Aygen is a Policy Fellow at the International Inequalities Institute at LSE, where she works towards developing and implementing the Institute’s Funding and Knowledge Exchange Strategy, including for the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme's portfolio. In collaboration with the III Research programme convenors, and faculty affiliates, Aygen aims to expand the Institute's research funding portfolio, external partnerships, and research dissemination activities. She also focuses on enhancing III's policy engagement work, whilst building her own policy-oriented research outputs.
Aygen has a strong interest and background in research and innovation policy. She has developed multiple aptitudes in her career over the last decade in-between academic and administrative facets of higher education (both as a post-doc fellow and research development professional), and now looking into expanding her knowledge in policy analysis. Aygen works on strategy development in research and knowledge exchange funding; and connecting social science-based research to innovation for impactful outcomes. She is an expert facilitator for interdisciplinary and collaborative research projects; an independent grant evaluator for European Commission grants; and an expert on research funding policy from an HEI perspective.