Our Team

Dylan Thurgood

Dylan is wrapping up his PhD in Social Data Science student at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII), University of Oxford. He holds an MSc in Social Data Science from the OII and a BSc in Economics from the University of Warwick, during which he spent one year studying at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona.

Dylan’s research lies at the intersection of political science, data science, psychology and communication studies. He is interested in the role of the digital media environment in shaping individuals’ political beliefs with a focus on news, AI-generated content, and human- AI dialogues, and investigates interventions to improve our information environment and mitigate political polarisation. He is very passionate about teaching and fostering bridges between research and policy, which has led him to teach on several courses, become a Europaeum Scholar, work at the Open Innovation Team during his PhD, and, last but not least, co-launch GNS!

Ömer Şahin

Ömer is currently at the final stages o fhis PhD at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, and holds a Research Master’s on Political Science degree from degree from UPF as well. He spent time at the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), Dublin, and at the University of Basel as a visiting researcher.

Ömer’s academic research focuses on labor markets, education to labor market transition and educational mismatch. During his PhD, he took part in the Europaeum Scholars Programme, working on the EU Media Wallet project with Dylan to help access to quality news for the European Union citizens, and help news outlets reach financial sustainability. and . Since the completion of the program, he has been working on collaborative projects with different partners across Europe to further this aim. GNS is the next step in his journey!