prof. dr. Madalina Busuioc

Madalina Busuioc is Full Professor of Public Governance in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration. She is Director of the Graduate School of Social Sciences of the Faculty of Social Sciences (FSW), and co-Director of the R&I Lab on Artificial Intelligence and Digital Governance at VU Amsterdam.

She was awarded, as Principal Investigator, a European Research Council (ERC) grant of approximately 1.5 million euro for a project at the intersection of public sector reputation and public acccountability. She is the recipient of the Haldane Prize for best article published in Public Administration and was awarded the Fernand Braudel Senior Fellowship (2021) at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence for a project on artificial intelligence in the administrative state. 

Her core research interests centre on the evolution of public power and the guardrails designed to hold it in check. A constant theme in her work and thinking has been the transformation and reinvention of public authority in different iterations in modern governance (be it non-majoritarian; reputation-sourced; or algorithmic in nature), and how institutions of oversight can keep up and hold such power to account.

In this context, as public authority is increasingly encoded algorithmically, as interactions between citizens and public institutions are shaped and mediated by AI algorithms, her work brings to the forefront the fundamental implications of the adoption of artificial intelligence systems across public sectors in reshaping administrative decision-making, citizen-state interactions and core public values. She initiated a novel research line, leveraging psychology insights and experimental designs, on the study of distinct cognitive biases emerging in public servants’ interactions with AI systems, and how this impacts administrative decision-making. Her work underscores the need for a mindful approach to the adoption of AI in the public sector, and robustly investigates the effects of the technology's adoption on public organisations, administrative outcomes and public values.

Her book, titled European Agencies: Law and Practices of Accountability, was published by Oxford University Press, and her articles have appeared in top-ranked public administration journals such as Public Administration Review, Governance, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (JPART), Public Administration, Journal of European Public Policy, among others. 

Madalina Busuioc obtained her PhD cum laude in 2010 from Utrecht University.

She designed, set up and is the Program Director of the MSc Public Administration: Artificial Intelligence and Governance at VU Amsterdam, which is an inter-departmental collaboration with Communication Science, among others, on computational aspects and critical engagement with (big) data. She is passionate about training (future) public administrators with the skills needed for a thoughtful approach to AI: tech-savvy, with an intuitive understanding of the technology while simultaneously mindful of and alert to the governance context where the technology is being deployed. The speed and breadth of AI's adoption in the public sector requires public sector professionals that have a good understanding of what the technology can, and cannot do, its social consequences and considered impact for public institutions. The Master focuses on the social impact of the technology, and a particular stength of the programme in this context is the close attention paid simultaneously to technical aspects and to imparting an understanding of the technology, critical to give public administration students the ability to engage on these topics with authority and expertise.

• Commissie Meijers - Permanente commissie van deskundigen in internationaal vreemdelingen-, vluchtelingen- en strafrecht | Amsterdam | External member | 2022-03-01 - present

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