Suma’s main research interests lie in the fields of Economics of Innovation and International Economics and she has published over 60 papers on these subjects and won several research grants for work in these areas. Suma’s current research looks at identifying the barriers to technology transfer from universities, the financing of R&D, understanding why the use of trade secrets is rising and the determinants of the demand for intellectual property instruments. In the area of International Economics, Suma is interested in the impulses for internationalisation and the use of internationalisation as a tool of technology search and technological acquisition by Indian and Chinese firms.
Suma is an area editor for the Journal of International Business Policy and serves on the Editorial Board of other academic journals: Research Policy, Industrial and Corporate Changes, Perspectives on Globalisation and Development, International Journal of Technological Learning; Innovation and Development and Multinational Business Review.
She has consulted to international policy bodies such as the World Intellectual Property Organisation and the European Commission. She was Rapporteur of the European Research Area (2008) report Opening to the world: International cooperation in Science and Technology and for the Joint Research Council’s (2016) report Approaches to and methods for evaluating new technologies in Technology Transfer Offices: How long is a piece of string? Most recently she collaborated with WIPO to produce the book Harnessing Public Research for Policies and draft A guide for universities on incentives for researchers Innovation in the 21st Century– An international Assessment of Knowledge Transfer to engage in IP and entrepreneurship activities. Since 2010, Suma has worked closely with the UK intellectual Property Office in order to strengthen their evidence base for policy. As part of this effort, the first report Patent Incentives: Returns to Patenting and the Inducement for Research & Development, summarised the evidence from existing data sources, while the second report, When do firms not use patents and trademarks to protect valuable innovations? built new evidence through a targeted innovation survey. Suma is also a member of the Research on Economics Advisory Group (REAG) of the UKIPO. Suma is currently on leave from the University of Essex where she has worked since 2016. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and the Academy of Social Sciences, both based in the UK.
Education:
D.Phil (Science and Technology Policy) SPRU, University of Sussex; M.A (Economics), Jawaharlal Nehru University; B.A (hons) Economics, St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi
Research Interests:
Economics and management of intellectual property, Financing of R&D, Researcher incentives and the commercialisation of technology in universities and public sector labs, COVID vaccines and pharmaceutical capability in emerging markets, Measuring the impact of inclusive innovation, open innovation and technology licensing, Industry 4.0 and software in emerging markets.