Sam Muller

Background

About Sam Muller

I am an assistant professor researching governance of health data infrastructures. My research is highly interdisciplinary, intersecting the social sciences (public administration and organisational science, political science, sociology, policy studies), applied ethics (research ethics and bioethics), and science, technology and society (STS). This approach enables studying the heterogeneous normative - social and ethical - dimension in which complex network governance processes take place. I am currently working on diffused responsibilities in collaborative health research, development of deliberative processes within governance for health data infrastructures, responsible surveillance, and stakeholder ecosystem mapping and network analysis. Furthermore, I am a teacher in several interdisciplinary BSc and MSc courses in Medicine, Policy & Administration, and Philosophy, Politics, Economy and History. My PhD research concerned responsible governance of Big Data-driven health research, titled "Responsible governance for data-intensive health research networks: A learning approach". By addressing the three challenges of accommodating ethical and legal fragmentation, connecting with stakeholders and society, and managing intractability, heterogeneity and complexity, its aim was to develop an approach enabling responsible governance suitable for Big Data-driven health research taking place in networks. Learning governance provides a pragmatic and intuitive way to realise governance for data-intensive health research networks, with due regard for the complex social, institutional and structural context in which governance is situated. Learning governance highlights the self-regulating role of governance for data-intensive health research networks. Moreover, governance is socially sanctioned and depends on a mandate provided by its stakeholders/ Governance fulfills a self-organising function for which incremental learning is essential. Therefore, experimentalist design, strengthening collective control and participatory governance are crucial.