Rate My Professor Sarah Giest

Sarah Giest is a Professor of Public Policy with a focus on Innovation and Sustainability at the Institute of Public Administration, Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs, Leiden University. She earned her PhD with honors in Political Science from Simon Fraser University in Canada in 2014, researching regional innovation policy of governments in Asia, Europe, and North America. She also holds a Master's degree in Political Science from Bonn University in Germany and a Master's degree in Society, Science and Technology Studies from Aalborg University in Denmark and Lund University in Sweden. Joining Leiden University in 2014, she has advanced through the academic ranks, developing an interdisciplinary research agenda and teaching courses that apply a policy lens to technical, environmental, and social solutions shaping sustainable societies.

Giest's research examines policymaking at the intersection of innovation, technology, data, and sustainability, addressing urban challenges, digital public service delivery, and data-driven governance. Her key publications include the monograph The Capacity to Innovate: Cluster Policy and Management in the Biotechnology Sector (University of Toronto Press, 2021); co-edited books The Routledge International Handbook of Public Administration and Digital Governance (Routledge, 2024) and Handbook on Governance and Data Science (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2025); and articles such as 'Accountability and data-driven urban climate governance' in Nature Climate Change (2020, with Scott Hughes and Laura Tozer), 'For good measure: data gaps in a big data world' in Policy Sciences (2020, with Annemarie Samuels), and recent works on AI advisory systems and algorithmic accountability in Government Information Quarterly and Policy Design and Practice (2025). She shapes the field through editorial roles as Chair of the Area 1 Committee for Data & Policy, and on boards of Policy Design and Practice and Government Information Quarterly; leadership as Vice-President of the International Public Policy Association (2022-2025) and former Vice-Chair of the Young Academy Leiden; board memberships in the Dutch Network of Women Professors and LDE BOLD Cities (since 2024); and expertise for Dutch ministries, OECD, European Commission, and UN. In September 2024, she delivered her inaugural address 'Location unknown: bridging offline and online infrastructures in policymaking'.