Sarah Giest is a Professor of Public Policy with a focus on Innovation and Sustainability at the Public Administration Institute of Leiden University. She has been developing an interdisciplinary research agenda and teaching on using a policy lens to look at technical, environmental and social solutions that shape sustainable societies.

More information about Sarah Giest

Research & Teaching

Sarah Giest is passionate about research and teaching at the intersection of innovation and environmental as well as social sustainability through a policy lens. With training in Public Policy and Science, Technology, and Society (STS) Studies, Sarah has published extensively and has become an expert for international organizations. To shape the field in particular around innovation policy, Sarah published the book The Capacity to Innovate. Sarah also focuses on the challenges of the early-career research community in different capacities by participating in university-wide and international conversations. 

Sarah is the Vice-President of the International Public Policy Association (IPPA) and on the Editorial Boards of Data & Policy and Policy Design and Practice and acts as an expert for national and international organizations, such as Dutch Ministries, the OECD, the European Commission or the UN. She is also the former (Vice-)Chair of the Young Academy Leiden. 

Before coming to Leiden in 2014, Sarah received her PhD with honors from Simon Fraser University (Canada) where she focused on regional innovation policy of governments in Asia, Europe and North America. 

Publications