Professor Slava Jankin PhD

School of Government
Chair in Data Science and Government
Director, Centre for Artificial Intelligence in Government
Executive Director of Data, Talent and AI, Economic and Social Research Council (on secondment)

Contact details

Email: v.jankin@bham.ac.uk

View my research portal

Address: University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Chair in Data Science and Government, jointly in the Schools of Government and Computer Science, and Director of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence in Government. Currently on secondment to ESRC as Executive Director of Data, Talent and AI.

Qualifications

Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education, London School of Economics, 2010
PhD in Political Science, Trinity College Dublin, 2009
Postgraduate Diploma in Statistics, Trinity College Dublin, 2006
BSc Econ with Distinction, Belarus State Economic University, 2002

Biography

Slava Jankin is a political scientist who builds AI systems. His work sits at the intersection of political science and computer science, and asks how artificial intelligence can strengthen rather than erode democratic governance.

He is currently on secondment to the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), part of UK Research and Innovation, as Executive Director of Data, Talent and AI. In this role he is responsible for ESRC's national data infrastructures, including Administrative Data Research UK, Smart Data Research UK, the UK Data Service and Understanding Society, for its investment in doctoral training and research talent, and for its work on AI. He retains one day a week at Birmingham, where he continues his research.

He joined Birmingham in 2023 as Chair in Data Science and Government, jointly appointed in the School of Government and the School of Computer Science, and founded the Centre for Artificial Intelligence in Government. From 2024 to 2026 he was Deputy Director and Head of Research of the Institute for Data and AI, and from 2023 to 2026 the University's Academic Lead for the Alan Turing Institute. At Birmingham he led the development of the BSc in AI and Public Policy and of MSc programmes in AI and Government and in AI and Sustainable Development.

Before Birmingham, he was Professor of Data Science and Public Policy at the Hertie School in Berlin, where he founded and directed the Data Science Lab (2019–2023). He was previously Professor of Public Policy and Data Science at the University of Essex, jointly in Government and in Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, and served as Chief Scientific Adviser to Essex County Council (2017–2019). He began his academic career at University College London, as Assistant and then Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science (2010–2017), following postdoctoral positions at the London School of Economics, Trinity College Dublin, City University London and the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research.

He has advised the United Nations, the European Commission and the World Bank on AI and data science, and leads a working group in the Lancet Countdown in Europe on health and climate change.

He holds a PhD in Political Science from Trinity College Dublin, where he also completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Statistics, and a BSc in Economics with Distinction from Belarus State Economic University. His studies also took him to Goethe University Frankfurt and Beijing Language and Culture University.

Teaching

LM Foundations of AI Technologies in Healthcare - Course number 42244

Research

Slava Jankin's research asks how AI can strengthen rather than erode democratic governance, and works across three connected strands.

Cognitive foundations of political information processing

The NeuroCognitiveShield project, funded by the Medical Research Council and run with the Centre for Human Brain Health, uses fMRI to study when citizens engage thoughtfully with counter-attitudinal political content and when they respond defensively, and whether AI systems can be designed to support more reflective engagement.

Transparent measurement and surveillance infrastructure

He builds open data and measurement tools for political and policy text. The UN General Debate Corpus, covering every General Debate speech since 1946, is widely used in international relations research and by the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs. PolitiCause develops annotation schemes for causal claims in political language. Through CATALYSE, a Horizon Europe project, he develops digital nowcasting of climate-sensitive health conditions.

Democratic institutions in the AI age

One stream of work uses multi-agent systems built on large language models to simulate coalition negotiations, testing the simulations against what happened in real negotiations. As a working group lead in the Lancet Countdown in Europe, and a member of the global Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change, he develops indicators that track whether governments are translating climate and health commitments into policy; these indicators have been taken up by the European Commission.

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Dasandi, N, Jankin, S, Kalatzi Pantera, D & Romanello, M 2025, 'Public engagement with health and climate change around the world: a Google Trends analysis', The Lancet Planetary Health, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. e236-e244. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(25)00029-4

Marques-Cruz, M, Pinto, F, Vieira, RJ, Bognanni, A, Perestrelo, P, Gil-Mata, S, Duarte, VH, Barbosa, JP, Cardoso-Fernandes, A, Martinho-Dias, D, Franco-Pego, F, Germini, F, Arienti, C, Chu, AWL, Riera-Serra, P, Jemioło, P, Rodrigues, PP, Fonseca, JA, Azevedo, LF, Schünemann, HJ, Cruz-Correia, R, Jankin, S & Sousa-Pinto, B 2025, 'Use of artificial intelligence to support the assessment of the methodological quality of systematic reviews', Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, vol. 187, 111944. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2025.111944

Arnold, C, Béchara, H & Jankin, S 2024, 'Perceiving Distances and Construing Targets Based on Communication', Social Cognition, vol. 42, no. 5, pp. 355-375. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.2024.42.5.355

Jankin, S, Baturo, A & Dasandi, N 2024, 'Words to unite nations: The complete United Nations General Debate Corpus, 1946–present', Journal of Peace Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/00223433241275335

Weeks, L, Mikhaylov, SJ, Herzog, A, Fathartaigh, M & Bechara, H 2023, 'It's Only Words? Analysing the Roots of the Irish Party System Using Historical Parliamentary Debates', Parliamentary Affairs, vol. 76, no. 4, pp. 836-856. https://doi.org/10.1093/pa/gsac020

Chelotti, N, Dasandi, N & Jankin, S 2022, 'Do intergovernmental organizations have a socialization effect on member state preferences? Evidence from the UN General Debate', International Studies Quarterly, vol. 66, no. 1, sqab069. https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqab069, https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqab069

Campion, A, Gasco-Hernandez, M, Jankin Mikhaylov, S & Esteve, M 2022, 'Overcoming the challenges of collaboratively adopting artificial intelligence in the public sector', Social Science Computer Review, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 462-477. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894439320979953

Dasandi, N, Graham, H, Hudson, D, Jankin, S, Vanheerde-hudson, J & Watts, N 2022, 'Positive, global, and health or environment framing bolsters public support for climate policies', Communications Earth and Environment, vol. 3, no. 1, 239. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-022-00571-x

Van daalen, KR, Romanello, M, Rocklöv, J, Semenza, JC, Tonne, C, Markandya, A, Dasandi, N, Jankin, S, Achebak, H, Ballester, J, Bechara, H, Callaghan, MW, Chambers, J, Dasgupta, S, Drummond, P, Farooq, Z, Gasparyan, O, Gonzalez-Reviriego, N, Hamilton, I, Hänninen, R, Kazmierczak, A, Kendrovski, V, Kennard, H, Kiesewetter, G, Lloyd, SJ, Lotto batista, M, Martinez-Urtaza, J, Milà, C, Minx, JC, Nieuwenhuijsen, M, Palamarchuk, J, Quijal-Zamorano, M, Robinson, EJZ, Scamman, D, Schmoll, O, Sewe, MO, Sjödin, H, Sofiev, M, Solaraju-Murali, B, Springmann, M, Triñanes, J, Anto, JM, Nilsson, M & Lowe, R 2022, 'The 2022 Europe report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: towards a climate resilient future', The Lancet Public Health, vol. 7, no. 11, pp. e942-e965. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(22)00197-9

Müller-Hansen, F, Lee, YT, Callaghan, M, Jankin, S & Minx, JC 2022, 'The German coal debate on Twitter: reactions to a corporate policy process', Energy Policy, vol. 169, 113178. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2022.113178

Comment/debate

van Daalen, KR, Kriit, HK, Chen-Xu, J, Semenza, JC, Nilsson, M, Dasandi, N, Jankin, S, Markandya, A, Antó, JM, Rocklöv, J & Tonne, C 2025, 'Europe's climate leadership in an ‘America first’ era', The Lancet Regional Health - Europe, vol. 51, 101257. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2025.101257

Conference contribution

Lancet Countdown in Europe consortium 2023, Towards a climate-resilient healthy future: the Lancet Countdown in Europe . in EGU General Assembly 2023., EGU23-13565, European Geosciences Union, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 24/04/23. https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-13565

Review article

van Daalen, KR, Tonne, C, Semenza, JC, Rocklöv, J, Markandya, A, Dasandi, N, Jankin, S, Achebak, H, Ballester, J, Bechara, H, Beck, TM, Callaghan, MW, Carvalho, BM, Chambers, J, Pradas, MC, Courtenay, O, Dasgupta, S, Eckelman, MJ, Farooq, Z, Fransson, P, Gallo, E, Gasparyan, O, Gonzalez-Reviriego, N, Hamilton, I, Hänninen, R, Hatfield, C, He, K, Kazmierczak, A, Kendrovski, V, Kennard, H, Kiesewetter, G, Kouznetsov, R, Kriit, HK, Llabrés-Brustenga, A, Lloyd, SJ, Batista, ML, Maia, C, Martinez-Urtaza, J, Mi, Z, Milà, C, Minx, JC, Nieuwenhuijsen, M, Palamarchuk, J, Pantera, DK, Quijal-Zamorano, M, Rafaj, P, Robinson, EJZ, Sánchez-Valdivia, N, Scamman, D, Schmoll, O, Sewe, MO, Sherman, JD, Singh, P, Sirotkina, E, Sjödin, H, Sofiev, M, Solaraju-Murali, B, Springmann, M, Treskova, M, Triñanes, J, Vanuytrecht, E, Wagner, F, Walawender, M, Warnecke, L, Zhang, R, Romanello, M, Antó, JM, Nilsson, M & Lowe, R 2024, 'The 2024 Europe report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: unprecedented warming demands unprecedented action', The Lancet. Public health, vol. 9, no. 7, pp. e495-e522. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(24)00055-0

Romanello, M, Walawender, M, Hsu, SC, Moskeland, A, Palmeiro-Silva, Y, Scamman, D, Ali, Z, Ameli, N, Angelova, D, Ayeb-Karlsson, S, Basart, S, Beagley, J, Beggs, PJ, Blanco-Villafuerte, L, Cai, W, Callaghan, M, Campbell-Lendrum, D, Chambers, JD, Chicmana-Zapata, V, Chu, L, Cross, TJ, van Daalen, KR, Dalin, C, Dasandi, N, Dasgupta, S, Davies, M, Dubrow, R, Eckelman, MJ, Ford, JD, Freyberg, C, Gasparyan, O, Gordon-Strachan, G, Grubb, M, Gunther, SH, Hamilton, I, Hang, Y, Hänninen, R, Hartinger, S, He, K, Heidecke, J, Hess, JJ, Jamart, L, Jankin, S, Jatkar, H, Jay, O, Kelman, I, Kennard, H, Kiesewetter, G, Kinney, P, Kniveton, D, Kouznetsov, R, Lampard, P, Lee, JKW, Lemke, B, Li, B, Liu, Y, Liu, Z, Llabrés-Brustenga, A, Lott, M, Lowe, R, Martinez-Urtaza, J, Maslin, M, McAllister, L, McMichael, C, Mi, Z, Milner, J, Minor, K, Minx, JC, Mohajeri, N, Momen, NC, Moradi-Lakeh, M, Morrisey, K, Munzert, S, Murray, KA, Obradovich, N, O'Hare, MB, Oliveira, C, Oreszczyn, T, Otto, M, Owfi, F, Pearman, OL, Pega, F, Perishing, AJ, Pinho-Gomes, AC, Ponmattam, J, Rabbaniha, M, Rickman, J, Robinson, E, Rocklöv, J, Rojas-Rueda, D, Salas, RN, Semenza, JC, Sherman, JD, Shumake-Guillemot, J, Singh, P, Sjödin, H, Slater, J, Sofiev, M, Sorensen, C, Springmann, M, Stalhandske, Z, Stowell, JD, Tabatabaei, M, Taylor, J, Tong, D, Tonne, C, Treskova, M, Trinanes, JA, Uppstu, A, Wagner, F, Warnecke, L, Whitcombe, H, Xian, P, Zavaleta-Cortijo, C, Zhang, C, Zhang, R, Zhang, S, Zhang, Y, Zhu, Q, Gong, P, Montgomery, H & Costello, A 2024, 'The 2024 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: facing record-breaking threats from delayed action', The Lancet, vol. 404, no. 10465, pp. 1847-1896. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(24)01822-1

Romanello, M, Di Napoli, C, Drummond, P, Green, C, Kennard, H, Lampard, P, Scamman, D, Arnell, N, Ayeb-Karlsson, S, Ford, LB, Belesova, K, Bowen, K, Cai, W, Callaghan, M, Campbell-Lendrum, D, Chambers, J, van Daalen, KR, Dalin, C, Dasandi, N, Dasgupta, S, Davies, M, Dominguez-Salas, P, Dubrow, R, Ebi, KL, Eckelman, M, Ekins, P, Escobar, LE, Georgeson, L, Graham, H, Gunther, SH, Hamilton, I, Hang, Y, Hänninen, R, Hartinger, S, He, K, Hess, JJ, Hsu, S-C, Jankin, S, Jamart, L, Jay, O, Kelman, I, Kiesewetter, G, Kinney, P, Kjellstrom, T, Kniveton, D, Lee, JKW, Lemke, B, Liu, Y, Liu, Z, Lott, M, Batista, ML, Lowe, R, MacGuire, F, Sewe, MO, Martinez-Urtaza, J, Maslin, M, McAllister, L, McGushin, A, McMichael, C, Mi, Z, Milner, J, Minor, K, Minx, JC, Mohajeri, N, Moradi-Lakeh, M, Morrissey, K, Munzert, S, Murray, KA, Neville, T, Nilsson, M, Obradovich, N, O'Hare, MB, Oreszczyn, T, Otto, M, Owfi, F, Pearman, O, Rabbaniha, M, Robinson, EJZ, Rocklöv, J, Salas, RN, Semenza, JC, Sherman, JD, Shi, L, Shumake-Guillemot, J, Silbert, G, Sofiev, M, Springmann, M, Stowell, J, Tabatabaei, M, Taylor, J, Triñanes, J, Wagner, F, Wilkinson, P, Winning, M, Yglesias-González, M, Zhang, S, Gong, P, Montgomery, H & Costello, A 2022, 'The 2022 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: health at the mercy of fossil fuels', The Lancet, vol. 400, no. 10363, pp. 1619-1654. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(22)01540-9

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