Kalpana Shankar

Professor Kalpana Shankar is a Full Professor at the School of Information and Communication Studies at University College Dublin (UCD). She holds roles such as former Head of School (2015-2018) and Co-Director of the UCD Centre for Digital Policy. Her research focuses on data management, peer review processes, research evaluation, and digital policy, with notable projects funded by Science Foundation Ireland, the Irish Research Council, and the U.S. National Science Foundation. Key contributions include studies on the sustainability of social science data archives and peer review at SFI.

• Education: PhD in Library and Information Science from UCLA, postdoctoral fellowships at UCLA (Center for Embedded Networked Sensing) and NIH (Science Policy).
• Professional Roles: Editor-in-Chief of Online Information Review, member of the Royal Irish Academy’s Equity Diversity and Inclusion committee, and representative on the National Open Research Forum (NORF).
• Teaching: Coordinator for UCD’s MSc/Diploma in Digital Policy and PhD supervision in critical data studies, open data, and research evaluation.

Research Interests: Sociotechnical imaginaries of data, peer review fairness, digital policy frameworks, and the impact of pandemic responses on academia. Awards include the 2020 UCD College of Social Sciences and Law Teaching Excellence Award.