CAREER

Dr Igor Calzada, MBA, FeRSA (www.igorcalzada.com/publications and Twitter @ICalzada) (Donostia-San Sebastián, 1975) was awarded his PhD Cum Laude in Social Innovation at Mondragon University (2011) with his dissertation entitled ‘Euskal Hiria: Aproximación desde la Innovación Social,’ which was published in Open Access by Presidency, Basque Government (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/306345721_Hacia_una_Ciudad_VascaEuskal_Hiria_Aproximacion_desde_la_Innovacion_Social_PhD_Dissertation).

He is currently Ikerbasque Principal Investigator (PI)/Established Researcher (R3)/Research Fellow/Associate Professor at the University of the Basque Country, Faculty of Social Sciences and Communication (Biography & Parliament Consolidated Research Group ++A) (https://www.ehu.eus/en/web/biography-parliament/-/igor-calzada-2 and https://www.ikerbasque.net/eu/igor-calzada) and Principal Research Fellow/Reader at Cardiff University, School of Social Sciences (https://wiserd.ac.uk/people/igor-calzada/). He has recently appointed Fellow of the Decentralization Research Centre based in Canada (https://thedrcenter.org/fellows-and-team/igor-calzada/).

He was awarded a Fulbright Scholar-In-Residence Award by US-UK Fulbright Commission in California (USA) (https://wiserd.ac.uk/news/dr-igor-calzada-successfully-culminates-his-role-as-fulbright-scholar-in-residence-in-california/ and https://fulbright.org.uk/people-search/igor-calzada/) and Learned Society of Wales Award (UK) (https://wiserd.ac.uk/news/dr-igor-calzada-awarded-funding-by-the-learned-society-of-wales/). He has worked in the UK since 2012 (Oxford, Cardiff, Aston, and Strathclyde) alongside working as academic in several countries: USA (California), Italy (Lombardy), Belgium (Brussels), Iceland (Reykjavik), and Sweden (Malmö). In Spain, he has achieved:

1. R3 Established Researcher Certificate by the Research State Agency (based on the European Framework for Research Careers).

2. Associate Professor and PhD Researcher accreditations by Unibasq (Agency for Quality of the Basque University System).

His research intersects digital, urban, and political transformations from a transdisciplinary social science and humanities perspective. His main research interest draws on how digital transformation processes driven by AI disruption in the post-GDPR current context are altering democratic conditions of data governance for the emergence of new digital citizenship regimes in cities and regions. He is currently PI of the ‘Emerging Digital Citizenship Regimes’ funded by the ESRC at WISERD in the UK (https://wiserd.ac.uk/project/new-emerging-citizenship-regimes/) as well as is leading the New Research Line called ‘Digital, Urban, and Political Transformations: AI-Powered Emancipatory Digital Citizenship Regimes’ (https://www.ehu.eus/en/web/biography-parliament/research-lines).

Internationally, he has received remarkable recognitions on his international research impact as PI: (1) Senior Reseacher at the University of Oxford, Future Cities and Urban Transformations ESRC Programmes (https://www.ox.ac.uk/news-and-events/find-an-expert/dr-igor-calzada); (2) Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence (S-I-R) 2022-2023 British Scholar Award by US-UK Fulbright Commission (https://www.csub.edu/basquestudies/fulbright-scholar-residence); (3) ‘100 Most Influential Academics in Government by Apolitical’ (https://apolitical.co/list/en/apoliticals-100-most-influential-academics-in-government); and (4) Digital Rights Governance Expert Group: Advisory Support by Cities Coalition for Digital Rights (CCDR) and United Nations.

Here there is the timeline of his academic career pathway over the last 22 years (2002-2024):

(i) 2023-date, Ikerbasque Principal Investigator (PI)/Associate Professor at the University of the Basque Country

(ii) 2022-23, Fulbright Scholar (PI), California State University and Stanford University via Decentralization Research Centre

(iii) 2021-date, Principal Research Fellow / Reader (PI), Cardiff University: He is currently Principal Research Fellow at Cardiff University (UK), School of Social Sciences, WISERD working on emerging citizenship regimes since August 2022, previously being appointed as Research Fellow since January 2021. Funded by: Fulbright, ESRC, and Learned Society of Wales.

(iv) 2019-21, International Digital Policy at the European Commission (EC) and United Nations (UN): Alongside his academic positions, since 2019, he has been working as Senior Scientist/Advisor respectively for supranational institutions including

• (i) European Commission – DG Joint Research Centre (Digital Economy Unit) (https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC123362) and

• (ii) United Nations-Habitat Programme (Digital Transformations in Urban Areas for UN-Habitat’s People-Centered Smart Cities Flagship Programme (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07352166.2021.1994861#metrics-content).

(v) 2015-21, Senior Researcher and Lecturer (PI), University of Oxford, Urban Transformations ESRC and Future of Cities Programmes regularly and externally funded by several grants and fellowships: (i) EC-H2020-Replicate, (ii) EC-H2020-Marie Curie, (iii) ESRC-Urban Transformations, (iv) Translokal Spin-Off, and (v) RSA.

(vi) 2012-14, Postdoctoral Research Fellow (PI), University of Oxford via Ikerbasque: Just immediately after achieving his PhD Cum Laude in 2011, he joined the University of Oxford (UK), Future of Cities Programme initially as Ikerbasque Postdoctoral Research Fellow.

(vii) 2002-23: He has been working as Senior Lecturer and Researcher also in the following universities: Strathclyde (2015-19), Vrije (2016-18), Aston (2014-15), Deusto (2014), Malmö (2013), Iceland, (2013) Helsinki (2004), and Mondragon (2002-11).

• ACADEMIC/POLICY POSITIONS OVER 20 YEARS (10): Dr Calzada has been developing his international academic career pathway over the last two decades as follows: (i) 2021-23 (UK), Principal Research Fellow/Reader, Cardiff University; (ii) 2022-23 (USA), Fulbright Scholar, California State University; (iii) 2020-22 (USA), Senior Adviser, United Nations, UN-Habitat People-Centered Smart Cities Programme; (iv) 2019-20 (Italy), Senior Scientist, European Commission, DG Joint Research Centre (JRC), Digital Economy Unit and Centre for Advanced Studies; (v) 2016-18 (Belgium), Senior Fellow, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Centre for Urban Studies; (vi) 2012-21 (UK), Senior Researcher, University of Oxford, Future of Cities & Urban Transformations ESRC programmes through EC-H2020; (vii) 2015-19 (UK), Lecturer, MSc in Global Sustainable Cities, University of Strathclyde; (viii) 2014-15 (UK), Lecturer, Sociology & Policy, Aston University; (ix) 2008-09 (USA), Associate Researcher, University of Nevada, Reno – Centre for Basque Studies (UNR-CBS); and (x) 2002-12 (Spain), Senior Researcher/Lecturer, University of Mondragon, Business Faculty.

• PUBLICATIONS: Track-Record of Publications (339): 67 peer-reviewed academic journal articles indexed in JCR/WoS and Scopus (30 in Q1); 13 books; 26 book chapters; 29 policy reports; 34 media dissemination articles; and 170 invited international keynotes. Five monographs: The Smart City Transformations (Bloomsbury, 2017), Smart City Citizenship (Elsevier, 2021), Emerging Digital Citizenship Regimes (Emerald, 2022), Datafied Democracies (Springer, 2024), and Benchmarking City-Regions (Routledge, 2024).

• PROJECTS: Total Competitive Research Funding [€ 22M, Period 2008-2024; 99 Projects (86 PI/13 CoI); 45% International/21% UK/19% EU/12% Basque Country/3% Spain; 13 Fellowships/48 Competitive/38 Contracts]: (i) The Learned Society of Wales (2023); (ii) Fulbright SIR (2022); (iii) EDCR-ESRC (2021<); (iv) EC-JRC DigiTranscope (2019-2020); (v) EC-JRC AI Watch (2019-2020); (vi) EU-H2020-Smart Cities and Communities-SCC-01-2015-691735-Replicate (2016-2021); (vii) ESRC-Urban Transformations (2016-2019); (viii) Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Visiting Fellowship (2016-2019); (ix) EU-Marie Curie Fellowship-CoFund Regional Programmes (2015-2016); (x) City-Regions project funded by Ikerbasque’s Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (2012-2014); (xi) RSA (Regional Studies Association)’s Research Network; (xii) RSA’s Early Career Grant (2014-2015); and (xiii) Caja Madrid Foundation’s Doctoral Fellowship at the University of Nevada (US) (2008-2009).

• LECTURESHIP: 46 Modules/529 ECTs in 14 Universities Worldwide (PG 26 Modules/412 ECTs + G 20 Modules/117 ECTs): (i) California State University, Bakersfield, (ii) University of Strathclyde in Glasgow in the MSc in Global Sustainable Cities (2015-2019); (iii) Vrije Universiteit Brussel (2016-2018); (iv) Aston University in Birmingham (2014-2015); (v) Orkestra-University of Deusto via Ikerbasque (2014); (vi) University of Iceland (2013); (vii) University of Malmö (2012); (viii) University of Nevada, Reno (2008-2009); (ix) University of Helsinki (2004); and (x) Mondragon University (2002-2015).

• PREDOCTORAL (3) AND POSTDOCTORAL (11) STAYS:

o Predoctoral stays (3): (i) NUI Galway (2003, Ireland), (ii) University of Helsinki (2004, Finland) and (iii) UNR-CBS (2008-09, USA).

o Postdoctoral stays (11): (i) University of Oxford, Future of Cities and Urban Transformations ESRC programmes (2012-21, UK), (ii) Malmö University (2013, Sweden), (iii) University of Iceland (2013, Iceland), (iv) University of Deusto – Orkestra (2014, Spain), (v) Aston University (2014-15, UK), (vi) University of Strathclyde (2015-19, UK), (vii) Vrije Universiteit Brussels (2016-18, Belgium), (viii) European Commission, DG Joint Research Centre, Digital Economy Unit and Centre for Advanced Studies (2019-20, Italy), (ix) United Nations (2020, USA), (x) Cardiff University (2021-23, UK), and (xi) California State University (2022-23, USA).

• MANAGEMENT:

Outside the academia, he has been Director of Research, Technology & Innovation in the Basque Government (Spain) (2009-2010); Project Director at the Mondragon Co-operative Corporation research centre in innovation for a decade (Spain) (2002-2012); and Deputy Director at the automotion SMEs in Spain (1999-2001). In addition, while his postdoctoral period (2012-2014), he set up an academic entrepreneurial spin-off called Translokal SL and was the Director for the period 2014-2019 (251.806€).

• EDITOR (10):

1. Smart Cities (MDPI). Impact Factor 6.4/Citescore 8.5.

2. Frontiers in Blockchain (Frontiers). Impact Factor 3.1.

3. Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy (Emerald) Impact Factor 2.6/CiteScore 5.0

4. SN Applied Sciences (Nature Springer) Impact Factor 2.6

5. Urban Planning (CogitatioPress) Impact Factor 1.8/CiteScore 3.2

6. Citizenship Studies (Taylor & Francis). Impact Factor 1.8/CiteScore 2.7. Guest Editor

7. Cogent Social Sciences (Taylor & Francis): Sociology Section. Senior Editor. Impact Factor 1.5/CiteScore 2.4

8. Frontiers in Political Science, Politics of Technology (Frontiers). CiteScore 1.6.

9. Territories: A Transcultural Journal of Regional Studies (eScholarship)

10. Critical Insights in Environmental Studies (Taylor & Francis)

• EVALUATOR:

Scientific Council Evaluator (10):

• UK, Estonia, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Italy, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Ireland, Spain, and USA.

Evaluator:

• EUROPEAN COMMISSION: Since 2015, as European Commission REA Expert/Evaluator (Horizon Europe and COST) on AI, smart cities, and digital/urban transformations, he has evaluated more than 200 proposals.

Journal Reviewer (47):

• Among others, Urban Studies, Regional Studies, Big Data & Society, New Media & Society, Territory Politics Governance, etc.

CVN FECYT: https://cvn.fecyt.es/0000-0002-4269-830X

Google Scholar: Citations 3,980; h-index 28; i10-index 58

WoS ResearcherID: H-9662-2017; Citations 1071; h-index 17; Publications 45

Scopus Author ID: 56556765100; Citations 710; h-index 16; Documents 36