Digital Policy: Insights & Trends Webinar 9th June 2023

The Advance Centre - Professional Education for Digital Transformation would like to invite you to our next in series lunchtime webinar on 9th June at 12-13.00.

 Overview

Our Professional Certificate in Digital Policy is a high-level educational offering from the UCD Centre for Digital Policy. With the fast pace of new emerging digital technologies, this innovative and unique course is targeted to government, industry, civil society and academia to address the increased demand for digital policy knowledge and skills. Our Professional Certficate takes a multi-disciplinary approach to investigating the institutional and public policy dimensions of the prevalence of digital technology, as well as the underlying social conditions (economic, political and cultural). Our programmes were designed by a combination of government officials, industry figures, civil society representatives and academics so that the content, lecturers and format are tailored for those with most interest.  It will include lectures and hands-on workshops with members from these stakeholder groups.

Join us to gain valuable insights into current trends and research in this field to develop or refresh the skills required for digital policy capability in Ireland, Europe and beyond.

 Speakers:

Dr Elizabeth Farries (she/her) is a Director of the UCD Centre for Digital Policy. Her research interests lie at the intersection of tech and regulation. Her peer-reviewed articles have appeared in Social Science & Medicine and Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space in relation to data democratisation and online harms. She has a forthcoming book with others with Rutledge on Digital Platforms and Cancel Culture. She is also a regularly invited contributor to parliamentary and United Nations policy discussions. Assistant professor Farries has contributed to public policy decisions on image-based sexual abuse, digital identity, policing facial recognition technologies, and data retention. A qualified barrister and solicitor and former NGO director, Elizabeth builds research and expert networks around her subject matter in order to generate submissions, reports and legal interventions.

Ciarán Conlon is Director, Government Affairs and he supports the government outreach and policy work of Microsoft in Ireland and is also a member of the Microsoft WE team, after 4 years with the policy team in Brussels.  Before joining Microsoft, Ciarán held research and teaching positions in Economics, worked as a Research Economist with Ireland’s largest trade association before spending 8 years as Spokesman and Adviser to former Taoiseach (Prime Minister), Enda Kenny and another 5 years as Special Policy Adviser to Richard Bruton during his 5-year period as Enterprise Minister.  Ciarán has a master’s degree in Economics from UCD, Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, a postgraduate Diploma in Strategy, Innovation and Change from the Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business and Prof. Certificate in Digital Policy Studies from UCD.  He was appointed by the Irish Government to sit on the National Competitiveness and Policy Council in 2019 and to the Grant Approval Committee of Science Foundation Ireland in 2020 and has been a member of the Irish Government’s Data Forum since 2018.

Jet Klokgieters is a Research Assistant with the Centre for Digital Policy and past student of the Centre’s MSc in Digital Policy.Her research interests lie in identifying obstacles and finding solutions to the 4th Industrial Revolution, in areas such as e-government and digital poverty. Prior to coming to Dublin, she studied Interdisciplinary Social Science and Sociology at Utrecht University (The Netherlands). During this time, she did an internship at the Horizon 2020 project ‘SOLIDUS’. She also worked as a student assistant to Professor Kees van den Bos; she assisted him with the writing of his book ‘Why People Radicalize".