Aug 2022- present :: Senior researcher at Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE) working mainly on public participation, co-creation, social and digital innovations and governance.
Jan 2018- May 2024 :: Co-Chair of Open Knowledge Sweden (OKS). OKS is part of Open Knowledge Foundation. At OKS I was in charge of project development and implementation, project applications, as well as scientific coordination. We have received project funding from the Swedish innovation agency (Vinnova), by the European Commission and the Nordic Council.
Apr 2018 – June 2019 :: Research Fellow at the GLOBALCIT Observatory at the European University Institute, where I did research on citizenship laws and electoral rights, compiled policy reports, and liaised with national research teams across EU-28.
Mar 2014 – Mar 2018 :: Research Associate at the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom at the European university institute. I was involved in the implementation of the Media Pluralism Monitor, a survey and index funded by the European Commission that aims at measuring risks to media pluralism in the EU. Activities: development of methodology and indicators and coordination of data collection of country teams in 32 countries.
Sep. 2008 – Feb. 2014 :: PhD defended at the Department of Political and Social Sciences, European University Institute (www.eui.eu), Italy. Thesis on online political participation. Supervisor: Prof. Alexander Trechsel.
Apr 2005 – Apr 2008 :: UNDP Programme Analyst: Democratic Governance, United Nations Development Programme (Belarus). Job tasks:
Management of project teams and budgets, resolving problems and managing risks in project implementation.
Negotiation and design of UNDP country programme in the area of democratic governance (including performance indicators, targets and assessment of counterpart capacity).
Building up/maintaining of partnerships with government institutions, NGOs and donors in order to identify areas for UNDP intervention.
MEMBERSHIPS/VISITING RESEARCHER
Alina is representing Sweden as a Member of Management Committee of two COST Actions. COST stands for European Cooperation in Science and Technology and is an academic networking tool funded by the EU.
2018- 2022:: Member of Management Committee: COST Action “Constitution-making and deliberative democracy” (https://constdelib.com/). Funded by the COST action, I have been a visiting researcher in the Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance at the School of Business and Governance (Tallinn University of Technology) during August 2019.
2019- present :: Member of Management Committee: COST Action (CA18236) ”MULTI DISCIPLINARY INNOVATION FOR SOCIAL CHANGE: SHINE“.
2023 - present:: Intergovernmental Coordination from Local to European Governance” (IGCOORD) (https://igcoord.eu/).
Jun. 2013- Dec. 2013 :: Visiting researcher at the Nexa Center for Internet & Society, Turin, through the mobility programme of EINS (the FP7 European Network of Excellence in Internet Science: http://internet-science.eu)
Nov 2021- now :: International election observer at Folke Bernadotte Academy – Swedish agency for peace, security and development.
July 2020 - presently: Expert on elections and digital media at the Council of Europe's "Committee of Experts on Media Environment and Reform" (MSI-REF) that works on guiding principles for media and communication governance in order to address the shift from established channels to social networks and of related risks (manipulation of public opinion, lack of public trust, information disorder).
Sept. 2013 – Jan. 2019: Open Government Partnership researcher. Independent Reporting Mechanism. My task was to assess Sweden’s progress on implementation of their OGP Action Plan focused on open data, digitisation, civic participation and development aid.
Dec. 2018 - Jan. 2019: Country expert on electoral rights: Sweden: Spaceu2019, a platform informing users on their electoral rights and requirements for participating in elections in their country of residence or citizenship.
Jan 2016- July 2017: Migration expert at Ecorys. Tasks: Research on highly skilled migrants in Denmark; interviews, desk-research and report drafting. Final report of the project: “Design study on a scheme to attract non-EU resident highly skilled entrepreneurial innovators”.
Apr 2014 – July 2014 :: Research on Youth political participation for OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe)/(ODIHR) Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights . Output: a paper on trends in youth political participation, and facilitation of a group of youth activists at ODIHR Youth Forum in Warsaw to produce joint recommendations for improving youth engagement targeted at ODIHR and OSCE member states.
July 2013- Aug. 2013 :: Lead Researcher: Web Index Sweden. Global Integrity and World Wide Web Foundation Task: assessment of the political, economic and social impact of the web in Sweden for the forthcoming 2013 Web Index.
May 2011- Jun 2011 :: Consultant at UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre (IRC), Italy. Task: Development of the ‘ResearchWatch’ – a web-based tool that facilitates the capture, analysis and dissemination of knowledge (both internal and external to UNICEF) to a broad audience. My specific task was to select relevant research topics; schedule content and to identify guest commentators among the academic and expert community for written reviews and webinars on UNICEF IRC’s website
Mar 2010 – May 2010 :: Country expert for Sweden in the study on “EU Member States Consultations with Civil Society on European Policy Matters” for the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC).Task: Preparation of a national report for Sweden by document analysis and telephone and Internet interviews.
May 2009 – Jul 2009 :: Leader of the Swedish country team that developed the Swedish Electoral Compass ‘Valkompassen‘. After the success of the EU Profiler (see below), I was asked to help developing a similar tool for the Swedish 2010-elections by the academic spin-off company Kieskompas for Aftonbladet, one of the main newspapers in Sweden. ‘Valkompassen‘ allowed Aftonbladet’s site visitors to compare their personal political views with those of the Swedish political parties before voting in the 2010 Parliamentary elections. Tasks: coordination of a team of experts, analysis of party programmes, identification of the most important election issues, questionnaire design.
Nov 2008 – Apr 2009 :: (EUI) Leader of the Swedish country team that helped to develop the Voting Advice Application EU Profiler. The EU Profiler is a web tool used by 2.5 million Europeans, which allowed users to compare their personal political views with those of about 300 European political parties before voting in the 2009 European Parliamentary elections. The EU Profiler was conferred the World e-Democracy Forum Award and the 2009 “Top 10 Who are Changing the World of Internet and Politics”, one of the internationally most renowned awards in the field of e-democracy.
Vinnova (Sweden's Innovation Agency), evaluator.
2020: Civic tech: Digital services for enhanced trust between citizens and the public sector
Horizon 2020 evaluator: ex-ante, mid-term and final evaluations (EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation). DG CONNECT and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, European Commission:
2020: Ex-ante evaluation about education, training, media and digital innovation.
2018: Mid-term and final evaluations on political engagement of young people.
2017: Ex-ante evaluation about education, skills and co-creation for young innovators.
2016: Ex-ante evaluation about the transformation of public administrations.
2015: Ex-ante evaluations about ICT and open government, and about digital and social Innovation.
2014: Ex-ante evaluation about inclusiveness, sustainability and innovation.
Ex-ante evaluator for a Danish university submitting a Horizon2020 proposal on migration (2020).