VS (Vanya) van der Grift-Simeonova, PhD MSc

In her 25 years’ experience,  Vanya Simeonova works 18 years at WUR. She has been a senior scientist in the field of sustainable regional development, land use planning and environmental policy at the Environmental Siceince Group and currently is managing the corporate account for international cooperation in research & education in Central & Eastern Europe at the departement of Corporate Startegy and Accounts of WUR.  She also advices on European funding programmes and policies for research and innovation and project development such as in Horizon Europe. 

She holds MSc degrees in Agriculture & Soil Sciences and in Urban Environmental Management and a PhD in collaborative governance in sustinable land use planning. Her scientific research focused on the development of collaboraitve models for policy integration in greening economic sectors and developments in European regions and urban-rural areas. She has coordinated a number of European Commission funded projects.

Currently she contributes to the development of cooperation initiatives of WUR in Central and Eastern Europe and development of R&I projects, inlcuding within the EU widening participation programme, supproting knowledge development and knowledge transfer in the fields of bioeconomy, sustainable food systems, environmental technologies and sustianble urban-rural areas. She cooridnates the cooperation support for Ukrainian institutions and academics.