Roberto Cantoni is Beatriu de Pinós Fellow at ICTA-UAB, where he works on energy transition in Africa, and on renewable energy in particular. He previously worked as post-doctoral fellow at SPRU, University of Sussex, where he has been part of the Carbon-Intensive Regions in Transition (CINTRAN) Project; at the Center for Development Research, University of Bonn; at the Department of Social Sciences, University of Augsburg in Germany; at Sciences Po Paris and at the Ecole des Ponts ParisTech in France.

He obtained his PhD in the History of Science and Technology from University of Manchester in 2014 and has since been conducting research in the STS and in energy social sciences, publishing works on coal, shale gas, and solar energy in Europe and Africa. His main theoretical interests are in energy and environmental justice, and in political ecology. 

He is the author of Oil Exploration, Diplomacy, and Security in the Early Cold War (Routledge, 2017).