Dr Rowena Rodrigues

Rowena develops and nurtures strategic global partnerships to promote responsible AI, drive innovation and research and support sustainable business growth.

Rowena’s prior experience includes co-leading the oversight and operational management of a multi-disciplinary research and innovation team. Rowena has expertise and a keen interest in the impact, governance, and policy dimensions of new and emerging technologies, with a strong focus on artificial intelligence. She has over 10 years of experience with EU funding programmes and has led or contributed to a wide range of research initiatives over the past 15 years. She has worked closely with a diverse set of internal and external stakeholders across all organisational levels, including policymakers, funding bodies, researchers from various disciplines, industry representatives, standardization bodies, ethics committees, civil society organizations, and the media. Her work is grounded in a commitment to responsible innovation and the development of inclusive, forward-thinking technology governance.

Rowena’s work has spannned research and consultancy in law (including human rights), ethics and the societal impacts of new and emerging technologies. She has deep expertise in  impact assessment (covering privacy, legal, ethical, socio-economic dimensions), comparative legal analysis, privacy and data protection (law, policy and practice). Rowena has a PhD in law and an LLM in Innovation, Technology & Law from the University of Edinburgh.

Rowena is the co-author of Ethics of Artificial Intelligence: Case Studies and Options for Addressing Ethical Challenges and co-editor of Privacy and Data Protection Seals. She has published widely in leading journals and is well-cited in the areas of AI, impact assessment, and ethics in research & innovation.