After completing her PhD, Dr Aristea Fotopoulou was employed as a postdoctoral fellow in an EU-funded project that examined Responsible Innovation and sought integration into research, innovation and policy. Working in an international interdisciplinary team of researchers, innovators, policy makers, and other stakeholders associated with various emerging technologies such as autonomous robots and data protection, she investigated self-tracking and wearable sensors, as well as the mediation of smart grids. This project was the beginning of an investigation in the Quantified Self, digital health start-ups and data sharing, which she continued at the University of California (with research funding from RCUK Digital Economy NEMODE)
Meanwhile, Aristea also worked alongside community reporters in an action research project that focused on the social and digital conditions for narrative exchange and knowledge production (funded by EPSRC Framework for Innovation and Research in MediaCityUK, at Goldsmiths University of London), and with Age UK for a project that looked at digital literacy, knowledge and expertise (funded Digital Economy Communities and Culture Network+ at the University of Sussex).
Through these projects she became increasingly interested in developing a model for critical data literacy for audiences, citizens, young people, patients and community organisations. With funding from the Rising Stars scheme, she is currently working with local community organisations in order to identify the necessary skills that will help citizens analyse, visualise, interpret data and tell stories that empower their communities.