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- Associate Professor in Regulation, Innovation and Public Policy
- STEaPP
- Faculty of Engineering Science
Dr Irina Brass is Associate Professor in Regulation, Innovation and Public Policy at UCL Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy (STEaPP). Her research interests are in the regulation of emerging technologies and the governance of responsible innovation.
Dr Brass is Principal Investigator of the REG-MEDTECH Project in the PETRAS National Centre of Excellence for IoT Systems Cybersecurity (EPSRC), looking at the regulatory and standardization challenges of connected, intelligent medical devices. She is also Co-Investigator in the Future Targeted Healthcare Manufacturing Hub (EPSRC), where she leads a project on adaptive regulatory strategies for advanced biotherapeutics. Between 2016-2019, she was part of the Standards, Governance and Policy Stream of the PETRAS IoT Research Hub. Dr Brass works closely with government departments, agencies, national and international standards-making bodies. Between 2017-2021, she was Chair of the IoT/1 Technical Committee at BSI, the UK national standards body. In 2019, she received the prestigious BSI Standards-Makers Award for Education about Standardisation. Since 2020, she is member of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee, advising the BSI Board of Directors on the preparation of British Standards.
In 2020, Dr Brass won the UCL Provost’s Education Award for her contribution to research-led teaching and learning. She has a background in public policy, regulation and standardization, with research that spans across radio spectrum management for mobile and wireless communications, cybersecurity and safety regulations, data protection, and competition policy. She holds a PhD in Government from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
Dr Brass’ research sits at the intersection of public administration, technology policy and the regulation of innovation. She is specifically interested in anticipatory and adaptive regulatory frameworks and governance models designed to respond to the emerging risks and uncertainties associated with disruptive technologies. She takes a broad approach to the notion of ‘regulation’ and has great interest in the role that non-conventional actors – such as epistemic communities – play in the regulatory governance of sociotechnical risk. Her work has focused on the regulatory and standardisation challenges associated with emerging digital technologies (IoT, ML, AS) as well as advanced biotherapeutics for personalised healthcare (ATMPs). She adopts a socio-technical approach to her work and frequently collaborates with engineers, economists and legal scholars.
Dr Brass leads the MPA in Digital Technologies and Policy at UCL and convenes the following courses:
- Public Administration
- Emerging Dilemmas in Digital Technology Policy
- Risk Assessment and Governance
Dr Brass has coordinated MPA Group Projects on the following topics: responsible governance of e-identification systems; the standardisation needs of IoT SMEs; and the standardization and regulatory challenges of connected and intelligent medical devices.
Prior to this, Dr Brass was a Teaching Fellow at UCL, co-designing a unique executive education programme in Regulation and Public Policy with the Vodafone Group, and working as Adjunct Assistant Professor in International Relations at Richmond University in London.
01-OCT-2020 | Associate Professor | Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy (STEaPP) | UCL, United Kingdom |
SEP-2017 – SEP-2020 | Lecturer in Regulation, Innovation and Public Policy | Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy (STEaPP) | UCL, United Kingdom |
SEP-2016 – SEP-2017 | Research Associate, PETRAS IoT | Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy (STEaPP) | UCL, United Kingdom |
SEP-2015 – AUG-2016 | Assistant Professor (Adjunct) | International Relations | Richmond The American International University in London, United Kingdom |
SEP-2015 – JAN-2016 | Teaching Fellow | Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy (STEaPP) | UCL, United Kingdom |
SEP-2014 – MAY-2016 | Teaching Assistant | LSE100 | London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom |
OCT-2010 – MAY-2012 | Teaching Assistant | Government | London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom |