Drs. Astrid Wissenburg is Director of Communications and Information at the Economic and Social Research Council, and is responsible for the strategic direction of ESRC’s knowledge transfer and impact initiatives, relationships with research users including industry and government, and communications & public engagement. Current leadership responsibilities include ESRC’s partnership strategy and ESRC’s portfolio on New Technologies, Skills and Innovation. Astrid was interim Chief Executive of the ESRC during summer 2010.

Astrid oversees the Communications and Information Directorate, which covers knowledge transfer; management of ESRC’s major research investments; research and impact evaluation; communications and public engagement. Astrid is a member and past chair of the Research Councils’ Knowledge Transfer and Economic Impact Group, leading on the innovation portfolio for the research councils. Astrid is past chair of the RCUK Research Outputs Group, and led on the RCUK Open Access position statement.

Astrid has had a varied academic career in London, Glasgow and her home country of the Netherlands. Astrid was from 1999-2003 assistant-director of Information Services and Systems at King’s College London. Previous posts at King’s have included the management of a national R&D project on electronic libraries and the co-ordination of user services for the Arts and Humanities Data Service.

Astrid has experience of computer-based learning and IT in the humanities, gained at Leiden and Glasgow universities, and holds a degree in Contemporary History from the University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA). Astrid also holds a Master of Public Administration at Warwick Business School, and focussed on the sharing of social science knowledge with policymakers.