Prof. Alfred R. BIZOZA is a PhD holder and a Professor of Agricultural Economics from the University of Rwanda (UR) with extensive academic and policy research experience in areas of Agricultural Economics, Institutional Economics of Soil and Water Conservation, Economics of Land, and Economics of Climate Change Adaptation. He has also served as the Director of Research at the Institute of Policy Analysis and Research during 2014-2017. He served as a Senior Research Adviser for the LAND Project funded by USAID for the period 2012-2014 after being the Director of the Consultancy Bureau of UR in 2011. He joined Wageningen University in the Netherlands as a PhD candidate in January 2007 and completed his PhD in June 2011. He served as a Visiting Scholar at the International Institute of Agriculture (IIA), Michigan State University, USA in 2009 during his PhD research. He was also a visiting researcher at the Cambridge University in 2017 for his post-doctoral research that focused on economics of climate change adaptation in Rwanda.

He has combined his academic and policy research which allowed him to publish several papers, books, and book chapters and has significantly contributed to the drafting of various policies, strategies, national reports in Rwanda elsewhere in Africa. For instance, currently Bizoza has contributed to the drafting of more than five policies and led the evaluation team of the performance contracts known as ‘Imihigo’ while at IPAR since 2014 to 2017. Bizoza is currently a principal investigator of three innovation related research projects of which some are funded by the National Council for Science and Technology in Rwanda (NST), the collaboration between University of Rwanda and SIDA, and DeSIRA – a EU-funded project. All these three projects are focusing on innovation patternerships using an Innovative approach known as Societal University Village Initiative (SUVI) introduced by Bizoza in 2019 currently being considered by UR as part of mechanisms to promote issue or challenge-based teaching and research. This helps further to link research and policy in addressing specific issues facing the community.  

Furthermore, Bizoza serves in different research network, boards, and platforms as a member or team leader such as Rwanda Academy of Science and INGSA. He was recently appointed by UR as a team leader for INGSA Africa Hub Rwanda. This network is meant to provide forum for policy makers, practitioners, national academies, scientific societies and researchers to share experience, build capacities, and develop practical approaches to the use scientific evidence in informing policy at all levels of governance. Previously, Bizoza served as an Economist Board Member of the National Bank of Rwanda upon appointment by the Government’s Cabinet during 2013-2018.