My research interests and previous research projects cover topics like the role of discourse and language in international relations and diplomacy, developments in EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy, cybersecurity, environmental, enlargement, develoment policies, as well as digital and data policies, including data spaces, AI regulation (AI Act), digital services (DSA) and data protection (GDPR). I specialise in policy analysis and qualitative research methods, but have over a decade of wider research experience in international relations and political theory, quantitative and mixed methods, as well as research impact, communication and dissemination.
Current research projects:
ATHENA – “An exposition on the foreign information manipulation and interference” will contribute to the protection of the democratic process by empowering the EU and its citizens to detect, analyse, and counter foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI). ATHENA works to combat FIMI through improved detection of FIMI, reviewing and developing FIMI countermeasures, sharing novel methods with policymakers, academics, educators and the public. ATHENA aims to review the FIMI landscape, analyse the short and long-term behavioural and societal effects of FIMI, develop novel technical tools like a disinformation toolbox and dashboard, train stakeholders on FIMI detection, and prepare policy recommendations and public awareness programmes.
TITAN – Trusted environments for confidential computing and secure data sharing is a project that develops secure and trustworthy confidential and sensitive data processing and sharing capabilities, and demonstrates them in the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) ecosystem. The sharing of sensitive data will follow FAIR data and open science principles. The project puts significant emphasis on privacy preservation and AI technological solutions in line with existing ethical, regulatory and legal EU boundaries. The developed open-source software platform will focus mostly on the two use cases present in the project: government data and healthcare. In this project I lead the work package that co-develops a requirements list for the software platform that includes legal, regulatory and ethical, as well as technical, functional and non-functional requirements. I also contribute to the methodology for assessing anonymisation techniques of sensitive data.
Finished reserach projects:
CYBERSPACE – Shedding light on cybercrime. The project aims to provide policymakers, law enforcement agencies and the private sector with a more comprehensive understanding of cyberattacks and cybercrime in the EU. The project used research and insights to develop investigative tools, improve information sharing, and better detection, response and prevention of cybercrime. The projects campaigns improved public awareness and stimulated stakeholders to report cyberattacks to LEAs and CERTs. CYBERSPACE developed and enhanced investigative and forensic tools to strengthen the capacity of LEAs to investigate cybercrime and cyberattacks, and provided LEAs, policymakers and the private sector with a better picture of the extent of cybercrime and cyberattacks in the EU. I contributed to a systematic literature review on responses to cyberattacks across European and American literature and develop a series of policy recommendations and briefs. I also chaired a working group that fostered cross-border collaboration between LEAs and the private sector to tackle cybercrime together.
GLOBUS – Reconsidering European Contributions to Global Justice is a research project that critically examines the European Union’s contribution to global justice. ombining normative and empirical research GLOBUS explores underlying political and structural obstacles to justice. Analyses of the EU’s positions and policies are combined with in-depth studies of non-European perspectives on the practices of the EU. Particular attention is paid to the fields of migration, trade and development, cooperation and conflict, as well as climate change.
INCOOP – Research network on inter-and intra-institutional cooperation in the EU. I was working on intra-institutional cooperation within the Council of the EU and its surrounding institutions (working groups, agencies, committees). As part of this project I also wrote my PhD Dissertation “Discourse formation in the EU CFSP/ESDP: The role of non-elected actors in the policymaking process before and after Lisbon”. Particularly, I analysed the lower levels of the CFSP/ESDP policy making process and the role of non-elected actors on setting the overall EU foreign policy discourse. I analysed and theorised the decision making process in Brussels in order to understand why and when the EU deploys missions abroad. More particularly I looked at the EU’s three mission in the Horn of Africa, which aims to fight piracy off the coast of Somalia.