School of Social and Political Science

Research interests

My research examines the social, political and policy dimensions of the life sciences. I am particularly interested in how science and technology are made and governed, and how they might be re-made and governed in ways that are more democratic or environmentally beneficial than they are currently. In practice, I work in close proximity to a range of people floating around in the life sciences including scientists, policy makers, administrators public groups or artists. I use insights from Science and Technology Studies to make sense of what is going on, and often do so collaboratively.

With Jane Calvert, I lead a group of researchers working on the social and political dimensions of synthetic biology. My research has been funded by ARIA, ESRC, BBSRC, The British Academy and the Norwegian Research Council amongst others.

A lot of my work happens under the label of responsible innovation -- I'm advisor on responsible innovation to several public funding organisations and Edinburgh Innovations, the University's innovation organisation. I convene the Edinburgh Hub on Responsible Innovation and also run training on responsible innovation to PhD cohorts and professionals outside the university. During 2025 and 2026 I am part-time seconded to the UK Government Office for Science to help develop a social scientific work programme on Technology for Societal Benefit.

Keywords

Science policy, Synthetic biology, Emerging biotechnologies, Public value, Governance of science and technology, Collaborative methods, Research funding, Responsible innovation, Science and technology studies, Biofuels, Gene Drive, Synthetic Genomics, Plants

Current projects

1. Cultivating responsible innovation for plant synthetic genomics through experimental governance. (2025-28) Principal Investigator w/ CoIs Sarah Hartley and Adrian Ely. UK Advanced Research and Invention Agency.
2. Developing a Programme on Technology in Society at the UK Government Office for Science (2025-26) ESRC Impact Accelerator Account Policy Placement.
3. Global Centers: Reliable and Scalable Biofoundries for Biomanufacturing and Global Bioeconomy. (2025-30) Co-Investigator and WP Co-Lead w/ PI: Huimin Zhao, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. US NSF, UKRI, JST, RCF and National Research Foundation of Korea.
4. A Programme for Responsible Research and Innovation in Materials and Health Funding. (2024–29) PI w/Co-Is Ellen-Marie Forsberg (Norsus) and Michael Bernstein (AIT). Norwegian Research Council.
5. Engineered Genetic Control Systems for Advanced Therapeutics Hub (2024-29) Co-I w/ PI Susan Rosser and Co-Is Steven Pollard, Andrew Baker, Diego Oyarzún, Giovanni Stracquadanio, Jane Calvert, Owen Sansom, Jennifer Morton, Daniel Murphy, Mark Isalan, Geoff Baldwin, Alexander Douglas, Deborah Gill and Stephen Hyde, plus rCo-I Adam Mol. UKRI Engineering Biology Mission Hubs.
6. Building a Responsible Research Ecosystem for Engineering Biology. (2024-28) International Collaborator w/PI Koichi Mikami, Keio University. JST RISTEX.

Completed projects

1. RRI Lead for Centres for Doctoral Training in Chemical Biology, Next Generation Synthesis and Convergence
   Technologies in Cancer Research (2023-24) PI w/ Co-Is Sophie Stone and Reuben Message. Imperial College London.
2. Piloting responsible innovation in the University of Edinburgh’s devolved funding programmes. (2023) PI. EPSRC IAA Secondment.
3. Exploring methods of RRI that intervene in places and spaces of scientific practice. (2023) PI w/Co-Is Sophie
   Stone. BBSRC Transition Award MicroFund.
4. Critical Codes: Ethical Codes of Conduct as a mode of governance for emerging technologies. (2022) PI w/Co-Is Matjaz Vidmar and Filippo Cuttica. New America Foundation.
5. Future Organisms: Synthetic Genomics and Responsible Research and Innovation in the UK, the USA and Japan. ESRC-NSF SBE Lead Agency Award 2021-2024 (CoI; PI: Jane Calvert, w/ Co-Is Erika Szymanski and Koichi Mikami).
6. UK Centre for Mammalian Synthetic Biology. BBSRC, EPSRC and MRC Synthetic Biology Research Centre Award (PI: Susan Rosser, Co-I: Jane Calvert).
7. Strengthening gene drive governance for malaria control in Africa. Research England Global Challenges Research Fund 2021. (Co-I; PI - Sarah Hartley)
8. Inclusive and international risk assessment: Building a framework for gene drive organisms through collaboration. British Academy Knowledge Frontiers 2020 Award (Co-I; PI - Sarah Hartley).
9. Building Capacity for Responsible Innovation in International Biotechnology Policy Organisations. ESRC Impact Accelerator Award 2019. (PI w/ CoIs Thoko Kamwendo and Jane Calvert)
10. Supporting Best Practice Responsible Research & Innovation in the ERA-Net CoFund on Biotechnology Research Programme. Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council 2019 (PI, Co-I’s Jane Calvert, Deborah Scott and Thoko Kamwendo).
11. Co-developing risk assessment across disciplines and borders: Gene drive mosquito field trials in Uganda. British Academy Knowledge Frontiers 2018 Award (Co-I; PI - Sarah Hartley).
12. Developing a framework for Responsible Research and Innovation in ERA CoBioTech. Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, 2017 (Co-PI w/ Jane Calvert).

PhD Topics

I am very happy to supervise anybody with an interest in topics like: biology and how it is made; public and political issues in the life sciences; and the governance of science and technology. 

At the moment I'm particularly interested in plants, the international governance of biofoundries and photography as a mode of representing science.

Current PhD Students

Beren Sekerci - A New Class of Artefact? Exploring the Intersection of Materials Synthetic Biology and Biorobotics

Vardev Sachdev - Exploring the neocolonial notions of Biosfaety and Biosecurity in Southeast Asia

Completed PhD Students

Mayline Strouk - Free as a bird? Geography of seabird ornithologists' mobilities to the field in the Anthropocene (No corrections!)

Sophie Stone - Exploring the place of the human in mammalian synthetic biology practices

Publications

You can get publications from my website above, and some of them are on the University of Edinburgh explorer. (Click the publications tab at the top of this page).