Dr. Volkan Yılmaz is a Political Scientist and Social Policy Researcher with over a decade of experience in policy-oriented research and analysis. Currently serving as a Lecturer in Social Policy at Ulster University in Northern Ireland, Dr. Yılmaz previously taught public policy at Dublin City University and served as the director of the Social Policy Forum Research Centre at Boğaziçi University, a leading institution in Turkey dedicated to evidence-informed and rights-based social policy-making.

His expertise extends to various areas, including different social policy sectors, such as health and social protection, rights-based and inclusive policy design, and the interplay between humanitarian and social policy programmes. His research has been published in BMC Health Services Research, BMJ Global Health, Disasters, Social Policy & Society, and Journal of Social Policy.

Dr. Yılmaz has provided consultancy services to a diverse range of organisations, including WHO and UNDP, The Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, and The International Planned Parenthood Federation. He is one of the Editors-in-Chief of the Journal of Social Policy. He is a member of the WHO Advisory Group on the Governance of the Private Sector for Universal Health Coverage. He also serves as the Coordinator of the Sociology of Social Policy and Social Welfare Research Network (RN26) of the European Sociological Association and an Editorial Board Member for New Perspectives on Turkey.

He holds a dual BA in Sociology and Political Science & International Relations from Boğaziçi University, an MA in Modern Turkish History, and a Ph.D. in Politics from the University of Leeds.