Nicholas Frank

Nicholas Frank is a Laureate Research Fellow at the Australian National University (ANU), based in the School of Regulation & Global Governance. Previously, he served as an Associate Lecturer in the School of Politics and International Relations at ANU. His research focuses on the political economy of trade and investment governance, employing computational methods such as inferential network analysis and text-as-data techniques.

Education:

• PhD in Regulation and Global Governance (ANU)
• MSc in International Political Economy (London School of Economics)
• Bachelor of Commerce (PPE, University of Cape Town)

Research Interests: Global trade policy, multinational enterprises, computational social science (network analysis, NLP), and health equity. His work bridges formal theory, econometrics, and policy analysis to address systemic inequities in trade and climate governance.

Collaborations and Affiliations:

• Consultant for the International Trade Centre (ITC) and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
• Previous roles at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD)

Key Research Trends: Recent articles emphasize leveraging machine learning, text analysis, and network approaches to study bilateral investment treaties, health equity in climate policies, and the political economy of growth models. His work often intersects with global health and planetary health frameworks.

Advising and Grants: Registered to supervise research students. His projects include the Planetary Health Equity Hothouse, focusing on interdisciplinary solutions to systemic inequities.

Labs/Teams: Active member of the Planetary Health Equity Hothouse, a cross-disciplinary initiative addressing global governance challenges.