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.

Afua is currently involved in the Global Entrepreneurial Talent Management (GETM4) research project, and 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. GETM4 is a €1.5M international, interdisciplinary research and innovation project that is being funded by the EU's Horizon, UKRO and the South Korean Education Ministry. The implementation of the GETM4 project will be done 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.