Bridging AI Regulation and Transformative Innovation Policy: My Research Stay at INGENIO
Gabrielle Canalli
During my one-month research stay at INGENIO, Universitat Politècnica de València, I had the chance to deepen my doctoral research on how artificial intelligence is regulated in Brazil. I wanted to look into different approaches used in this type of regulation, so I had the opportunity to engage closely with the Transformative Innovation Policy (TIP) framework and the researchers who have shaped it.
My thesis examines AI regulation in Brazil, and one of its central challenges has been finding a theoretical lens capable of capturing not just how regulation is designed, but what ends it’s directed toward. Before this stay, my analysis lacked a clear framework for tackling this second question. Working closely with Alejandra Boni at INGENIO gave me direct access to deep knowledge of TIP theory, and through sustained discussion I was able to connect concepts that had previously stayed disparate in my thinking — particularly the idea of directionality, which asks not simply whether a policy intervenes in a sector, but whether it steers that sector toward a particular transformative goal. This distinction proved central to reframing my own research questions and to making more deliberate, better-supported analytical decisions going forward.
One of the most valuable outcomes of the stay was learning from researchers at INGENIO how they approach wicked problems. AI regulation is exactly this kind of problem: it involves competing values, uncertain future consequences, and stakeholders with divergent interests. Learning how they frame and analyze such problems gave me new conceptual tools for approaching AI regulation in Brazil not as a technical or legal puzzle to be solved, but as a socio-political process to be steered.
Beyond one-on-one discussions, I also attended the colloquiums held at INGENIO during the stay. While my role there was passive, these sessions exposed me to a range of applications of transition studies beyond my own topic.
Although the stay didn’t result in a publication at this stage, its main output was conceptual and structural: it allowed me to formulate a whole new chapter of my thesis. This chapter examines AI regulation in Brazil through multiple theoretical “lenses.” It’s a substantial addition to my thesis, and one that wouldn’t have taken shape without direct engagement with TIP theory and the researchers at INGENIO.
In terms of overall impact on my PhD, the stay was transformative in a very literal sense: it changed the theoretical architecture of my research. Access to Alejandra Boni’s expertise let me ask questions, test interpretations, and get direct feedback in a way that considerably accelerated my understanding. The result is a stronger, more coherent theoretical backbone for my thesis, and a clearer sense of the contribution my work can make.
Overall, this one-month stay at INGENIO gave me both a sharper theoretical foundation and a new working chapter for my thesis, while also connecting me to a research community whose way of framing transformative policy problems I intend to keep drawing on throughout the rest of my doctoral work.