About us

Digital technologies underpin all areas of society and the economy, from work to leisure to political participation. However, as technological developments in the field of digital and data science accelerate, balancing the rights of citizens while investing in the possibilities afforded by digital technologies remains tricky for legislators, policy makers, and the private sector alike. New technologies emerge and create new challenges even as organisations and governments struggle with creating appropriate responses for today.

Challenges in digital policy arise for numerous reasons, across all sectors, and evolve quickly. It is often the case that those with the knowledge and skills to develop new technologies are not aware of the broader implications of these new technologies. On the other hand, those tasked with developing, implementing, and evaluating governance and policy in the digital arena are not familiar with the ways in which technologies evolve or their potential effects and consequences. The universe of complex digital technologies is vast; there is no simple “one shot fix” that can govern all technologies.

The members of the UCD Centre for Digital Policy believe that policy making and evaluation must be deliberative, emergent, and iterative, with sociocultural values at their core. Such an ambitious agenda will require working with stakeholders and beneficiaries to:

  • To develop effective and evidence-based formal and informal regulation and institutional digital policies,
  • to maintain such policies over time, and
  • to foreground urgent issues of sustainability, equity, and human rights.

Our People

The members of the centre draw on interdisciplinary methods from computing, law, design, human rights, and social science to create policy, amplify positive effects on society (especially vulnerable citizens, who may include women, people of colour, the poor, and migrants, children, and others), and study policymaking across technologies and sectors.

Assistant professor, School of Business

Quinn DuPont is an assistant professor in the School of Business at University College Dublin. He studies cyber, crypto, and code. He is an expert in...

Associate Professor, School of Politics and International Relations

I am an assistant professor in the School of Politics and International Relations at University College Dublin, a Jean Monnet Chair, and co-founder...

Professor of Linguistics

Bettina Migge is professor of Linguistics in the UCD School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics and has been its head of School since 2016. She...

Professor of Information and Organisation

Donncha Kavanagh joined the MIS Subject Area as Professor of Information & Organisation, in April 2013. His research interests include the...

Established in collaboration with Microsoft in Ireland and in Brussels

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