Explore our knowledge

Alan Ir­win

Professor

Subjects
Public management Organisation Innovation Technology Academic integrity Knowledge work Sociology

Primary research areas

Sci­ence & Tech­no­logy Stud­ies (STS)
I work on many areas with­in STS, in­clud­ing cit­izen sci­ence, pub­lic en­gage­ment with sci­ence and sci­entif­ic gov­ernance.
Re­search and in­nov­a­tion policy
My re­search in­cludes com­par­at­ive stud­ies in sci­ence policy-mak­ing, es­pe­cially in a European and Chinese con­text. Na­tion­al in­nov­a­tion policy has also been a fo­cus of my work.
Re­search im­pact and rel­ev­ance
I study the re­la­tion­ship between re­search and so­ci­et­al im­pact: in­clud­ing the pub­lic value of so­cial sci­ence and busi­ness school re­search.

I ex­plore the re­la­tion­ship between techno-sci­ence and so­ci­et­al change

My main field is Science & Technology Studies (STS). My research covers research and innovation policy, scientific governance, citizen science and science-public relations. I chair the Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters committee on science in society. Having served as dean in three universities in two countries, I have extensive experience of university management and leadership.  

I am a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, a Member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, an Honorary Fellow of the British Association for the Advancement of Science and a Distinguished Affiliated Professor at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). I have an honorary doctorate from the University of Gothenburg.  

From 2015 to 2018, I was the Vice-President of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Copenhagen Business School. Between 2007 and 2014, I  served as Dean of Research. I was the CBS Acting President during 2011.  

Publications

See all publications

28 September 2025

Videnskaben har brug for en ny samfundskontrakt

Alan Irwin, Professor

Susanne Ditlevsen

Thomas Sinkjær
Go to publication

June 2025

Always Relevant?

Finding a Place for the Social Sciences in the Technical University and the Business School

Alan Irwin, Professor

Maja Horst
Go to publication

Recent research projects

Re-think­ing the im­pact of busi­ness school re­search

I am cur­rently writ­ing a book on the im­pact (or so­ci­et­al value) of re­search with­in the busi­ness school.

Stand­ard­iz­a­tion and dif­fer­ence with­in re­search sys­tems

I ex­plore stand­ard­isa­tion and flex­ible prac­tices in policy and or­gan­isa­tions, fol­low­ing a grant from In­de­pend­ent Re­search Fund Den­mark on ‘iso­morph­ic dif­fer­ence’."

Outside activities

CFA, Aar­hus Uni­ver­sity , 2024 - 2025