CONNOR DUNLOP

London, UK | c.dunlop@proton.me | 07766233727 | linkedin.com/in/connor-dunlop-61356bb3

Researcher and strategist working at the intersection of AI governance, compute security, and geopolitics. Experience spanning frontier AI policy research, hardware-enabled verification, foresight, and institutional design. Track record of producing research that has directly shaped international governance frameworks.

Experience

Director of Policy & Strategy Jul 2025 – Present

Lucid Computing • London, UK

Early-stage startup building hardware-enabled verification tools for international AI coordination and treaties. One of the first three hires.

Lead company strategy, government engagement, and executive communications, translating frontier R&D into accessible briefings for senior government officials and industry executives
Co-authored research on hardware-rooted trust anchors for sovereign AI processing, published at ICDS 2025
Developed strategies for using hardware as a trust-building mechanism in geopolitics, contributing to US State Department adoption of 'trust' infrastructure language, an AI verification initiative with the UAE under Pax Silica, and a contract to build the world's most verifiable cluster to date in an EU member state
Co-founding a Verifiable Compute Foundation to develop reference architectures and red-teaming infrastructure for treaty-verifiable datacentres

European Public Policy Lead → Head of EU & Global Governance Sep 2022 – Jul 2025

Ada Lovelace Institute • Brussels, Belgium

Set up and led a research team focused on EU and global governance of frontier AI.

Research referenced or directly informed the International AI Safety Report, the EU Code of Practice on GPAI models, and the UK government's 2023 white paper on AI regulation, among others
Reorientated research programme to frontier AI, co-authoring definitional work on the GPAI value chain, institutional design for pre-market assessment, frameworks for post-deployment monitoring, and autonomy levels of AI agents
Delivered foresight briefings and advised on foresight capabilities for the European Commission
Public appearances on frontier AI (e.g. live on Al Jazeera); media contributions in leading EU outlets

Senior Associate & Consultant, EU Technology Policy Aug 2020 – Sep 2022

Dentons Global Advisors; Nove Public Affairs • Brussels, Belgium

Led EU AI and data policy work across two consultancies; managed Fortune 500 client accounts, produced policy position papers, briefing books, and strategic intelligence on AI regulation

Consultant, Innovation Unit Aug 2019 – Jul 2020

UN Refugee Agency • The Hague, Netherlands

Assistant Analyst Sep 2018 – Jun 2019

The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS) • The Hague, Netherlands

Researched lethal autonomous weapons and international competition in AI; authored mixed-methods report commissioned by Dutch MFA
Produced horizon scans for Clingendael's Global Security Pulse

Other Roles

Fellowship Supervisor 2026 – Present

Centre for the Governance of AI (GovAI), University of Oxford — supervising two Fellows

Member, OECD AI Expert Network on AI Incidents 2025 – Present

OECD.AI

Programme Committee 2025

TAIG-ICML 2025 — Technical AI Governance workshop at ICML

Adjunct Professor Feb 2023 – Jan 2025

ESSCA Ecole de Management • Angers, France — Lecturer on European governance of AI

Fellow Present

Newspeak House • London, UK — Building an open-source platform to sustain engagement with human-authored writing in the post-AGI era

Selected Publications

Borenovic, Dunlop et al. (2025). ‘Hardware-Rooted Trust Anchors for Sovereign AI Processing.’ ICDS 2025.
Smakman, Soder, Dunlop (2025). ‘An Autonomy-Based Classification: AI Agents, Liability and Learnings from the UK Automated Vehicles Act.’ Accepted at three workshops, NeurIPS 2024.
Bernadi, Stein, Dunlop (2024). ‘The Role of Governments in Increasing Interconnected Post-Deployment Monitoring of AI.’ SoLaR Workshop, NeurIPS 2024.
Co-author. ‘Safety Frameworks and Standards: A Comparative Analysis to Advance Risk Management of Frontier AI.’ AI Governance Institute, University of Oxford.
‘Provable Hardware Trust for AI.’ Authored op-ed on hardware-rooted verification for AI sovereignty.
‘Safe Before Sale.’ Co-author. Referenced in the inaugural International AI Safety Report.
‘The Value Chain of General-Purpose AI.’ Co-author. Referenced by the UK Government White Paper on AI.
‘Explainer: What Is a Foundation Model?’ Co-author. Widely referenced explainer on GPAI.

Education

MA Conflict Studies & Human Rights 2017 – 2018

Utrecht University • GPA: 3.9/4.0

BA History & Politics 2013 – 2016

Newcastle University • 2:1 (First-class dissertation)

References available upon request.