Dr. Ismael Rafols

Ismael Rafols is a senior researcher at CWTS and associate faculty at SPRU (Science Policy Research Unit) at the University of Sussex. He is a member of the Engagement & Inclusion focal area and the Evaluation & Culture focal area.

He works on science policy developing novel approaches to S&T indicators, using mixed-methods for informing evaluation, foresight and research strategies. His current focus is on research priority setting, for societal challenges such as bird flu or obesity, or Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly in health and agriculture.

Ismael has  been involved in initiatives on ‘responsible metrics’, such as the Leiden Manifesto, the EC Expert Group on Open Science Indicators, on or discussions on biases against research in ‘peripheral’ topics and regions. Previously, he had developed indicators and mapping methods for the evaluation of interdisciplinary research, e.g. in emergent fields such as bio and nanotechnology. 

He received an MSc in Science and Technology Policy from SPRU (Sussex), a BSc in Physics from the Univ. Barcelona, a PhD in biophysics from Tohoku University (Sendai, Japan) and was a postdoc in nanobiotechnology at Cornell University. Before CWTS, he worked at SPRU (Sussex) (2005-12) and Ingenio (CSIC-UPV) (2012-19). In between academic positions, he has worked on international cooperation in Oxfam and the City Council of Barcelona.

Publications

Journal publications (2)

• Ciarli, T., & Rafols, I. (2019). The relation between research priorities and societal demands: The case of rice. Research Policy, 48(4), 949-967. (paper)
• Robinson-García, N., Van Leeuwen, T.N., & Rafols, I. (2018). Using altmetrics for contextualised mapping of societal impact: From hits to networks. Science and Public Policy, 45(6), 815-826. (paper)

Book chapters (1)

• Rafols, I., & Stirling, A. (2021). Designing indicators for opening up evaluation: insights from research assessment. : Edward Elgar Publishing. In P. Dahler-Larsen (Ed.), A Research Agenda for Evaluation (pp. 165-193). (paper)