Partners

Prof. Francisco Alpízar is the Chair and Professor of the Environmental and Natural Resource Economics Group at the Department of Social Sciences at Wageningen University and Research. Within TRANSPATH, he acts as project coordinator and leads the coordination and implementation of all project activities.

Francisco is an applied behavioural economist working in the interface between environmental and development issues. He has previously worked for 20 years in Latin America and the Caribbean, running a LAC-wide research and capacity building program called LACEEP. 

Dr. Jeanne Nel leads the Biodiverse Environment Programme in Wageningen University & Research, Netherlands. In TRANSPATH, she acts as project coordinator and is leading the coordination and implementation of all project activities. Jeanne is an ecologist and conservation scientist and works on connecting communities across many siloes to stimulate co-learning, knowledge and collective actions towards just, nature-based futures. Her research focuses on land and water ecosystems, and the linkages to global change and social development. She works closely with the coordination and communication teams to ensure that the interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary knowledge is truly weaved together to transform science, policy and practice and to enable human and non-human nature to flourish.

Kasper Kok is Assistant Professor of the chair group Environmental Systems Analysis at Wageningen University. He is a researcher and knowledge broker, working in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary teams on integrated scenarios and (mental) models to improve decision-making.

His key interest is improving multi-scale, integrated methodologies that cross social and environmental sciences, using qualitative and quantitative methods to develop exploratory and normative future outlooks in a participatory setting. Kasper’s main area of expertise is the development of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary foresight methods, focusing on co-production techniques and emphasising the diversity of perspectives on current and future systems.

Paul Dingkuhn is a PhD candidate at Wageningen University under the supervision of Francisco Alpizar. Within TRANSPATH, Paul is working on identifying policy entry points at the EU financial sector level to align (private) capital flows with climate and nature conservation goals.

Paul Dingkuhn is an economist with degrees from Erasmus University (Rotterdam) and the Université Panthéon Sorbonne (Paris). He worked as a climate policy analyst at the consulting firm Climate Focus and interned as an assistant to the executive committee of the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI). He has held several research assistant positions in the field of development and environmental economics. 

Since 2010 Karen van der Heide does the financial management and HR for the Agricultural Economics and Rural Policy Group, Urban Economics Group and Environmental Economics and Natural Resources Group (Section Economics, Wageningen University).

Karen is a secretary of the AGRIMBA network (International Network for the MBA in Agribusiness and Commerce) since 2011 and is responsible for the coordination of accreditations of several Eastern European countries and is arranging the annual Executive and General Board meetings. In addition, she is a treasurer of ICABR - The International Consortium on Applied Bioeconomy Research. 

María A. Naranjo is a researcher for Green Economy and Land Use at Wageningen Economic Research, with experience in management and the implementation of research projects. Within TRANSPATH, she acts as project manager and is supporting the coordination and implementation of all project activities.

María completed her PhD studies at the Development Economics Group at Wageningen University. She holds a master's degree in Environmental Economics and Natural Resources and worked on related topics, including voluntary environmental programs management and funding of natural protected areas, nature-inclusive agriculture, and farmers’ and workers’ living income. María’s research focus is on understanding individual preferences and farm-level decisions via survey tools and the implementation of lab-in-the-field experiments.

Sylvia Karlsson-Vinkhuyzen is Associate Professor with the Public Administration and Policy Group of Wageningen University. Within TRANSPATH Sylvia leads the work package developing a conceptual framework as well as methodological support for navigating transformative pathways both in research and policy/practice.

Sylvia is a political scientist with a PhD from Linköping University, Sweden. Her research is focused on understanding the key determinants of what makes global public governance processes on climate change and biodiversity exert influence and build legitimacy across levels. She is particularly interested in the role that accountability mechanisms play in these processes and how to strengthen them to support action including through deliberation and learning. Sylvia has been a member of the Task Force on Scenarios and Models for the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and engages in analysis of and societal debates for strengthening global environmental governance.

Zuzana Harmáčková is a researcher at Stockholm Resilience Centre and leads the Department of Social-Ecological Analysis at the Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences. She is a steering committee member of the Ecosystem Services Partnership.

She works with stakeholders, experts and policy-makers across geographic and cultural contexts (Africa, Central Asia, Europe) to co-develop scenarios of potential future development, and pathways to sustainable futures for people and nature. Zuzana has been involved in science-policy interfaces related to biodiversity, ecosystem services and sustainability challenges (IPBES, EKLIPSE), and acts as a coordinating lead author in the futures chapter of the IPBES Nexus Assessment.

Lenka Suchá is a researcher at the Department of the Social-Ecological Analysis at the Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Within the project, she co-designs the Science-policy-practitioner Labs.

Lenka has a background in development studies, now focusing on transformations towards sustainability in various geographical and socio-cultural contexts (Southern Africa and Eastern Europe).  Her work builds on transdisciplinary methodologies and systems thinking in order to engage diverse stakeholders in co-development of pathways towards social-ecological sustainability.

Pavlína Schultzová is a research assistant in the Department of Social-Ecological Analysis at the Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Within the project, she works in two work packages contributing to the Transformative Navigation Toolkit and Science-policy-practitioner Labs.

She has a master's degree in Environmental studies from Masaryk University and a bachelor's degree in Biology from Charles University. Her diploma thesis focused on the psychological phenomenon of social traps and dilemmas in the context of environmental problems, specifically climate change. Currently, she is mainly interested in the field of sustainability science.

Prof. Dr. Ralf Seppelt is a professor for Landscape Ecology and Resource Economics at Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and heads the department for Computational Landscape Ecology at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ).

He has studied applied mathematics at the Technical University Clausthal Zellerfeld, Germany, and has obtained his doctorate degree in Agroecology and systems analysis at the Technical University Braunschweig, Germany. His main research focus is land resources management based on integrated simulation and modelling systems. He thus is interested in the interactions and interrelationship of anthropheric and biospheric processes.

Christian Neumann has an agricultural background and holds a master’s degree in Natural Resource Management from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. He wrote his diploma thesis at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in the Department of Computational Landscape Ecology.

In his thesis he studied the effects of climate change (e.g. rising temperatures, changing precipitation patterns) and land use intensification on the structure and composition of biotic communities with different functional characteristics. Afterwards he worked as a research assistant at the UFZ. He worked on the biodiversity analysis for the BioSDG project, which investigates ways of transformation towards a bioeconomy and the impacts on the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as the resulting trade-offs between the SDGs.

Detlef van Vuuren is a senior researcher at PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency and a professor in Integrated Assessment of Global Environmental Change at the Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University. His research concentrates on response strategies to global environmental problems using integrated assessment models and other tools. As such, he participates as part of the IMAGE integrated assessment modelling team.

He is also a member of the board of the Integrated Assessment Modelling Consortium (IAMC) and member of the Working Group on Coupled Models of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP). He participates in the editorial board of Climatic Change and Earth System Dynamics. Detlef van Vuuren had a coordinating role in the development of the Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) now used in the IPCC’s assessments. Detlef van Vuuren has participated as (Coordinating) Lead Author in various assessments such the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, UNEP’s Global Environmental Outlook, the International Assessment on Agricultural Science and Technology Development, and the OECD Environmental.

Rob Alkemade is a senior researcher at PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. His research focuses on modelling biodiversity, nature and its contributions to people by assessing relationships between drivers of change and indicators capturing a broad set of nature perspectives. 

From 2002 Rob Alkemade led the development of the GLOBIO model for global biodiversity and ecosystem services, and guided the applications of the GLOBIO model in scenario studies for Global Environmental Outlooks, Global Biodiversity Outlooks and OECD environmental outlooks, and various European research projects. From 2014 until 2019, Rob was head of the IPBES Technical Support Unit for Scenarios and Models, and between 2008 and 2018 he was visiting associate professor at Wageningen University, and in 2019 – appointed special professor on global biodiversity and ecosystem services modelling.

Dr. Pablo Ernesto Evia Salas is a research fellow at EfD Central America and a development economist from the Bolivian Catholic University. Within TRANSPATH, Pablo acts as project manager and supports the coordination and implementation of all project activities.

Pablo has extensive experience working as a public servant in Bolivia, providing advice to the authorities in the executive branch. He holds a Doctoral Degree in Agricultural Economics from Rheinische Friedrich Wilhelms University Bonn, ZEF. His main research interest lies in the field of poverty and inequality reduction and Environmental Economics.

Joan David Tàbara is an independent researcher with over 25 years of experience in international interdisciplinary research on knowledge integration for sustainability.  

He is a member of the Earth Commission Working Group on Transformations of the Global Commons Alliance and an Associated Researcher at the Global Climate Forum and the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He contributed to the first book on Public Participation in Sustainability Science (CUP 2003) and his recent involvement in EU research transformations-oriented projects include GREEN-WIN, IMPRESSIONS, TIPPING+ (as P.I).

Dr Mawunyo Fred Dzanku is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), University of Ghana. He is a development economist whose research focuses principally on the economics of household behaviour in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Dzanku has extensive experience in conducting and analyzing household surveys in Ghana and several countries south of the Sahara. His current research areas include the impact evaluation of projects, ex-ante evaluation of biotechnology, poverty reduction policy analysis, natural resource governance and applied econometric modelling.

Teodor Metodiev is a senior science communication expert at Pensoft. He holds a degree in Media and communication science from the University of Mannheim, Germany, specialising in mass communication with a strong focus on global and science communication. 

Teodor is leading the communication & dissemination work packages of several ongoing H2020 and Horizon Europe projects focusing on topics such as reversing wild pollinator decline, sustainable beekeeping, long-term ecosystem research, farmland birds conservation, improving soil quality etc. Within those projects, Teodor is actively participating in the preparation and implementation of long-term, multi-channel Communication and Dissemination Strategies.

Carla Stoyanova is a science communication expert at Pensoft Publishers. Within TRANSPATH, she supports the ongoing promotion, dissemination and communication of the project’s mission, developments and outputs.

Carla holds a degree in Communications Management from Sofia University, Bulgaria and has experience in graphic design, advertisement and marketing. Her expertise lies in the development and implementation of strategic communication and dissemination plans, social media management and content creation. At Pensoft, Carla is working on EU-funded projects focused on biodiversity and life sciences.

Boris Barov is a Project Manager at Pensoft and an ecologist with 20 years of experience in biodiversity, nature conservation, and business sustainability at international level. 

He is an experienced team leader of non-profit, academic and industry partners credited for his diplomacy, advocacy, and stakeholder involvement skills. In TRANSPATH, he is involved in WP5 on dissemination, outreach and catalysing transformative pathways.

Eva Slavova is a science-policy communication expert at Pensoft Publishers. Within TRANSPATH, she supports the ongoing promotion, dissemination and communication of the project’s mission, developments and outputs.

Eva holds a degree in Public International Law from Utrecht University, The Netherlands and has experience in a regional fisheries management organization. Her expertise lies in the development and implementation of strategic communication and content creation. At Pensoft, Eva is working on EU-funded projects focused on biodiversity, climate policies and tranformative change.

Salvatore Di Falco is a professor in Environmental Economics at the University of Geneva, and research associate at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment in the London School of Economics (LSE).

Salvatore’s research focuses on the intersection between agricultural, environmental and development economics using econometric models. He has analysed the contribution of natural resources such as biodiversity on agricultural productivity, food security, and weather risk in arid environments. His work also focuses on the role of institutional structures (common property forests) on natural resource conservation, rural development and poverty reduction. More recent work includes the impact of social capital and traditional sharing norms on consumption, saving accumulation, investment decisions and adaptation to climate change. He is currently editor of the European Review of Agricultural Economics.

Utsoree Das is a PhD candidate in Economics at the University of Geneva, under the supervision of Prof. Salvatore Di Falco. Within TRANSPATH, she works as a researcher in designing and conducting a field experiment for analysing policy interventions, using impact evaluation tools.

Utsoree has worked briefly at the Reserve Bank of India on a research project targeting the impact of conditional cash transfers on poverty alleviation and welfare outcomes in India. Her main areas of interest are development and environment economics. Her working projects focus on climate, welfare, trade, and political economy. Presently, she is co-president of the Rare Voices in Economics association.

Haileselassie Medhin is the Africa Director of Strategy and Partnerships at the World Resources Institute (WRI). Based at the Europe Regional Office, he is also the representative of WRI Africa in Europe. He also leads WRI’s work in Institutional and Economic Transformation in Africa.

Eszter Kovács is a Lecturer in Environment, Politics and Society at the Department of Geography at UCL. 

Her research focuses on rural development and the making and effects of environmental law and policy, particularly for conservation, water and farming within Europe and South Asia.