He led the International Agreements Team at the ITER Nuclear Fusion Project in Cadarache, France, where he negotiated 74 trade and procurement arrangements, collectively valued at approximately $7 billion, with ITER’s seven member entities: Europe (EURATOM), China, India, South Korea, Japan, Russia, and the USA. As the author and custodian of the Overall Project Cost document, he presented regularly to the Finance Committee and ITER Council. He has also directed similar initiatives at the European Southern Observatory (Munich and Chile) and the European Spallation Source ERIC in southern Sweden.
Recognised as an expert in the geopolitics and legacy of Big Science collaborations, Dr Robinson is a senior consultant to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, California, and a Visiting Lecturer at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, and Lund University School of Economics and Management, Sweden. An alumnus of both the Oxford Artificial Intelligence Programme and the Oxford AI Ethics Programme, he also contributes to the University’s MSc in Major Programme Management and Leadership Academy as a supervisor and examiner.
His Oxford research explores how multinational organisations—especially strategic science alliances—navigate blurred boundaries across government, business, academia, and industry. Inspired by Professor David Held’s work in global governance and the Beyond Gridlock framework, Dr Robinson applies Big Science leadership lessons to global AI governance. He advocates for an UN-led International Agency for AI Governance and publishes regularly, with recent work appearing in Global Policy, Science Diplomacy Review, and International Affairs Journal.