Dr Cosmina Dorobantu

Cosmina joined The Alan Turing Institute in January 2018 to set up the public policy research programme. Starting from scratch in 2018, the programme now has 40+ full-time employees and 70+ affiliated researchers. Within the UK, more than public sector organisations reached out for help, and the programme's researchers conducted 100,000s of hours of work to support these organisations. Outside the UK, the programme has gained international recognition. The European Commission highlighted the value of the Turing’s public policy programme in its flagship policy report on AI, while the OECD identified the programme as a highly successful model in its primer on AI for the public sector.

Cosmina sits on the Financial Conduct Authority and the Bank of England's Financial Services Artificial Intelligence Public-Private Forum, as well as the Department for International Trade's Trade and Economy Panel. She is a regular participant in various working groups, such as the Regulators and AI working group and the London Emerging Tech Charter working group. She also sits on the Advisory Board of Patterns, a data science journal published by Cell Press. In the past, she was a member of the UK Government's Digital and Telecoms Expert Trade Advisory Group. 

Prior to joining the Institute, Cosmina was an Executive Director and co-founder of Aurora Energy Research, a company that now has 200 employees and is the UK’s leading energy market modelling and analytics firms. She also spent five years at Google, defining the company’s investment and business strategy in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. 

Cosmina has an MPhil (obtained with Distinction) and a DPhil (PhD) in Economics from the University of Oxford. She has been a Research Associate at the University's Oxford Internet Institute since 2018.

Since joining the Turing, Cosmina’s invited lectures, talks, and public appearances include:

• "Artificial Intelligence, Emerging Digital Technologies and Their Implications for Equality and Human Rights," panelist, Equality and Human Rights Exchange Network Event, 21 October 2021
• "Accountable AI -- A route to Effective Regulation," panelist in discussion focused on the UK Government's proposed reform of the GDPR accountability framework, Ada Lovelace Institute, 20 October 2021
• "AI in Financial Services: Turing Report Launch," invited talk, CogX, 14 June 2021
• "Digital Trade: How Research and the Real World Go Hand in Hand," invited talk, Oxford Internet Institute's Research in the Real World Seminar, University of Oxford,18 May 2021
• "Source Code Disclosure: A Primer for Trade Negotiators," invited lecture,  Addressing Impediments to Digital Trade Conference, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, 1 March 2021
• "Policy-making in a Crisis: Can Data Science and AI Help?" panellist in session focused on how new policy tools can support more agile and responsive science, technology, and innovation policy, What role for science, technology and innovation in building resilience? Workshop, OECD, 9 December 2020
• "Rethink Government with AI: Building Resilience in a Post-Covid World," invited lecture, UK Government's Permanent Secretaries Strategic Seminar,  4 December 2020
• "Common AI Capacity for the Regulators," invited talk, Regulators and AI Working Group, 1 December 2020
• "Modelling in the Time of COVID-19: What Can We Learn about Resilience?," invited talk, ICO Foresight Covid-19 Forum - Modelling Workshop, 18 November 2020
• "Policy Resilience in a Crisis: Can Data Science Help?," invited lecture, DigiTranScope Autumn Institute - Governance of Digitally Transformed Societies, European Commission's Joint Research Centre, 8 October 2020
• "Opportunities and Challenges for Data-Driven Research in Response to the Covid-19 Crisis," panelist in discussion on the promise and pitfalls of measuring the impact of Covid-19-related policy interventions, Data for Policy Conference, London (UK), 16 September 2020
• "Data Revolution: What Should Everyone Be Asking?," panelist in session focused on how citizens, politicians, and journalists can press for quality and responsibility in data science innovation, EuroScience Open Forum, Trieste (Italy), 5 September 2020
• "Social Data Science," panel moderator, CogX, London (UK), 8 June 2020
• "Digital Trade: How Research and the Real World Go Hand in Hand," invited talk, Oxford Internet Institute's Research in the Real World Seminar, University of Oxford, Oxford (UK), 5 May 2020
• "Digital Theme: Artificial Intelligence, Data Literacy, Programming and Digitalisation," panelist in discussion focused on highlighting the biggest innovations and drivers for change that we should consider when outlining a vision for the future of science education, Strategic Visioning Event for the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2024:  How Should STEM Education Prepare Young People for the Future?, London (UK), 25 February 2020
• "Rethink Government with Data Science and AI," invited lecture, Oxford Internet Institute's Digital Ethics Lab, University of Oxford, Oxford (UK), 24 February 2020
• "Machine Learning in Children's Social Care," hands-on seminar, 2nd Human Behaviour and Machine Intelligence (HUMAINT) Winter School on Fairness, Accountability and Transparency in Artificial Intelligence (part of ACM FAT* network), European Commission's Joint Research Centre, Seville (Spain), 23 January 2020
• "Rethink Government with Data Science and AI," invited lecture, 2nd Human Behaviour and Machine Intelligence (HUMAINT) Winter School on Fairness, Accountability and Transparency in Artificial Intelligence (part of ACM FAT* network), European Commission's Joint Research Centre, Seville (Spain), 23 January 2020
• "International E-commerce," panellist in session focused on the ways in which e-commerce challenges the current international trade regime and the key questions it poses for policy-makers and traders, Politics of Trade Conference, London (UK), 16 January 2020
• "Rethink Government with Data Science and AI," invited talk, Google People + AI Research Symposium on Participatory Machine Learning, London (UK), 14 November 2019
• "Ethical Technology: How Can Charities Make Sure Their Tech Doesn’t Have Unintended Consequences?," panelist in session focused on how data intensive technologies can improve people’s lives when used ethically and responsibly, Charity Technology Conference, London (UK), 6 November 2019
• "Is the World Becoming Flatter? A Services Perspective," presentation as part of working session titled "Rethinking Services Trade in the Digital World", World Trade Organisation Public Forum, Geneva (Switzerland), 8 October 2019
• "Data and the Professions," panellist in discussion on how to avoid a scenario where any organisation that wants data sets up a data trust, Data Trusts Workshop, Cambridge (UK), 23 September 2019
• "How Can Policy-Makers Use AI?" invited lecture, Artificial Intelligence Briefing, London Assembly, 12 September 2019
• "Where is AI Used in the Financial Sector and Why Does It Matter?," AI Ethics in the Financial Sector lecture, The Alan Turing Institute, London (UK), 16 July 2019
• "The Alan Turing Institute: An Introduction," presentation, Home Office's Data Analytics and Innovation Steering Group, London (UK), 9 July 2019
• "AI in Government: Why Ethics Matters," invited lecture, CogX, London (UK), 10 June 2019
• "The Alan Turing Institute's Public Policy Programme," invited talk, Audit Offices Meeting, hosted by the National Audit Office, London (UK), 4 June 2019
• "Digital Trade: A Story Told Through a Google Lens," presentation as part of session titled "Future of Global Trade," Cross Whitehall Trade Analysts’ Conference, London (UK), 2 May 2019
• "Roundtable on Regulation and Innovation," participant at roundtable discussion on how to create the regulatory environment needed for innovation to thrive, Better Regulation Executive, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, London (UK), 20 February 2019
• "A Little-Known Fact about Ad Targeting: A Story Told Through a Google Lens," invited talk, Royal Statistical Society's Roundtable on Competition in Digital Advertising, London (UK), 22 January 2019
• "Data Intensive Technologies: A Public Policy Perspective," invited lecture, International Organization of Securities Commissions' FinTech Network Workshop on Developing an Ethical Framework for AI, hosted by the Financial Conduct Authority, London (UK), 10 December 2018
• "Future Directions of AI: A European Perspective," panellist in roundtable on Europe's strengths in AI and where it should direct its future efforts, Artificial Intelligence Joint Research Centre Report and AI Watch Launch Event, European Commission, Brussels (Belgium), 5 December 2018
• "Why Policy Makers Should Embrace Data Science and AI," invited talk, Artificial Intelligence Joint Research Centre Report and AI Watch Launch Event, European Commission, Brussels (Belgium), 5 December 2018
• "The Alan Turing Institute's Public Policy Programme," invited talk, Government Data Science Community Meetup, hosted by the Office for National Statistics, London (UK), 5 November 2018
• "RSA's Forum for Ethical AI Final Citizen Jury," expert witness, London (UK), 13 October 2018
• "Digital Opportunities: What is the Role of Digital Technology in Enabling Trade?," panelist in session chaired by the Permanent Secretary, The Secretary of State’s for International Trade Future of Global Trade – Expert Forum: Unlocking the Next Round of Global Growth, Department for International Trade, London (UK), 27 June 2018
• "Rise of the Bots: Should Machines Be Making Decisions for Us?," panelist in debate on the ethics of algorithmic accountability in the development sector and among disadvantaged communities, Data for Development Festival, Bristol (UK), 23 March 2018