ENP welcomes Susanne Konrad and Robert Bergsvik as new PhD Candidates

Robert and Susanne joined the ENP as PhD students for the TRANSGOV project, under Prof. Dr. Aarti Gupta, where they will approach the concept of ‘Transparency’  from two distinct angles, namely radical transparency and capacity-building for transparency. In addition to Dr. Aarti Gupta and Dr. Ina Moller, Robert will work closely with Dr. Sanneke Kloppenburg and Susanne will work closely with Dr. Ingrid Boas.
 

Susanne has an interdisciplinary background in climate change and international forest ecosystem management. Originally from Germany, she has spent the last 6 and half years in Copenhagen, where she took her Master’s degree and subsequently worked for a UNEP-Collaboration Center, based at the Technical University of Denmark. There she worked closely with developing countries on transparency issues under the Paris Agreement, mostly in South East Asia but also globally. At the ENP, she will continue her focus on transparency within the new ‘TRANSGOV’ research project looking particularly into the capacity-building realm of climate transparency under the United Nations Climate Change Convention and the Paris Agreement — how do they unfold in different country settings, for instance in the context of least developing countries and emerging economies?

Robert has a master’s degree in political science and international studies from Stellenbosch University in South Africa, with a focus on global governance in the developing world. Originally from Norway, he has pursued academic and professional activities in the US, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands. Prior to starting his PhD at Wageningen University he worked as a research fellow in the department for Science Communication & Society at Leiden University. At ENP, he is investigating how the use of emerging technologies for the purpose of generating radical transparency will affect issues of trust, accountability and climate ambition within global climate governance. This includes a close focus on non-state actors’ potential use of such technologies and the effects it can have on state actors.