Roser Beneito-Montagut

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Research

My research sits at the intersection of sociology, science and technology, and ageing studies, with a sustained focus on how socio‑technical arrangements shape social relationships, later life and care. I am particularly interested in how connectedness technologies and devices become embedded in everyday environments and bodies, including AI, and how technologies co-shape emotions, relationships and practices of care among older adults and disabled people.

I am currently developing two main agendas: multisensory social connectedness and technological artefacts, and (2) technologies for dementia, where I examine how design, infrastructures and place enable or constrain meaningful social participation and inclusion.

Current funded research projects:

• Socially Connected SmartCare at Home / NIHR Research Programme for Social Care project (start date 1 April 2026)
  Co-lead with Dr Sofia Vougioukalou this project explores how low‑cost smart technologies can support independent, socially connected living for people with dementia at home. Working with people living with dementia, carers and social care professionals, the study co‑designs and assesses inclusive, affordable SmartCare solutions that can be embedded into everyday social care practice
• Smart Care Technologies for Ageing in Place: Building UK‑EU Partnerships for Dementia Innovation / British Academy–funded pump‑priming (starts date July 2026).
  Lead of a British Academy pump‑priming project that builds a UK–EU consortium with partners from five European universities and key third‑sector organisations including Alzheimer’s Society UK and Fundació Pasqual Maragall (Barcelona). The consortium develops a Horizon Europe proposal on smart, AI, multisensory and ambient technologies to support ageing in place for people living with dementia and their informal carers, including co‑designing innovative interventions through stakeholder workshops in Cardiff and Barcelona.

Recent projects include a Wales Innovation Networks–funded study on assistive technologies for dementia, which co‑developed a foundational framework for understanding adoption with people living with dementia and third‑sector practitioners. These projects place digital inclusion at their core, foregrounding the diverse needs, barriers and inequalities faced by under‑represented groups in social care and ageing.

Previous projects have examined how digital technologies shape social connectedness, inequalities and care across the life course. As PI, I led the GG&SM: Older People and Social Media project (RecerCaixa-Catalunya) on digital marginality and older people’s use of social media, and Everyday life online and emotions, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education, which explored emotional life and interpersonal communication on the internet. I have been co‑investigator on several collaborative grants, including BCONNECT@HOME, a multi‑country JPI “More Years, Better Lives” (EU-funding) project on ageing in place and digital devices, VINCLES‑COVID on digital social connectivity in Barcelona during the pandemic, and two I+D Spanish Ministry projects on eHealth policies for active aging: Enhancing equity and inclusion in health care (eSactiv) and Subjective adaptability in technological environments and life-based gerontechnological innovation (SENIORLAB‑LBD). Further work includes GW4‑funded research on digital health interventions for long‑term conditions, collaborative socio‑gerontechnology projects and visiting fellowships that have strengthened UK–European networks around ageing, care and emerging technologies.

Alongside this substantive work, I have built recognised expertise in digital and creative research methods, including online and team ethnographies, qualitative analysis of digital trace data, and mixed‑method, participatory and creative co‑research with older adults and underrepresented in research communities.

I am currently editing a new handbook on emerging disruptive technologies (Edward Elgar Publishing) and developing a monograph on digital research methods (Palgrave), both of which consolidate my longstanding contribution to methodological innovation in digital sociology and digital social research.

Across these strands, my aim is to co‑produce knowledge and methodological tools that make digital societies more just, careful to difference and genuinely inclusive for those often excluded from technological futures.

Teaching

My teaching translates research on digital society, inequalities and care into innovative, inclusive, research-led learning for students at all levels. Rooted in a background that spans Fine Arts, Multimedia and Sociology, I have always brought interdisciplinary and creative approaches into the classroom, embedding research practice and critical thinking at the core of student experience.

At undergraduate level, I convene and teach across modules including Digital Social Science Research: Theory and Data, which includes real-world research projects; Sociological Inquiries; and Qualitative Research Methods, Introduction to Social Science Research, Sociology of Disasters, etc. At postgraduate level, I teach on Digital Society and Emerging Technologies, Planetary Health and Advanced Ethnography, developing new content that enables students to engage critically with digital data, technological devices and care.

I am an active supervisor, currently supervising five PhD students and reviewing the progress of six more, alongside multiple undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations each year. 

Biography

I am an interdisciplinary researcher advancing an innovative research agenda at the intersection of sociology, science and technology, and ageing studies. My unique academic journey has shaped my approach to social research. Beginning with a Fine Arts and Multimedia background, where my doctoral thesis examined digital social interactions in artwork through postmodern philosophical and sociological theories, I discovered my passion for studying human interactions in digital spaces. This shift was complemented by a BSc in Communication (UOC, Spain) with strong foundations in sociology and research methods, and an MRes in Sociology from the University of Bath 

Honours and awards

PhD (Fine Arts), MRes (Sociology), MA (Multimedia), BA (Communication) and BA(Fine Arts).

Professional memberships

Founding member of the Socio-Gerontechnology Network 

Affiliate of CareNet (IN3, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya), Barcelona

Affiliate of Adult Social Care Research Centre (Cardiff University)

Academic positions

Senior Lecturer in Multimedia at the School of Computing, Multimedia and Telecommunications at the Open University of Catalonia;

Research Fellow at Aston Business School, Aston University (2012-2013);

Lecturer in Digital Art and Sculpture at the Fine Arts Faculty at the Miguel Hernández University (1998-2006).

Committees and reviewing

Editorial Team Qualitative Research (Jan 2025 - )

NIHRCC - RPSC Technology Enabled Social Care Call Committee (2024-2025)

Supervisions

I welcome PhD applications in the following areas:

• Digital inequalities, ageism and inclusion across the life course
• Ageing, care and technology, including assistive, AI-care and smart technologies
• Social connectedness, emotions and relationships in digital life
• Disability and socio-technical innovation
• Digital and creative research methods, including online and team ethnography
• Science, technology and society (STS) approaches to care and everyday life
• Participatory, creative and co-production research with underpresented in research communities

Current supervision

Emma Hughes

Emily Haywood

Stu Bunston

Francesca Rees

Cristie Howells

Xiaohao Fang