Halla Thorsteinsdóttir is the Director of Small Globe Inc., a non-profit organisation and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto, Canada and at Cinvestav, Mexico. She has actively researched health innovation and international cooperation in Canada and in low-and-middle income countries including Brazil, Cuba, China, India, and South Africa among others. Halla’s research has been published in high-impact journals such as the Nature journals, Science, Research Policy and The Lancet, and been covered by media including the Economist and the Financial Times. She was further the editor of the book South-South Collaboration in Health Biotechnology. Halla completed her doctoral studies in Science and Technology Studies at SPRU – Science and Technology Policy Research, University of Sussex, United Kingdom, and obtained a master’s degree in Development Economics from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University, Canada. She has received several awards including the Chevening Scholarship given by the United Kingdom’s government to emerging global leaders and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s Maud Menten Principal Investigator Prize. Halla has advised organisations such as the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Technology Bank for Least Developed Countries, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the World Health Organization, the International Development Research Centre, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Universities Canada, Industry Canada, and South Africa’s Technology Innovation Agency on innovation and partnership issues. Halla has taught courses on methods for policy research, social issues of genomics development and knowledge translation/implantation science.