Bertha Vallejo is a science and technology policy analyst, with a focus on innovation studies and the key role that technological changes promoted in the North are having on the development pathways of local economies in the South. She is an associated researcher at the UNU-MERIT in Maastricht and a research fellow at the Innovation for Sustainable Development Network (inno4sd.net). Since early 2020, Bertha joined the SARChI Chair in Transformative Innovation, 4IR, & Sustainable Development at the University of Johannesburg, where she is a Queen Elizabeth Scholars – Advanced Scholars Fellow with Open AIR.

Previously, Bertha worked for 15 years at Tilburg University, where she coordinated multiple capacity development projects in the Horn of Africa and Great Lakes Region. These projects shed light on the often-missed connections between capacity development results and the changes needed at the organizational, social, and individual levels. She has contributed to, and participated in, several innovation research initiatives with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization – Institute for Water Education (UNESCO-IHE), and United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). She has authored journal articles for World Development, the International Journal of Project Management, Development Policy Review, and Sustainability. She is also a reviewer for several journals, including Research Policy, World Development, Sustainability and Technology Forecasting and Social Change.