Carolyn Cole is a Research Scientist in VTT's Quantitative Science and Technology Studies team under the Foresight and Data Economy research area. She is also pursuing a doctoral degree in Economics and Business Administration at LUT School of Business. Her research focuses on the private sector's interaction with sustainability and social responsibility, with special attention to the role of public funding and policy mechanisms. Her work involves quantitative foresight methods and the development of methodologies integrating large language models (LLMs) into qualitative and quantitative research. This has included the development and implemented of LLM applications to augment expert-led workflows with AI tools. Recent applications have included technological foresight, social life cycle assessment, alternative economic scenarios, innovation policy, and energy justice.

Prior to VTT, Carolyn's work covered sustainable finance and ESG reporting intiatives with a focus on EU regulation. She has previously worked on antitrust economics at NERA Economic Consulting, where she designed and implemented predictive and inferential models for federal competition policy cases. Carolyn holds an MSc in Social Policy and Social Research and a BA in Economics & Mathematics. Her master's research investigated the relationship between fuel poverty and domestic carbon emissions in the UK. Carolyn's current research interests cross topics of innovation, technology, social and environmental sustainability, and new economic paradigms.