Dr Afua Owusu-Kwarteng

Afua is an Assistant Professor at the Newcastle Business School. She holds a BA (Hons) in Social Work and Sociology from the University of Ghana, an MSc in Development Evaluation and Management from the University of Antwerp, and a PhD in Management from Lancaster University.

Afua is keen on addressing poverty and inequality issues in developing contexts and provided immense direction for the Women Innovators Network for Africa (WINA) research project which emanated from Lancaster University’s £7M GCRF RECIRCULATE project. On the WINA project, Afua identified, recruited and engaged women entrepreneurs and scientists in the co-creation, co-design, and co-delivery of innovative solutions around the circular economy in several sub-Saharan African countries including Kenya, Ghana, Zambia, Nigeria, Malawi, South Africa and Botswana.

Currently, Afua is involved in the Global Entrepreneurial Talent Management (GETM4), which is a €1.5M international, interdisciplinary research and innovation project funded by the EU's Horizon, UKRO and the South Korean Education Ministry. Over the next four years, Afua will be working with a community of researchers and educators to support physical and mental wellbeing in a disrupted world via entrepreneurial action underpinned by responsible digital innovation. The GETM4 project will be implemented in the UK, Ireland, Estonia, Poland, Slovenia, Kenya, South Korea, North Macedonia, and Chile.

Afua's primary research interest lies at the intersection of entrepreneurship, innovation management and sustainable development. She has publications in Journal of Technology Transfer and Gender, Work and Organisations.