Ojas Deshpande, PhD

My motivation to work in science policy and governance stems from the volunteer work I did for the PhD and postdoc organisations at the Institute Gulbenkian de Ciencia (IGC), Portugal. I worked closely with the institute directorial board to frame and develop policy guidelines to better work-life within the institute. I have helped identify and address areas of improvement, standardise institutional procedures regarding training policies, manage conflict and tackle negotiations. As a scientific policy officer at the BarcelonaBeta Brain Research Centre (BBRC), I am responsible for developing, implementing and supervising institutional policies and guidelines regarding ethics, science integrity, data and sample sharing, career development and research training. I am also interested in advocacy of policies based on scientific evidence. I am vocal about such and related issues on Twitter @deshpande_ojas. I love to travel to learn about new cultures, interact with new people with different personalities. It has been instrumental in shaping my open and positive outlook towards life. Outside the academic world, I am an amateur photographer (IG: @odietale), an avid hiker and a scuba diver.