Responsible Research and Innovation for AI and Robotics in the Health and Care sectors; Science and Technology Studies; Social Anthropology; Ethnography.

I am an experienced ethnographer and an interdisciplinary social scientist specialising in Science and Technology Studies, holding degrees in Social Anthropology (PhD, MSc), Japanese Studies (MSt, MPhil), and Legal Studies (BA). Currently, I am a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow, Chancellor’s Fellow at The University of Edinburgh, and Turing Fellow at The Alan Turing Institute. My work focuses on responsible research and innovation for AI and robotics applications in the health and care sectors.

Through my work, I aim to enable different stakeholders to become part of the co-production of healthcare technologies to inform and shape innovation together. I have been based at Edinburgh Medical School since 2019, first as the Postdoctoral Research Fellow appointed on the Wellcome Trust-funded project AI and Health; and then, since 2022, as the Principal Investigator on my Wellcome Trust Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Humanities and Social Science, ‘Caring Machines.’

The focus of Caring Machines is to trace the journey of AI and robotics innovation in care, from research laboratories to end-users, while highlighting the ethical considerations and embodied experiences associated with these technologies across different cultural contexts. To conduct the project, between 2022-2024 I carried out 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork in the UK and Japan, divided into two 9-month blocks in each country. 

Currently, I am also a Member of the UK Young Academy; a GAIL Fellow at the Generative AI Laboratory and a Senior Research Affiliate of CTMF at Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI); a Visiting Researcher at Edinburgh Centre for Robotics and the Bayes Centre; a member of the Institute for the Study of Science, Technology and Innovation (ISSTI); and a member of the Institute for Technoscience and Society (ITS) at York University. I closely collaborate with teams of roboticists at the Edinburgh School of Engineering, Heriot-Watt University, National Robotarium, and Bristol Robotics Laboratory. 

Internationally, in Japan, I have collaborated with: researchers at the Science and Technology Agency (JST) and AIST (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology). In France, I am a member of the INNOVCARE group (École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales). In South Korea, I have collaborated with researchers based at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. And in Italy, I am a Postdoctoral Research Affiliate of the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT).

• 2025 Advance HE Aurora Leadership Development Programme.
• 2022 FHEA (Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy), Institute for Academic Development (IAD), The University of Edinburgh.
• 2019 Ph.D. Social Anthropology, UCL Anthropology Department, UK. Pass without corrections. Examiners: Prof Roger Goodman (Oxford U.) and Dr Brigitte Steger (Cambridge U.). PhD supervisor: Dr Alex Pillen.
• 2015 MSc Social Anthropology, The University of Oxford, ISCA, St Antony’s College, UK. First Class.
• 2014 MPhil Japanese Studies, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy. 110 cum laude.
• 2013 Advanced Japanese Language Course (12 months), Ritsumeikan University, Japan. Distinction.
• 2012 MSt Japanese Studies, INALCO Paris, France. Distinction.
• 2011 BA Languages, Legal Institutions and Economics of East Asia (China, Japan, and South Korea), Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy. 110 cum laude.

• 2022-2023 University of Tokyo - Visiting Researcher (7 months)
• 2022-2024 Edinburgh Centre for Robotics and Bayes Centre - Visiting Researcher (36 months)
• 2016-2017 Kyoto University - Visiting Researcher (12 months)

• 2024-ongoing: [Postgraduate] Co-supervising three PhD students based at the ACRC, Design Informatics, and ISSTI
• 2024-ongoing: [Postgraduate] MPH Master of Public Health, Dissertation Supervisor (Edinburgh Medical School)
• 2023-ongoing: [Undergraduate] BMedSci, Bioethics Law and Society, Leading the Research Program (Edinburgh Medical School)
• 2023-ongoing: [Postgraduate] MA Ethics of Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Lecturer (Edinburgh Futures Institute)
• 2019-ongoing: [Undergraduate] BMedSci, Bioethics Law and Society, Project Supervisor (Edinburgh Medical School)
• 2019-ongoing: [Undergraduate] BMedSci, Bioethics, Law and Social Science: Foundations of Knowledge, Lecturer (Edinburgh Medical School)
• 2019-2024: [Undergraduate] BMedSci, Biomedicine, Ethics and Society: Contemporary Issues, Lecturer (Edinburgh Medical School)
• 2017-2019: [Postgraduate] MA Gender, Society, and Representation, Postgraduate Teaching Assistant (University College London, Anthropology Department)

I was invited as a guest lecturer at the University of Oxford (ISCA/Anthropology Department), Oxford Brookes University (Japanese Studies Department), and the University of Manchester (East Asian Studies Department) to give single lectures between 2021-2024.

X: @giulia_de_togni