Biofuels and Technology for Development
Centre of African Studies, The University of Edinburgh

Science and technology play an increasingly prominent role in global development. Many of the Millennium Development Goals will require the development and provision of new technologies if they are to be met. Increasingly global issues of food security, climate change and energy security require us to develop new knowledge, new practice and new technologies, as well as making better use of what we already know. Optimism regarding technologies for development has often been tempered by disappointments, vaccines taking years to reach those who need them, new agricultural approaches bringing problems as well as benefits, and massive infrastructural benefits not being translated into sustainable economic growth, for example.

This course aims to explore, using a range of case studies, the role science and technology has, and can, play in shaping development. Consideration will be given to how science policy can make science and technology work better for development, and in particular for the poor. Key within this will be to understand the ways in which technological innovation takes place, how innovation can be encouraged and supported, and how this approach builds better relationships between scientists, policymakers, entrepreneurs and the potential end-users of new technologies.

At the conclusion of the course participants should be able to:

• Critically examine the relationships between science, technology and development in different contexts
• Learn how to analyse real-world case studies of technological innovation in developing countries. 
• Learn how to analyse and utilise appropriate science policy tools and approaches in order to shape more appropriate technology for development

Our short courses are aimed at professionals working in international development. There are no course entry requirements, although we would expect participants to have some academic background, such as an undergraduate degree.

Course dates 2010:
22 April 2010
14^h May 2010