Who we are?

What is CAIINNO?

CAIINNO is a think thank founded by people living in Mexico after finishing their graduate studies abroad and looking to bring about a positive change for their country. This, by taking advantage of the experience, knowledge and networks gained mainly during their time as beneficiaries of a Fulbright scholarship.

Our Objective

Help solve the challenges faced by Mexico in 9 areas through research, initiatives and project execution which increase transparency, inclusion and innovation in the country. To achieve this, we make use of the principles of INNOVATION, as well as our own experience and knowledge.

In addition, we aim for our projects to have a cross-cutting approach which impacts and benefits all 9 areas.

Principles of Innovation

We have developed our own version, based on the Principles of Innovation proposed by United Nations Development Programme which include:

  • Working on solutions with users.
  • Understanding the ecosystem.
  • Increasing impact through design.
  • Building sustainability.
  • Making the most of data.
  • Using open standards, open data, open-source models and open innovation.
  • Reusing and improving.
  • Avoiding damage to the environment or to society.
  • Seeking collaboration.

Our Impact

Publications

Skills for innovation briefing

https://www.caiinno.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Creative-Economy-final.pdf

 

Our Team

Esteban Santamaría

Esteban Santamaria is one of the founders and Director of the Mexican think tank CAIINNO which was founded by Fulbright alumni. Mr. Santamaria has experience in the public and private sectors, besides the academia. His field of work is mainly on intellectual property law, innovation and development at national and international level.

He earned his Law Degree and Master in Law and Economics by the University Autonomous of Puebla, and the LLM in Intellectual Property by The George Washington University, awarded with the Fulbright scholarship.

Everardo Díaz

Holds a PhD. in Political Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara (2014). His dissertation centered on the Mexican legislative system and how political parties use differentiated strategies to enforce party discipline. In a wider sense, his research explained how policy outcomes depending on legislative enacted are designed, negotiated and implemented. Other research interests include electoral campaigns and media coverage

As an entrepreneur, it is the co-founder and COO of Mural Tactil, a Mexican data and software company focused on cloud computing and data analysis solutions,

Holds a M.A. in Political Analysis and Mass Media (2004), and a B.A. in Political Science (2003), both from the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey.

María Dolores Ballesteros Páez

Holds a PhD. in Social Sciences from the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (2014). Her dissertation was focused on the Mexican educational system and how national policies affect the substantive contents of textbooks at the secondary level.

Received training in qualitative and quantitative methods to analyse social reality, specifically, to study national identity construction in the production of history textbooks and how new educational focuses such as multiculturalism were incorporated in the Mexican secondary education system from 1993 to 2012. Specialised in Bourdeau’s theory of the fields to study the interaction of the actors involved in curricula production, in content analysis of the textbook images, and in discourse analysis of the textbooks focusing on their representation of multiculturalism, gender. Holds a M.A. in Latin American History from the Instituto Mora in Mexico City (2010), and a B.A. in English and Linguistics from the University of Alcala in Spain (2008). Conducted postdoctoral research at the Center for Latin American Studies, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), 2014-2016.

Fernando Ojesto Martínez Manzur

Masters in Law (LL.M.) from Columbia Law School in the City of New York, Fulbright García Robles Alumni, Law Degree with honors from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Juris Science Doctor candidate from UNAM. He has published more than a dozen of essays and articles in law reviews and specialized books related to democracy and electoral matters. Law Professor at the School of Law of UNAM.

He has served as Project Coordinator at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), as well as in various positions at the Electoral Court of the Federal Judiciary of Mexico. At the International level he has being legal adviser at the Permanent Mexican Mission to the United Nations, and consultant at the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), Organization of American States (OAS), National Democratic Institute, UN Women, Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD) and the Inter-American Institute of Human Rights (IIHR).

He is a member of CAIINNO since 2014 and has collaborated in various projects related to democracy, Political Rights and civic education.

Carlos Arturo Castro del Ángel

Economist from the Autonomous University of the State of Hidalgo with an emphasis on Technological and Industrial Development. I currently work as head of economic research for the Center for Analysis for Research in Innovation. He has a certification in data science from the International Institute of Data Science and several courses on machine learning, predictive models and public health.

In this area, he has collaborated in research on intellectual property, creative economy, civic education and the impacts of innovation in Mexico. He has participated in projects such as monitoring the effective application of fares in public transport, models to predict the level of risk in sectors such as health and finance, as well as reporting the daily progress of the coronavirus in the country. At the same time, it has courses and presentations on topics such as digital health, urban mobility, software development and entrepreneurship.