The Intersection of AI and Civil Society
In 2022, Achim received funding for the project “Strengthening the Role of Civil Society in the Global Artificial Intelligence (AI) Landscape”, which was conducted in collaboration with Dr. Doaa Abu Elyounes from UNESCO’s Bioethics and Ethics of Science and Technology Section. Funded by a UKRI QR participatory grant, and co-funded by UNESCO, this project led to the development of a global repository of CSOs focused on AI’s social and ethical impacts. This repository and project laid the foundation for UNESCO's Global CSO and Academic Network on AI Ethics and Policy, that was launched in July 2025. In his role as an expert consultant for UNESCO’s Ethics of AI Unit, Achim currently coordinates the Network’s development in its initial phase.
Other Projects on AI, Digital Innovation, and Data
As a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Computing and Social Responsibility (CCSR) at De Montfort University, Achim developed and coordinated work on the responsible governance of AI and digital data in various projects, since 2020:
Ethics of brain-inspired AI and robotics applications:
From 2020 to 2023, he coordinated an interdisciplinary team that investigated the ethical, societal and philosophical dimensions of brain-inspired AI and neurorobotics research, as part of the EU-funded Human Brain Project (HBP). In collaboration with AI researchers, neuroscientists and other stakeholders, this programme explored governance issues related to the commercialisation and international transfer of emerging AI technologies.
This research has led to publications in the Artificial Intelligence Review, the Journal of Responsible Innovation, Intelligent Medicine, the Journal of Responsible Technologies, co-authorship of the Human Brain Project’s Opinion on Trust and Transparency in AI, as well as research briefs for the European Commission and Europe’s Research Infrastructure for Brain Research.
Bridging UNESCO’s Recommendation on Science and Scientific Researchers (RSSR) and the SDGs:
In collaboration with April Tash (Research, Policy and Foresight Section, UNESCO) and Gordon Dalton (PLOCAN, coordinator of the EU-funded “Responsible Research and Innovation Networked Globally” project), he coordinated an international team of ten researchers. This partnership focused on identifying options to implement the actions outlined in UNESCO’s RSSR to address key challenges hindering the responsible and effective use of science and technology innovation for the SDGs, including for AI and data-intensive technologies. This work resulted in an edited research report with recommendations submitted to the European Commission and UNESCO.
Key findings from this research will be published as a Policy Paper by UNESCO’s Management of Social Transformations Programme (post peer-review, awaiting final approval for publication in 2025-26).
Other Research Projects
Responsible Research and Innovation in the UK's Biotech Industry (2018 – 2019, University of Exeter)
Funded by: Innovate UK
Role: Lead Researcher Social Science
Project: ReAlChem (PI: Susan Molyneux-Hodgson)
Partners: 4 small-to-mid size UK biotech corporations
This project focused on the feasibility and adoption of responsible research and innovation ideas in the UK biotech industry. It examined emerging practices, meanings and challenges to the implementation of responsible innovation in the private sector. It involved interviews, documentary research and observations at UK biotech corporations.
Publications: Findings from this project were published in the Journal of Responsible Innovation, Trends in Biotechnology, and the Biochemist blog.
Human Germ Line Gene Editing in Global Context: Challenges and Needs from a UK Perspective (2016 – 2018, University of Warwick)
Funded by: Wellcome Trust
Role: Project Lead
Partners: Christine Hauskeller (University of Exeter), Margaret Sleeboom-Faulkner (University of Sussex), Brigitte Nerlich (University of Nottingham), Sarah Hartley (University of Exeter), Nick Lee (University of Warwick), and Xinqing Zhang (Chinese Academy of the Medical Sciences).
Website: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/ces/research/current/humangermlinegene
This project examined the ethical, social, and regulatory issues that arise from the uptake of human germ line gene editing (HGE) research in a diverse international environment, that is characterized by differences in regulatory frameworks, human values and scientific, corporate and health care cultures. The project investigated challenges to human germ line editing in the following three areas:
The impact of international regulatory variation
The management of shared global risks
The realisation of responsible research collaborations.
Publications: An article in the Hastings Centre Report, a book chapter with Routledge. Findings from this project have also informed publications in: Biosocieties (below) and Regenerative Medicine.
The Regulatory and Legal Situation of Germline Gene Editing in the People’s Republic of China (2017, University of Warwick)
Project funded by: Nuffield Council on Bioethics
Role: Project Lead
Partners: Xinqing Zhang (CAMS, Peking), Li Jiang (University of Soochow)
This project has examined the regulatory and legal landscape for human gamete, embryo and germ line genome editing in the People’s Republic of China. Relevant policies and provisions were discussed in relation to a variety of historical, socio-economic, political and cultural factors that shape bio-medical innovation in China, and that influence issues such as implementation, enforcement, levels of compliance, as well as public opinions and debates on human germ line research.
Publications: A 14.000 word background briefing paper published by the Nuffield Council of Bioethics; an article in Biosocieties, a commentary in Anthropology.
Stem Cell Politics: Evidence-based medicine and its discontents (2015-2017, University of Warwick)
Funded by: Career Development Fellowship, University of Warwick
Role: Project Lead (2015-2017). This project built on previous work conducted at the ESRC & ERC funded Centre for Bionetworking at the
University of Sussex in 2013, director: Margaret Sleeboom-Faulkner
This project investigated processes of regulatory diversification in regenerative medicine research, and the emerging of an international politics of opposition and alter-standardization, in which the use of randomized controlled trials and evidence-based medicine standards were increasingly contested. This project involved documentary research and interviews with scientists and policy makers in China and South America.
Publications: This project has led to a double special issue in Regenerative Medicine, an edited book volume with Springer Nature and a special issue in Science as Culture (in progress). It has also led to an online educational resource (published together with colleagues of the Horizon 2020-funded EuroStemCell project, of the University of Edinburgh) as well as articles in Regenerative Medicine; Science as Culture (accepted); Science and Public Policy; Ciencia, Docencia y Tecnologia; Sociologias (under review), as well as two book chapters with Elsevier Academic Press and Springer Nature.
Multipolar Technoscience: clinical research collaborations in a changing world system (PhD, 2014, University of Sussex)
Funded by: ESRC (International Science and Bioethics Collaborations Project, PI: Marilyn Strathern)
Role: PhD Candidate
Supervisors: Margaret Sleeboom-Faulkner & Maya Unnithan
This project (PhD research) involved 15 months of fieldwork in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan and has focused on the formation of a trans-continental clinical trial infrastructure for neurodegenerative disorders. It has been concerned with processes of ethical governance and capacity building in a context of global inequalities and differences and the emergence of transnational forms of patient activism.
Publications: Findings from this research have been published in Social Science & Medicine, Social Studies of Science, Biosocieties, Science and Technology Studies, as well as various medical journals (Stem Cell Research; Journal of Cellular Biochemistry; Neurodegenerative Disease Management) and a book chapter at Springer.
The IVF-Stem Cell Interface in China (Vrije Universiteit, University of Sussex)
Funded by: Junior research fellowship (BIONET Project, EU 6 Framework, PI: Nikolas Rose); Vrije Universiteit Travel Fund (2008)
Role: Project Lead
Collaborators: Huiyu Luo (Wuhan University of Science and Technology)
This research built forth on my Master’s Research (Supervisors: Oscar Salemink and Marion Den Uyl) at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and involved ethnographic research and interviews in Chinese IVF clinics and stem cell labs, and a survey among IVF patients and students. It has focused on donation and exchange practices of human embryos for hESC research, and the ways in which the value and meanings of these tissues change, as they move from the IVF clinic to the stem cell lab, to biotech corporations.
Publications: Findings from this research have been published in New Genetics and Society, the Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, as well as book chapters in edited volumes published by Routledge and Springer Nature.