Current Positions
Current Positions
I am an Associate Professor in Economics and Head of Research at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose at the University College London (UCL). Until joining UCL, I was a permanent Senior Lecturer in International Political Economy (IPE) at City, University of London and programme director of the BSc in IPE at the same university. I am also a tenure researcher of the CONICET, Argentina’s national research council, and associate researcher at COSTECH lab, Université de Technologie de Compiègne.
I have experience in presenting my work and advising policymakers, parliamentarians and competition authorities in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, the European Commission, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, United States and Uruguay. I was also invited as expert by UNCTAD, UNESCO, the OECD and SAPEA.
I am an internationally leading scholar working on the political economy of science, technology and innovation, developing an emerging framework that conceptualizes corporate power based on the monopolization of knowledge and data, engendering intellectual monopolies that capture knowledge developed together with other organizations (other firms, universities, etc.) and shape the trajectories of scientific exploration and technological change. My research also outlines the ways in which innovation and intangible accumulation arises from the asymmetric interactions between different types of national states, firms and academic institutions.
I have published two books on these topics: “Capitalism, Power and Innovation: Intellectual Monopoly Capitalism Uncovered ” - winner of the EAEPE Jean Robinson prize in 2023 and shortlisted for the British International Studies Association IPE Group prize in 2022- and “The Digital Innovation Race: Conceptualizing the Emerging New World Order”, the latter co-authored with B.A.K. Lundvall. My most recent work also includes corporate planning of global production and innovation systems driven by intellectual monopolization and how these leading corporations, in particular tech giants, are developing state-like features, thus reshaping core and peripheral states.
Until 2021 I coordinated the “States and Markets” working group of the Young Scholars Initiative of the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET), a group that I created in 2017, and I have been a YSI/INET consultant between 2018 and 2020.
I hold a PhD in Economics from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), Argentina that I did with the support of a CONICET (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas) scholarship.
Recent policy advice
2024 & 2025. Member of the High-Level Expert Group on Ecosystem-Level AI Governance, UNESCO.
2024. Expert advice for the European Commission SAPEA discussion on AI uptake in science.
2024. Applied Learning at ENAP and policy recommendations, Brazilian Government.
2024. Member of the group on AI of the Institut La Boétie, La France Insoumise.
2023. Meetings with Hillary Greene, Special Counsel for Competition Policy, US Federal Trade Commission, who contacted me to discuss about my intellectual monopoly concept, my work on Big Tech and the cloud.
2023. Presentation as expert at the "Intergovernmental Group of Experts on E-commerce and the Digital Economy, sixth session" UNCTAD, Geneva, Switzerland.
2022 - 2023. Policy Advisor for the Health Ministry of Argentina. I advised the Secretary for Administrative Management on the design of regulatory frameworks for healthcare digitalization.
2021. Advisor of the "Unidad de Asuntos Internacionales" of the Finance Ministry of Argentina. I advised on digital capitalism and financing intangible assets matters.
2021. Consultancy for the "Consejo para el cambio estructural" of the Production Development Ministry of Argentina. I integrated a team researching on the supply of industry 4.0 technologies in Argentina.
Previous research experience
2021 - 2023. Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in International Political Economy, focused on Science and Technology. City, University of London, London, United Kingdom.
2020 - 2021. Tenure Researcher CONICET. Argentina. (Since then I am associated with the CONICET)
2018 – 2019. Postdoctoral Fellowship. Granted by the Institut Francilien de Recherche Innovation Société (IFRIS) and based at the CEPED, IRD/Université Paris Descartes -Université de Paris.
2017. Invited Researcher. Laboratoire Institutions et Dynamiques Historiques de l’Économie et de la Société (UMR CNRS 8533). École Normale Supérieure de Cachan.
2016 – 2017. Associate Researcher. Centre d’Économie de Paris Nord, Université Paris XIII -Sorbonne Paris Cité.
2016 – 2017. Postdoctoral Fellowship. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Argentina.
2015, Sept –2016, Mar. Invited Researcher. Laboratoire Institutions et Dynamiques Historiques de l’Économie et de la Société (UMR CNRS 8533). École Normale Supérieure de Cachan.
2011 – 2016. PhD Scholarship. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Argentina.
2007 – 2011. Research assistant. School of Economic Sciences - Universidad de Buenos Aires. Project: “Productive and Inclusive Strategies for Argentina at National and Regional Levels”. Director: Marta Bekerman.
2023- 2024. Grant from the LabEx Institut Francilien de Recherche Innovation Société for the exploratory research project “Global Industrial Stratification through Intellectual Monopoly.”. Total amount: 14.500 euros. PI Cecilia Rikap
2023 - 2027. Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions | Doctoral network: “Economic POlicies for the Global bifurcation - Doctoral network”. I am working package leader.
2023. City, University of London "Policy Support Fund" Total amount: £1400. PI: Cecilia Rikap
2022-2022 City, University of London "Global Engagement Seed Fund" Total amount: £3100. PI: Cecilia Rikap.
2021-2023 PIP-CONICET 2021-2023 “Los desafíos de la economía digital y la organización del trabajo en países periféricos: entre monopolios digitales globales, unicornios locales y nuevas formas de tercerización y deslocalización”. Total amount: USD 9.000. PIs: Juan Grana, Cecilia Rikap, Damian Kennedy.
2020-2021 Proyectos de Desarrollo Tecnológico y Social. “Efectos económicos y productivos del aislamiento social sobre PyMES de industria y servicios en la Provincia de Buenos Aires (conurbano y otras localizaciones de alta densidad industrial)”. Total amount: Arg$ 1.000.000. PI: Verónica Robert.
2018-2021 Argentina’s National Agency for the Promotion of Science and Technology, PICT Project PICT-2018-03042. “La Ciencia en su Entorno. Participación de los potenciales usuarios - actores extraacadémicos- en la investigación científica. El rol de la entidad adoptante, demandante y promotora en los Proyectos de Desarrollo Tecnológico y Social (PDTS)”. Total amount: Arg$ 724.500. PI: Judith Naidorf, Sebastián Gómez, Diego Hurtado, Cecilia Rikap and Guido Riconno.