Megan Crawford
megan crawford

Dr Megan Crawford

Lecturer

 0131 455 4605

  M.Crawford@napier.ac.uk

   

Biography

I work in Data Science and Scenario Planning. My research looks into how individuals and organisations frame and make decisions about the future (biases), structured group techniques (optimisation), and strategy development (impact), with a specialisation in AI integration. My work takes behavioural and complexity science approaches that aim at advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals. I earned my PhD in Management Science at the University of Strathclyde, MSc in Behavioural & Economic Sciences at Warwick University, and joint BAs in Cognitive Psychology and Philosophy from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.

I am Principal Investigator of research lab, Futures and Analytics Research (FAR) Hub, and Deputy Lead of Enterprise Data Intelligence & Analytics in the Business School's newest research centre, Centre for Business Innovations and Sustainable Solutions (CBISS). In 2023, our team secured membership to the prestigious Turing University Network, part of the Alan Turing Institute (the UK's National Institute for AI and Data Science), where I serve as Turing Academic Liaison for the Business School.

Open to doctoral supervision.

School

Research Groups

Themes

Research Areas

News

Events

Esteem

Advisory panels and expert committees or witness

  • Co-lead for Centre for Business Innovations and Sustainable Solutions (CBISS)
  • Early Career Academic Representative - Research & Innovation Committee (Advisory Board)
  • SOE Group Representative - Enterprise Action Group (Advisory Board)
  • Deputy Research Lead - SOE Group (TBS)
  • TBS Liaison for Turing University Network Steering Group
  • Member of "Equality, Equity, Diversit, and Inclusion" Advisory Group (TBS) - AACSB accreditation
  • Co-founder of Equalities and Human Rights Advisory Group - for Audit Scotland

 

Conference Organising Activity

  • Conference Co-organiser - "Scenario Planning and Foresight" (December 2025)
  • Co-organiser and Chair of Panel on "Immigration Stories of Success from Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurs & Talent", Scottish Ethnic Minority Talent (SEMT) Summit, Edinburgh (October 2024)
  • Member of Organising Team - Migrants Resource Fair (October 2023)

 

Editorial Activity

  • Co-Editor of Special Issue - "Scenario Planning for Strategic Decision-Making, Learning, and Managing Uncertainty"
  • Invited to Editorial Board for Futures and Foresight Science peer-reviewed journal
  • Lead Editor Edward Elgar Publishing - "Improving and Enhancing Scenario Planning" book (502pp, 2025)

 

Fellowships and Awards

  • Associate Fellow of Higher Education Academy (AFHEA)

 

Grant Funding Panel Member

  • Committee Member for Data Challenge 2025 - Data Skills Gateway (March/October 2025)

 

Invited Speaker

  • Guest Lecturer - "Scenario Planning and Foresight in the 21st Century", Decision Science and Management Engineering, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
  • Invited Expert Panellist - "Ask the AI" Scottish AI Summit (March 2024)
  • Invited Speaker Special Session - "Scenarios for Tomorrow project" for the Scenario Planning and Foresight conference (July 2023)
  • Keynote speaker - "There's No Such Thing As An Unbiased Future" for Women In Data Science conference (London)
  • Invited Speaker COVID researcher - "Why This Science and not That Science?" for Question, Explore, Discover conference (QED)
  • Invited Expert Panellist - "When opinion displaces scientific authority: (Don’t) follow the science" for International Humanist Conference
  • Keynote Speaker - "The Future of Regional Port Development" for the Corpus Christi Regional Economic Development Corporation (Texas)
  • Invited Speaker COVID researcher - "Planning Within Crisis: A Virtual Town Hall on COVID19 Scenarios" for Insights Association

 

Membership of Professional Body

  • Member - British International Studies Association (BISA)
  • Member - Diverse AI
  • Member - Women in AI
  • Member - British Academy of Management (BAM)

 

Public/Community Engagement

  • Co-organiser - "Never Going Back: Exploring Historical LGBT Discrimination" documentary screening and event at the Being Human Festival (November 2025)
  • Co-organiser - "Living with AI" MOOC for Scottish AI Alliance and Heriot-Watt University
  • Project lead - "Futures of Scotland: Post-COVID Recovery" event hosted in COP26 (Scotland)

 

Research Degree External Examining

  • External Examiner PhD - "Negotiating is More Than Bargaining—the Perceptions and Behaviours of Negotiators Prior to the Negotiation Process and Their Impacts on Negotiation Outcomes and Performance Evaluation" at University of Aberdeen

 

Reviewing

  • Book Proposal Reviewer - Routleg
  • Book Proposal Reviewer - Bloomsbury
  • Journal reviewer - Futures & Foresight Science
  • Journal reviewer - European Journal of Operational Research (CABS 4)
  • Journal reviewer - Futures (CABS 2)
  • Journal reviewer - World Futures Review
  • Journal reviewer - International Journal of Forecasting (CABS 3)
  • Journal reviewer - Technological Forecasting and Social Change (CABS 3)
  • Journal reviewer - Behavioral Economics Guide
  • Journal reviewer - Cogent Journals (CABS 1)

 

Filter by

Date


22 results

Improving And Enhancing Scenario Planning: Futures Thinking

Book
Crawford, M. M., & Wright, G. (Eds.)
(2025). Improving And Enhancing Scenario Planning: Futures Thinking. Edward Elgar Publishing
This book presents a contemporary view of the approaches and theories informing global scenario planning and foresight science. The collection of chapters details new and broa...

Unregulated Futures: Scenario Planning for the Unknown

Presentation / Conference
Crawford, M., Roubelat, F., & Marchais-Roubelat, A. (2024, September)
Unregulated Futures: Scenario Planning for the Unknown. Presented at Anticipation 2024, Lancaster, UK
Building from years of piloting novel methods for future visioning through group engagement, this curated session will take attendees through a fast-tracked, yet fully- immers...

Biased Foresight: A Facilitator’s Playbook

Presentation / Conference
Crawford, M. (2024, June)
Biased Foresight: A Facilitator’s Playbook. Paper presented at 33rd European Conference on Operational Research, Copenhagen, Denmark
A series of lab and field studies were conducted with managers, executives, and postgraduates to test the hypothesis that priming effects exist within any given scenario plann...

There's No Such Thing As An Unbiased Future

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Crawford, M. (2023, July)
There's No Such Thing As An Unbiased Future. Presented at Women In Data Science (WiDS) London 2023 Conference, Online
A keynote presentation and discussion on why our future(s) will never and can never be free of biases.

There Is No Such Thing As Unbiased Scenario Planning

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Crawford, M. (2023, July)
There Is No Such Thing As Unbiased Scenario Planning. Paper presented at Scenario Planning and Foresight 2023, University of Warwick
A series of lab and field studies were conducted with managers, executives, and postgraduate students to test the hypothesis that an emotional priming effect exists within any...

Scenario Planning and Futures Thinking Global Project

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Crawford, M. (2023, July)
Scenario Planning and Futures Thinking Global Project. Presented at Scenario Planning and Foresight 2023, University of Warwick
I led a special session that presented our global project to conference attendees. The project includes an edited, peer reviewed book, podcast, and network for future workshop...

The value of mass-produced COVID-19 scenarios: A quality evaluation of development processes and scenario content

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Crawford, M. M., & Wright, G. (2023, January)
The value of mass-produced COVID-19 scenarios: A quality evaluation of development processes and scenario content. Paper presented at Workshop in Management Science, Puerto Varas, Chile

The value of mass-produced COVID-19 scenarios: A quality evaluation of development processes and scenario content

Journal Article
Crawford, M., & Wright, G. (2022)
The value of mass-produced COVID-19 scenarios: A quality evaluation of development processes and scenario content. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 183, Article 121937. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2022.121937
Hundreds of scenarios were developed across the world in the first six months of 2020, aimed at generating forward-looking conversations, better understanding COVID-19 transmi...

Futures & Analytics Research Hub

Digital Artefact
Crawford, M., & Smith, M. (2021)
Futures & Analytics Research Hub. [https://farhub.org/about/]
The Futures & Analytics Research Hub is a resource for teaching, skill building, and knowledge exchange, with a primary focus on advancing digital literacy. Digital poverty is...

Structured Groups Make More Accurate Veracity Judgments Than Individuals

Journal Article
Hamlin, I., Bolger, F., Vasilichi, A., Belton, I., Crawford, M. M., Sissons, A., …Wright, G. (2021)
Structured Groups Make More Accurate Veracity Judgments Than Individuals. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 35(6), 1600-1607. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3892
Groups often make better judgments than individuals, and recent research suggests that this phenomenon extends to the deception detection domain. The present research investig...

Non-Napier PhD or MSc by Research supervisions

  • External Supervisor PhD - "AI as a Tool for Assessment and Learning in the Classroom" at Mary Immaculate College, Ireland
  • External Supervisor PhD - "How the culture of bank's regulatory risk and compliance affects anti-money laundering officers' job satisfaction" at Northumbria University
  • External Supervisor PhD - "First Memory: Most outstanding topics in Spanish and English speaking populations" at Universidad Maimónides and Harvard University