D890) and a micro-credential course on the FuturLearn platform. 

I am currently involved in the teaching of a core postgraduate module (DD871) in MSc Global Development.  

 

Research groups

NameTypeParent Unit
Development Policy and Practice Research GroupGroupFaculty of Mathematics, Computing and Technology

 

Externally funded projects

Migration for Inclusive African Growth
RoleStart dateEnd dateFunding source
Co-investigator01 Sep 201831 Jan 2022ESRC Economic and Social Research Council

A new wave of economic dynamism in Africa has created a pressing challenge of translating this elite-based, resource-driven growth into more inclusive growth. Africa’s growth has intensified contemporary migration within and to the continent, with important implications for sustainable and inclusive growth in both ‘sending’ and ‘receiving’ contexts. Therefore, the aim of the project is to understand how and to what extent contemporary migrant communities are taking advantage of, and contributing to, sustainable and inclusive growth in Africa. Despite being an important channel for trade, investment and skills development, little is known about the nature and potentially transformative outcomes of these diverse migration flows. In addressing this, the novelty of this project is threefold: (1) in analysing the impacts of migration through the lens of inclusive growth, (2) in exploring internal, regional and intercontinental migration together and moving the study of migration and development beyond South-to-North flows, and (3) in co-designing policy responses and capacity-building resources for optimising the contribution of migration to inclusive African growth. This proposal arises out of an ESRC GCRF network grant that has identified, through a series of workshops hosted by the African partners, that our knowledge of the size, motivations, organisation and impacts of recent flows of migrants and their relations with host communities is largely anecdotal, while official data is fragmented, inaccurate or partial. This proposal will produce the first multi-country comparative study of these groups in Africa, with a focus on how and with what impact these groups operate in the manufacturing and service sectors of four African countries (Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and Mozambique) that are all on the OECD DAC list.

How to link industrial and social innovation for inclusive development: lessons from tackling cancer care in Africa
RoleStart dateEnd dateFunding source
Co-investigator01 Sep 201831 Aug 2021ESRC Economic and Social Research Council

This new project is supported by the ESRC under the GCRF Inclusive Societies initiative. It aims to demonstrate the benefits for inclusive development of linking local industrial and social innovation in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It will do this by addressing the “hard case” of increasing access to cancer care in East Africa.