Past and ongoing projects

EU LIFE project | 2022-2025 | project coordinator

The overarching objective of JUSTEM is to build regional capacity and include citizens in the development of the energy and climate plans of their regions, adapting them to their needs. Moreover, JUSTEM intends to facilitate policy development and in particular the just transition planning by increasing the uptake of sustainable energy solutions. This will be done by creating a pipeline of measures highlighting and bringing to the attention of a wider public the multiple benefits they bring.

UsersTCP by IEA Task | 2022-2023 | project coordinator

This Task will focus on public engagement in the context of building renewable energy generation plants (wind turbines, solar systems and biomass) as well as electricity transmission and distribution grids. By reviewing the success of existing approaches, we aim to provide transferable and actionable guidance for future engagement activities done by project developers and public authorities.

Throughout the Task, we will involve stakeholders, specifically in the form of interviews and workshop participation. Based on their inputs as well as a comprehensive literature analysis, we will develop a best practice guide for public participation in energy infrastructure. This will also lead to the provision of policy-relevant insights on effective engagement of the public in energy infrastructure developments – all with the overall aim of improving project acceptability, public support for project developments as well as the speed of the energy transition.

EU Horizon 2020 project | 2019-2022 | research associate

The EU project SENTINEL has advanced and developed new energy system modelling tools to support the transition to climate-neutrality in the European Union. The SENTINEL platform consists of 14 modelling tools that can be used to explore decarbonisation pathways and trade-offs of potential future energy systems. We have engaged with numerous stakeholders from policy, industry, non-governmental organisations and researchers to understand the needs, research questions and challenges of the energy transition that informed model developments and modelling runs. I was the project lead at IASS, co-responsible for stakeholder engagement and co-developed a socio-political modelling toolbox.

Funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment | 2017-2019 | project manager

The joint project Pathway to the <2° Economy aimed to show that a greenhouse gas neutral economy is feasible and opens up new opportunities. It was supported and realised by companies that back the national and international climate goals with their actions and invite others to join them on this path because limiting global warming to well below 2° Celsius will only be possible with business. Pioneering companies along the value chains of the building, transport and industrial production sectors were working together on concrete, cross-company project ideas to reduce greenhouse emissions in line with the <2° limit. The project "Pathway to the <2° Economy" was carried out jointly by the 2° Foundation - German ClimateEconomy and WWF Germany. I was involved in the management of the participating companies, was the main contact for the cluster "industry" and supported the facilitation of workshops.

During my PhD (2012-2016), I was conducting research under the Helmholtz Climate Initiative REKLIM (Regional Climate Change and Humans) to support the understanding of regional perceptions of climate change and coastal adaptation measures. I was part of a network of nine research centres within the Helmholtz Association that combines several, competence-driven research topics in a comprehensive approach. REKLIM produces essential regional information on climate change, which it subsequently transfers for the benefit of society.