Drs. Astrid Wissenburg is Director of Communications and Information at the Economic and Social Research Council. Her responsibilities include strategic leadership on knowledge transfer (in particular third sector engagement), internal and external communications, science and society, research evaluation and e-business. Current corporate projects include the development and implementation of the ESRC impact strategy and Investors in People. Astrid is also leading on behalf of Research Councils UK on research outputs and open access issues.

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 has recently completed a Master of Public Administration at Warwick Business School, focussing in her dissertation on the sharing of social science knowledge with policymakers.

Astrid chaired session 5b - New frontiers of knowledge production and the changing role of universities.