In many developing countries governments are not able to provide energy access to its inhabitants, especially those living in rural areas and with the lowest incomes. For these 4-5 million people around the world, who live with less than $2 a day, often referred to as the Base of the Pyramid (BoP), electricity is deficient and unreliable. According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 1.5 billion people worldwide do not have access to electricity. Of these people, nearly 80% live in the least developed countries of South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. In Rwanda for example, only 7% of the population has access to electricity from the grid, therefore the other 93% mainly, must use other alternatives such as candles, batteries and kerosene. Those alternatives represent an average of 9% of the overall household expenditure, which is excessive for these families. Expanding access to energy is necessary to reduce poverty, but includes a broader scope. To promote better engagement in educational activities, make domestic work easier and more efficient as well as enable new activities that can generate additional incomes. In rural areas worldwide, especially in Asia, biogas producing systems at household level are being implemented as an alternative cooking fuel over wood, dung and charcoal. However, in Africa no large-scale programs have yet been established. SNV, the Netherlands Development Organization (formerly Stichting Nederlandse Vrijwilligers), plans to roll out 2 million biodigester plants in the year 2020. This project aims to give access to electricity to rural families that own or can afford a biodigester. It is possible to anticipate that with the increasing biogas penetration, in combination with programmes like the one mentioned above, there are very good perspectives for this technology. TNO, the Dutch Organization for Applied Scientific Research, has started up the Bio-Socket project and is committed to empower poor people by developing sustainable products and services. This project has been running for around three years. It is focused on the effort to provide modern, clean, safe, and decentralized energy to the poorest people in developing countries. The technology seeks a solution to address the need for energy access in rural areas together with the problem of possible harmful emissions caused by an access of biogas. Therefore TNO developed an innovative technology called ‘the Biogas Socket’, which can transfer leftovers of biogas into electricity on a small scale. Consequently users of biogas household systems will not only to be able to cook with the produced biogas but they will also have access to low voltage electricity. They can use this electricity for lighting purposes, radio, charging mobile phones and other small appliances. For the implementation of the project TNO has teamed up with SNV and the BoP Innovation Center to co-create, develop and launch the Bio-Socket in African and Asian markets. Students from the TU Delft also contributed to the development of the project during some of its stages. TNO has started by developing an initial working prototype at a laboratory scale (TNO Eindhoven) to demonstrate the working principle. The next step was to find some possible partners with support from SNV, the local expert. They visited them, exchanged knowledge and gave demonstrations of the technology. Later TNO decided with whom (Rwandan Local Consortium) to partner up for further development and production of a local prototype that must be responsive to the real needs and conditions of the community. The main objective of the Bio-Socket project is the production of electricity out of biogas from biodigesters. TNO in collaboration with SNV and the BoP Innovation Center have been working mainly on developing an initial working prototype at a laboratory scale. The prototype has been designed and developed in TNO ?s laboratory in Eindhoven, with a focus on mainly technological aspects. In this next stage, the prototype that is still a proof of principle must be transferred for its further development, experimentation, design optimization and production. In this case to Rwanda, to assure that it will be responsive to the user and context needs and validate possibilities for local development and production. The general aims of this project are four folded. Firstly, to propose a comprehensive research protocol for early stages of product and business development on ¨how to translate, develop, test and evaluate technical innovations into developing countries¨. Secondly, to investigate opportunities for local or non-local development and production. Thirdly, to identify and describe the potential target group and accordingly provide suggestions for changes in the product (service) system to fit their needs. And finally to propose a business model that leads to a successful market introduction of the Bio-Socket in Rwanda. The strategic design perspective will support TNO to understand developing, production and market possibilities and challenges for the Bio-Socket in Rwanda, as well as to give a first approach for a business plan which target would be the BoP consumers in Rwanda. In order to develop this business plan it is necessary to answer the following research questions: 1. How can TNO transfer technical innovations to be developed, tested and produced by partners (developers and manufacturers) in developing countries? 2. How are the production infrastructure facilities and what are the capabilities of local producers? 3. What is the viability and are the market opportunities for the Bio-Socket in Rwanda?