Anne Blanchard

My background is in Science and Technology Studies, and my overall research interest is about how knowledge is used, and shaped, to inform social and political decision-making processes around complex and uncertain issues.

I wrote my PhD (defended in 2011) about ‘reflexive interdisciplinarity’, looking at how interdisciplinary dynamics emerge and develop, and how they come to shape the science-policy interface for climate change.

Then, using a post-normal science approach, I looked at how (uncertain) marine science was used to guide decision-making in the pressing topic of whether or not to open Northern Norway to oil exploration, and how local voices came to shape the debates in important ways.

In the last few years, I have slightly changed my focus to do ELSA-type research (Ethical, Legal and Social Aspects of emerging technologies) in the context of precision cancer research, as part of my affiliation with the Centre for Cancer Biomarkers. Here, together with PhD candidates, post-docs and junior researchers, we look at the social and political context of cancer research, and question the premise of precision oncology in the context of highly complex and uncertain cancer biology. 

Since mid-2020, I am also leading the AFINO Research School, where I organise teaching/learning activities to critically look at Responsible Research and Innovation, its implementation, its evaluation, and its links to interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research. Further looking at what responsible research means, I am part of the SeMPER-Arctic project where I help nurture reflexivity within the consortium on conducting caring and responsible narrative research in the Arctic.