Igor Tkalec is Assistant Professor (Lecturer) in Social Data Science at UCL. His research interest intersects political economy, social policy, and research methods with an emphasis on data science. He holds BA degree from the University of Zagreb and MA degree from Central European University, both in political science. He obtained Ph.D. in political science (political economy/governance) at the University of Luxembourg. His doctoral dissertation analysed the effects of policy coordination under the European Semester on national pension systems. His current research focuses on data storytelling and the utility of machine learning models for answering pressing social issues. He has taught social science research design, introduction to statistics and econometrics, data storytelling, and international political economy. At the GGP research area ‘Knowledge, Governance, Transformations’ he co-edits ‘The Elgar Companion to Data and Indicators for the Sustainable Development Goals’, Edward Elgar, forthcoming 2024.