RESEARCH PROJECTS
I am currently leading a major research project: KnowledgeLab: Knowledge-First Social Epistemology - funded by the European Research Council (2021-2027).
I am also co-lead on 'Navigating the Neural Frontier: Embedding Ethics and Epistemology in Neurotech', a major, UKRI-funded interdisciplinary project (2026-2028, with colleagues in philosophy, neuroscience, and physics).
From April 2027, I will run another major ERC Project entitled 'The Epistemology of Artificial Intelligence: A Foundational Framework' (AI-KNOW, 2027-2032).
Before this I was co-lead on the Leverhulme Trust-funded 'Virtue Epistemology of Trust' project (2020-2023), lead on the 'Dimensions of Wellbeing' industry-funded project (GBP 2021-2026), and I held the Mind Association Fellowship for my 'Epistemic Norms and Epistemic Functions' project.
I am also Honorary Director and co-founder of the COGITO Epistemology Research Centre at the University of Glasgow, which I co-directed (with Chris Kelp and Adam Carter) for eight years before coming to Oxford.
The pic on the left is of me at the entrance of the beautiful Palmer's Tower, where my office is and my projects are based. It's the oldest and only surviving medieval structure left on the original site of Oxford's Exeter College, dating back to 1432.
You can find more details about my research projects, as well as direct links to their websites below.
Assertion in Context
2013 - 2016
Role: Principal Investigator.
Sponsors: St Andrews & KU Leuven
Defends Classical Invariantism in conjunction with the Knowledge Norm of Assertion. Puts forth a functionalist account of assertion.
2027 - 2032
Role: Principal Investigator
Funding: ERC Advanced Grant
(EUR 2.5 million)
Details coming soon.
AI-KNOW develops the first systematic philosophical framework for understanding artificial epistemic agency. As artificial intelligence systems become increasingly embedded in scientific research, healthcare, education, law, and public life, AI-KNOW will investigate fundamental questions about their role as generators and communicators of knowledge. The project asks whether AI systems should be understood merely as sophisticated tools or whether they can be regarded as genuine epistemic agents capable of knowledge, understanding, justification, and epistemic responsibility.
2026 - 2028
Role: Co-Investigator (with J. Adam Carter (PI), Emma Gordon, and Chris Kelp (Glasgow, philosophy), Simon Hanslmayr, Monika Harvey, and Lars Mukli (Glasgow, neuroscience), and Daniele Faccio (Glasgow, physics).
Funding: UKRI Cross-Council Grant
(GBP 1 million)
Details here.
MindTech is a major inter-university, interdisciplinary research lab dedicated to embedding ethics and epistemology in neurotechnology. It aims to advance our understanding of how the integration of silicon-based and neural computing affects human cognition, and of the ethical and epistemological issues raised by technologies developed to repair and enhance our brain functions.
A Virtue Epistemology of Trust
2020-2023
Role: Co-Investigator (with J. Adam Carter (PI) and Chris Kelp (Co-I))
Funding: Leverhulme Research Grant
(GBP 254,871)
Details here.
This project does two main things: (1) it offers a novel, virtue-theoretic method for theorising about what it takes to trust well, and (2) it develops a virtue-theoretic account of trustworthiness.
Epistemic Norms
and Epistemic Functions
2016-2019
Role: Principal Investigator.
Funding:
Mind Research Fellowship (GBP 23,000); Postdoctoral Fellowship, ConceptLab and the Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature, University of Oslo (EUR 140,000);
JuMo Mobility Funding, KU Leuven (EUR 14,500)
Develops a knowledge-first functionalist account of epistemic normativity of belief, assertion, and reasoning.
ERC KnowledgeLab:
Knowledge-First Social Epistemology
2021 - 2027
Role: Principal Investigator
Funding: ERC Starting Grant
(EUR 1.5 million)
Details here.
Knowledge first epistemology takes knowledge as central to epistemological affairs and ventures to analyse other epistemic standings in terms of knowledge. This project develops a knowledge-first framework for social epistemological issues, and novel, knowledge-first accounts of the epistemology of testimony, disagreement, groups, information, and the media.
2026 - 2028
Role: Co-Principal Investigator (with Maria Antoniak (Colorado, computer science) and Laura Sikstrom (Toronto, medical anthropology)
Funding: UKRI and SSHRC (Canada)
(GBP 400,000)
Details coming soon.
Where is the core of a personal narrative: the part that, if changed, makes
the story no longer the speaker’s own? This question is central to the
epistemology of testimony. It has become increasingly tractable now that
generative AI can produce controlled transformations of narrative at
scale. The same technology has raised a second question: how should AI
systems be designed to produce, transform, and represent personal
testimony in ways that preserve the speaker's epistemic standing?
This project pursues two intertwined commitments. The first is to
translate philosophical concepts — narrative fidelity, epistemic agency,
testimonial authority — into measurable design targets for AI systems.
The second is to use AI transformations of personal narratives as
empirical material for humanities theory, generating new evidence for
the epistemology of testimony, narrative theory, and the study of epistemic
injustice.
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Dimensions of Wellbeing
2021-2028
Role: Principal Investigator (with Chris Kelp)
Funding: Research and Impact Industry Grant, Therme Group and the University of `Glasgow (GBP 680,031)
Details here and here.
Develops an integrated account of the nature of wellbeing along several dimensions – i.e. cognitive, emotional, social and physical wellbeing.
