People

Research Fellow, RoRI

Josie Coburn is a Research Fellow in Metascience at RoRI at the Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy (STEaPP) at University College London (UCL). She is an interdisciplinary social scientist with a portfolio of interests including:

• Metascience (research on research / science of science), including how research is funded, organised, practiced and evaluated, and research and innovation funding experimentation;
• The desirability and feasibility of targeting research to address societal needs, how and why research directions evolve over time (e.g. serendipity, failure, and other aspects of research processes and research environments);
• Opening up decision-making in science, technology and innovation, and the appraisal and evaluation of research and innovation policies and strategies.

Josie works in a range of fields including health and biomedicine, energy and sustainability, and AI and ICTs. She uses a variety of methods including qualitative, scientometric, and hybrid methods. For example, Josie is skilled in Multicriteria Mapping (MCM), a hybrid quantitative-qualitative method for opening up complex decision making by mapping different perspectives on a range of options and taking into account uncertainty.

Before joining RoRI, Josie worked at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the University of Sussex as a Research Fellow. She has a PhD in Science and Technology Policy Studies funded by the ERC; MSc’s in Public Policies for Science, Technology and Innovation funded by the ESRC, and in Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems funded by the EPSRC; and a BA in Artificial Intelligence. She also has 4 years’ experience as an Analyst Programmer and Systems Analyst in large and small ICT firms.

Some recent publications include:

Coburn, J., 2024. Targeting diseases with research: benefits, limitations, cross-disease spillovers and researchers’ perspectives. Thesis. Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.

Coburn, J., Yaqub, O., Ràfols, I., Chataway, J., 2024. Cross-disease spillover from research funding: Evidence from four diseases. Soc. Sci. Med. 349, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.116883

Yaqub, O., Coburn, J., Moore, D.A.Q., 2024. Research-targeting, spillovers, and the direction of science: Evidence from HIV research-funding. Res. Policy 53, 105076. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2024.105076

Coburn, J., Yaqub, O., Chataway, J., 2023. Targeting research to address societal needs : What can we learn from 30 years of targeting neglected diseases ?, in: Lepori, B., Jongbloed, B., Hicks, D. (Eds.), Handbook of Public Research Funding. Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd, Cheltenham, UK, pp. 156–171.

Coburn, J., Stirling, A., Bone, F., 2019. Multicriteria Mapping: Version 3.0. Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.