People

Professor Simcha Jong joined University College London in June 2023. He has held visiting faculty positions at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and LUISS Business School. Simcha has a PhD in Social and Political Sciences from the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, an MPhil in Management Studies from the University of Cambridge, and a BA in Social Science from University College Utrecht. In addition, he was a visiting student at the Department of Sociology at UC Berkeley (1999-2000 and 2004). Simcha's research group studies the organisation of R&D in science-intensive industries, the changing dynamics governing academic work, and health system innovations. His research has been published in top international journals in management and innovation, and funded by major UK and EU funding bodies such as Innovate UK, ESRC, NESTA, NIHR, the Wellcome Trust, and the European Research Council, as well as various industry partners.

Dr. Anna-Lena joined the INSCONS project as a PhD candidate in January 2021 and completed her PhD as part of the project in July 2024. She is currently a research fellow with the project. Her current research focuses on science diplomacy, research security as well as European science, technology, and innovation policy.

Anna-Lena holds a BA in Politics, Administration and Organisation from the University of Potsdam, and a MA in International Relations from the Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin and the University of Potsdam. Prior to joining INSCONS, Anna-Lena worked as a Programme Manager at the Free University of Berlin and gained practical experience at the intersection of politics and science at The World Academy of Sciences, a UNESCO programme.

Dr. Jeongwon Choi joined the INSCONS project in August 2024 as a research fellow. Her research focuses on the organization of innovation, covering topics such as science and technology policy, international collaborations in science, and the role of AI in science and the economy.

Jeongwon holds a PhD in Public Policy with a specialization in Science and Technology Policy, an MA in Public Policy, and a BA in International Studies. Before pursuing her PhD, she worked as a researcher at the Science and Technology Policy Institute in Korea, where she contributed to the Korean delegation activities to the OECD Scientific and Technological Policy Committee and conducted various policy research.

Weijia Ding joined the INSCONS project as a research fellow in January 2025. Her research focuses on strategy, innovation, and entrepreneurial ecosystems, particularly on university spinouts, university-industry partnerships, and science, technology policy in fostering innovation ecosystems. She is dedicated to bridging academia and practice, providing real-world insights into innovation management and policymaking.

Weijia is completing her PhD at University College London, where she studies innovation-driven development, strategy, and entrepreneurship in emerging economies. She holds an MSc in Urban Regeneration from UCL and an MA (BA) in Design Management from Nanjing University. Her research contributes to offering insights into science and technology policymaking and innovation ecosystems. Prior to joining INSCONS, Weijia worked as a strategic consultant and manager in both the UK and China, supporting research institutions and technology transfer initiatives.

Dr. Dominika Czerniawska was part of the INSCONS project from April 2021 until January 2025. She obtained her doctoral degree in sociology from the University of Warsaw in 2019. Dominika did her doctoral and postdoctoral training at The Mitchell Centre for Social Network Analysis, University of Manchester and Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling, University of Warsaw. She specialises in social network methods, which she applies to sociological data. Dominika focuses on science, higher education, and gender issues. She is a recipient of many scholarships, including a scholarship of the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, University of Michigan, scholarship Etiuda from National Science Centre in Poland, and a scholarship of Ministry of Science and Higher Education for outstanding doctoral students. She is also the head of the research program of the Polonium Foundation, which associates Polish scientific diaspora around the world.

Richelle Boone joined the INSCONS project as a PhD candidate in September 2019 and is currently writing up her PhD thesis. She obtained a Bachelor of Science in Physics & Astronomy from Utrecht University in 2015 (cum laude), and a Master of Science in History & Philosophy of Science from the same university in 2018 (cum laude). Next to her work for the INSCONS project, she is currently co-leading the Next Generation Event Horizon Telescope (ngEHT) Governance Task Force and setting up the Open Fusion Collective. Previously she was a board member of the youth scientific think tank of a Dutch political party (2021), and a trainee in the Scientific Foresight Unit (STOA) of the European Parliamentary Research Service in Brussels (2019).

Within the INSCONS project, Richelle explores the organization and reorganization of knowledge production in the nuclear fusion community. She examines how shifts between epistemic traditions shape the community's field-wide organizational strategies, demonstrating how these strategies align with distinct modes of collective cognition.

Dr. Regien Sumo was part of the INSCONS project between May and October 2021. She studied Strategic Management and Finance, graduating 'Cum Laude' for her Master of Science within the School of Economics and Management at Tilburg University on the topic of 'Corporate venture capital and real option valuation'. During her master's year, she also studied Financial Investments at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2014, Regien received her Ph.D. degree within the Innovation, Technology Entrepreneurship & Marketing (ITEM) group of the school of Industrial Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology (The Netherlands). Her work has been published in numerous renowned international conference proceedings, such as AoM, IPSERA, and ICIM and have been published in high-quality ISI rated scientific journals.

Kaela Slavik was part of the INSCONS project from 2020 until 2023. Kaela has a Bachelor of Science majoring in Environmental and Marine Science from the University of Western Australia and an Erasmus Mundus Master of Environmental Science, Policy and Management (MESPOM). Before moving to the Netherlands, Kaela worked for two years at the international sustainability research platform Future Earth.

As part of the INSCONS team, Keala investigated how the structure and coordination of these organisations help or hinder their ability to achieve their objectives. Kaela is excited about the potential of the INSCONS project to inform and shape international collaborations in science in the future. Within the INSCONS project, Kaela focuses on the TLS case study and is supervised by Professor Simcha Jong, at the Science-Based Business group, and Professor Marja Spierenburg at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology.