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Nao is not a robot (https://www.softbankrobotics.com/emea/en/nao) but an Associate Professor in Social Policy at University College Dublin, Ireland (UCD) and founding Director of UCD Centre for Japanese Studies (UCD-JaSt)! He holds a BA (International Relations) and LL.M from the University of Tokyo, MSc in European Politics and Policy, and a Ph.D in Political Science from the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research covers comparative public policy, and science, technology and society (STS), particularly in the use of eHealth (e.g. home care robots), patient safety, and gender equality in STEM.
He is currently the Principal Investigator of a two-year, Toyota Foundation-funded international research project “Harmonisation towards the establishment of Person-centred, Robotics-aided Care System (HARP: RoCS)”. The project compares policies and cultural aspects around the use of robotics-aided care for older people in Europe and East Asia. Nao is a founding member and on the Board of Councillors for the multidisciplinary group, Future Technologies for Integrated Care Research Network (FTIC), Japan. Nao is also affiliated to la Fondation France-Japon (FFJ), l’Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, UCD Centre for Interdisciplinary Research Education and Innovation in Health Systems (IRIS), and the Universal Accessibility & Ageing Research Centre in Japan.