Mirko is co-founder and the Sciences Lead of the Data School. He is a member of the steering committee at the reasearch area Governing the Digital Society and a member of the research area Applied Data Science. Mirko is a Visiting Professor at the Helsinki Institute for Social Sciences & Humanities of the University of Helsinki. He is also a member of the Advisory Committee Analytics at the Ministry of Finance in the Netherlands.

His research interest revolves around the socio- political impact of media technology, and the responsible use of AI and data practices. Together with the Data School, he investigates AI and data practices in government organisations and develops processes and practices for responsible use and implementation, and public accountability.

His book Bastard Culture! How User participation Transforms Cultural Production (Amsterdam University Press 2011) was listed as best-seller in the section computer science by The Library Journal. Together with Karin van Es, he edited the volume The Datafied Society. Studying Culture through Data (Amsterdam University Press 2017). His most recent publication (together with Karin van Es & Tracey Lauriault) is the edited volume Collaborative Research in the Datafied Society Methods and Practices for Investigation and Intervention (Amsterdam University Press 2024).

From 2012 to 2013 he was a research fellow at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. In 2014 he was appointed post-doctoral research fellow at the Centre for Humanities at Utrecht University. In 2016 Mirko was a Mercator Research Fellow at the NRW School of Governance at University of Duisburg-Essen.