Valeria Ramirez

I would like to nominate myself for a position on the EASST Council, bringing a multicultural background and a blend of experience from both academia and industry. Currently, I am a Research Associate at the University of Cambridge, focusing on research impact metrics, technology transfer, and university innovation. I completed my PhD at the Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Sciences Innovations Sociétés in Paris (LISIS–IFRIS) last year and have been lecturer at UGE and SciecesPo.

As a ‘mature ECR’, my journey has been unconventional. Before academia, I worked as a journalist in Mexico and then spent over a decade as a digital and communications consultant in Spain and France. I worked with clients in finance, pharmaceuticals, research institutes and start-ups, and one question kept coming up: ‘What’s the best KPI to measure digital communications?’ I never had a convincing answer—until a PhD in STS helped me see the bigger picture. That experience revealed the importance of bridging the gap between academia and industry, and how crucial it is to bring the visibility of the social dynamics into corporate spaces, often reliant on unchallenged metrics and technologies.

My interests, in the interface between different knowledge systems, translate into different perspectives on how STS can make a significant impact beyond academia. I am passionate about fostering interdisciplinary collaborations and building community partnerships and my experience in bridging cultures, sectors, and disciplines will contribute to EASST’s mission of engaging STS with real-world challenges.