Dr Maria Manoli

Dr Maria Manoli, lecturer in space law at the University of Aberdeen, will lead an international and interdisciplinary team of scholars. She is a leading scholar in international space law, with particular expertise in governance, power and emerging technologies in space. She joined the University of Aberdeen in 2022 after completing her PhD at the Institute of Air and Space Law of McGill University’s Law Faculty.

She said: “AI is rapidly becoming embedded in space systems, yet the governance frameworks that apply to its use beyond Earth remain fragmented and underdeveloped, raising legal and cybersecurity challenges. This funding is vital because it allows us to bring together diverse international perspectives to think carefully and critically about how AI in space should be governed before practices become entrenched.

“The British Academy’s support makes it possible to conduct genuinely interdisciplinary research that goes beyond technical solutions, foregrounding questions of responsibility, power, equity and long-term sustainability in outer space.”

Dr Manoli’s co-investigators on the ‘Governing AI in the Final Frontier’ project are Dr Wanshu Cong from Australian National University; Professor Upsana Dasgupta from OP Jindal Global University; Professor Lukas Vanhonnaeker from the University of Montreal; Professor Georgious D. Kyriakopoulos from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens; and and Dr Stefania Soldini from the University of Liverpool.