Stefaan Verhulst

Stefaan G. Verhulst is Co-Founder and Chief Research and Development Officer of the Governance Laboratory (The GovLab) at New York University (NYU) - an action research center focused on improving governance using advances in science and technology - including data and collective intelligence.

He is also, among other positions and affiliation, the Editor-in-Chief of Data & Policy, an open access journal by Cambridge University Press; the research director of the MacArthur Research Network on Opening Governance; Chair of the Data for Children Collaborative with Unicef; and a member of the High-Level Expert Group to the European Commission on Business-to-Government Data Sharing.

He is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), Yale University, Central European University and serves on numerous (advisory) boards, including Sparks and Honey, Center for Media, Data and Society, among others. He is also Founder and Curator in Chief of The Living Library.

In 2018 he was recognized as one of the 10 Most Influential Academics in Digital Government globally (as part of the Top 100 in Digital Government) by the global policy platform Apolitical.

At The GovLab, Stefaan Verhulst has developed and leads a range of impactful research initiatives that contribute to an enhanced understanding and improved practice of using data, science, and technology for decision and policymaking, including (non-inclusive list)

• Advancing our understanding of the value and challenges of re-using (or opening) data (and how to measure it): Open Data’s Impact (Projects: Open Data’s Impact; and the Open Data Policy Lab)
• Pioneering and establishing new public-private partnerships around data: Data Collaboratives (Project: Data Collaboratives);
• Developing a new research field and community, along with a new academic journal, around Data-Policy Interaction (Journal: Data & Policy (Cambridge University Press); and annual conference Data for Policy).
• Developing the Ethical and Policy Frameworks that can enable trusted and responsible data re-use for decision making (especially as it relates to vulnerable populations): Data Responsibility (Projects: Data Responsibility 4 Children)
• Establishing a new profession and network that can provide the human infrastructure for data-driven decision making: Data Stewards (Project: Data Stewardship).
• Transforming how we formulate questions that matter to decision-makers and society-at-large and that can be answered by data: New Science of Questioning (Project: the 100Questions Initiative);
• Exploring how Artificial intelligence and Collective Intelligence can work together to advance the way we solve problems: AI meets CI. (Project: key AI meets CI paper and project);
• Launching a new field of study: AI Localism - the governance and use of AI at the local level (Initiative: AI Localism).

Before joining NYU full time, Verhulst spent more than a decade as Chief of Research for the Markle Foundation, where he continues to serve as Senior Advisor. At Markle, an operational foundation based in New York City focused on leveraging and investing in new technologies to address critical public needs, he was responsible for overseeing strategic research on all the priority areas of the Foundation including, for instance: transforming health care using information and technology, re-engineering government to respond to new national security threats, improving people’s lives in developing countries by connecting them to information networks, changing education through information technology among other domains.

Previously at Oxford University, he was the UNESCO Chairholder in Communications Law and Policy for the UK where he co-founded and was the Head of the Program in Comparative Media Law and Policy, He was a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Socio Legal Studies and the Socio-Legal Fellow of Wolfson College, and is still an emeritus fellow at Oxford. He also taught several years at the London School of Economics. He was also Founder and Co-Director of the International Media and Info-Comms Policy and Law Studies (IMPS) at the University of Glasgow School of Law.

He has published widely - including seven books and numerous papers - and features regularly in the Harvard Business Review, the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Project Syndicate, The Conversation and other important outlets. He is asked regularly to present his findings at international conferences including TED, Collision, the World Data Forum and CogX.

Numerous organizations have sought his counsel as advisor or consultant - including the WorldBank; IDB, USAID, DFID, IDRC, AFP, the European Commission, Council of Europe, the World Economic Forum, UNICEF, OECD, Un-OCHA, UNDP and several other national and international bodies.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

• Verhulst, Stefaan. “Unlock the Hidden Value of Your Data.” Harvard Business Review, May 15, 2020.
• Oliver, Nuria, et al. “Mobile phone data for informing public health actions across the COVID-19 pandemic life cycle.” AAAS, April 27, 2020.
• Verhulst, Stefaan and Andrew Young. “Why we need responsible data for children,” The Conversation, March 23, 2020.
• Verhulst, Stefaan, Andrew J. Zahuranec, Andrew Young and Michelle Winowatan. “(Re-)Defining the Roles and Responsibilities of Data Stewards for an Age of Data Collaboration,” The GovLab, March 2020.
• Verhulst, Stefaan and Mona G. Sloane. “Realizing the Potential of AI Localism,” Project Syndicate, February 7, 2020.
• Verhulst, Stefaan G. “Re-Imagining ‘Action Research’ as a Tool for Social Innovation and Public Entrepreneurship,” The GovLab, February 2020.
• Vaitla, Bapu, Stefaan Verhulst, Linus Bengtsson, Marta C. Gonzalez, Rebecca Furst-Nichols, and Emily Courey Pryor. “The promise and perils of big gender data,” Nature Medicine, January 13, 2020.
• Verhulst, Stefaan, Andrew Young, Michelle Winowatan and Andrew J. Zahuranec. “Leveraging Private Data for Public Good: A Descriptive Analysis and Typology of Existing Practices,” The GovLab, October 2019.
• Verhulst, Stefaan, Andrew J. Zahuranec and Andrew Young. “Identifying Citizens’ Needs by Combining AI and CI: Building a Repository of Tools and an Evidence Base for Augmented Collective Intelligence,” The GovLab, September 2019.
• Verhulst, Stefaan and Andrew Young. “The Potential and Practice of Data Collaboratives for Migration” in Guide to Mobile Data Analytics in Refugee Scenarios, SpringerLink, September 7, 2019.
• Verhulst, Stefaan, Sharing Private Data for Public Good, Project Syndicate, August 2019
• Verhulst, Stefaan and Andrew Young. “The Potential and Practice of Data Collaboratives for Migration.” Stanford Social Innovation Review, March 29, 2018. .
• Stefaan Verhulst, Andrew Young, Hannah Pierce, Jeffrey Brown, "People-Led Innovation: Toward a Methodology for Solving Urban Problems in the 21st Century", (Social Science Research Network, March, 2018)
• Stefaan Verhulst, "TALKING MIGRATION DATA: Using big data to understand migration (part 2)", (Migration Data Portal, March, 2018)
• Stefaan Verhulst, "Where and when AI and CI meet: exploring the intersection of artificial and collective intelligence towards the goal of innovating how we govern", (Social Science Research Network, February, 2018)
• Stefaan Verhulst, "Data Collaboratives can transform the way civil society organisations find solutions – Part II", (Disrupt & Innovate, February, 2018)
• Stefaan Verhulst, "Data Collaboratives can transform the way civil society organisations find solutions – Part I", (Disrupt & Innovate, February, 2018)
• Stefaan Verhulst and Andrew Young, "How the Data That Internet Companies Collect Can Be Used for the Public Good", (Harvard Business Review, January, 2018)
• Francois van Schalkwyk, Stefaan Verhulst, Gustavo Magalhaes, Juan Pane & Johanna Walker, "The Social Dynamics of Open Data", (African Minds, December, 2017)
• Stefaan Verhulst, "From #Resistance to #Reimagining governance: 6 shifts that can improve the way we solve public problems", (OpenDemocracy, December, 2017)
• Stefaan Verhulst and Andrew Young, "Open Data in Developing Economies: Toward Building an Evidence Base on What Works and How", (African Minds, November, 2017)
• Stefaan Verhulst, "Augmented CI and Human-Driven AI: How the Intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Collective Intelligence Could Enhance Their Impact on Society", (Opening Governance, November, 2017)
• Stefaan Verhulst and Andrew Young, "The Potential of Social Media — Intelligence to Improve People’s Lives: Social Media Data for Good", (Social Science Research Network, September, 2017)
• Stefaan Verhulst, "Stefaan Verhulst: Unlocking Private Data for Public Good", (Tech at Bloomberg, July, 2017)
• Stefaan Verhulst and Andrew Young, "How open data can help the Global South, from disaster relief to voter turnout", (The Conversation, July, 2017)
• Stefaan Verhulst, "How Social Media Data Can Improve People's Lives - If Used Responsibly", (The Conversation, April, 2017)
• Thilo Klein and Stefaan Verhulst, "Access to New Data Sources for Statistics: Business Models and Incentives for the Corporate Sector", (Paris21, March, 2017)
• Stefaan Verhulst, "Corporate Social Responsibility for a Data Age", (Stanford Social Innovation Review, February, 2017)
• Stefaan Verhulst, "THE PRACTICE AND CRAFT OF MULTISTAKEHOLDER GOVERNANCE", (Global Partners Digital, September, 2017)
• Stefaan Verhulst, "Data responsibility: a new social good for the information age", (Medium, September, 2017)
• Stefaan Verhulst and Andrew Young, "The Global Impact of Open Data: Key Findings from Detailed Case Studies Around the World", (O'Reilly, September, 2016)
• Beth Noveck and Stefaan Verhulst, "Encouraging and Sustaining Innovation in Government", (IBM, August, 2016)
• JOS BERENS, ULRICH MANS AND STEFAAN VERHULST, "Mapping and Comparing Responsible Data Approaches", (GovLab blog, June, 2016)
• Stefaan Verhulst et al., "Building data responsibility into humanitarian action", (UNOCHA, May, 2016)
• Stefaan Verhulst and Andrew Young, "Open Data Impact: When Demand and Supply Meet", (GovLab, March, 2016)