Agrita Kiopa

Agrita Kiopa

MY BACKGROUND:

Before joining the university, I was a Deputy State Secretary and Director of the Higher Education, Science and Innovation Department at Ministry of Education and Science of Latvia where I designed and implemented structural reforms of research and innovation system. This included redesign of core institutions of higher education and science – rules for institutional and competitive research funding, financing and governance of higher education, integration of higher education and research, consolidation of publicly funded research institutes. My professional and research interests focus on organization theory, social networks and science human capital.

I earned Ph.D. in Public Policy from Georgia Institute of Technology.

WHY AM I INTERESTED IN RESPONSIBLE RESEARCH AND INNOVATION:

Among core values of Riga Stradiņs University are health, excellence, relevance, personalized and integrated approach to teaching and research. Our major research programs relate the health and societal safety and wellbeing. Therefore, responsible research and innovation is the only acceptable way of conduct. Even though our practice of research and teaching deeply engrains responsibility, we need to make all its dimensions more explicit and visible.

WHAT DO I HOPE TO LEARN / CONTRIBUTE AS COUNTRY CORRESPONDENT:

As country correspondent, I will contribute to data collection activities. Joining SUPER MoRRI team, I hope to learn from experiences of partners in promoting values and institutionalizing practice of responsible research and communication of its values. I am interested in organizational and institutional change, strategic communication and in monitoring, that relies on the use of secondary data. I am happy to contribute my experience in designing programs for policy implementation and putting in place incentives to induce the envisioned change, strategic communication and national level monitoring systems in higher education in Latvia. For last few years, I have been an administrator at the receiving end of numerous capacity building programs and gained some insights on working with academic personnel.