Dr Faranak Hardcastle

My research addresses a public policy question, examined through a range of empirical cases: how the governance of data and evidence, and its communication to the public, should be designed and practised so that science and technology serve the public interest. This question has taken different forms across the cases I have studied in the past decade, from the governance of algorithmic and AI systems, through the governance of genomic and health data in Personalised Medicine, and, most recently, through the governance of evidence and risk in energy transition's convergence with climate change.    

To answer this question, I draw on insights from sociotechnical research (including Sociology, STS, Web/data Science) and science communication, collaborating across disciplines and sectors to develop and apply novel inter- and post-disciplinary approaches to understand challenges, and to design interventions that mobilise change.   

In my current role at CPAS, I am intrested in how the stories we tell about data, and its governance shape the relationship between science, society, and the environment, and how they shape our ability to seek, judge, communicate, and act on new forms of data and evidence. I am currently a Visiting Fellow in Primary Care, Population Sciences and Medical Education (University of Southampton).  

Prior to joining CPAS I worked as a Research Fellow at the Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, at University of Oxford, the department of Medicine at the University of Southampton, and the School of Sociology, Politics and International Relations at the University of Bristol.