Our Researchers
Read about our interdisciplinary team
University of Groningen
Senior Researchers
Dr. Ethemcan Turhan
Assistant Professor of Environmental PlanningDr. Turhan, who is the ETN coordinator of InfraCARE, is an environmental social scientist with well-documented research experience on political ecology of environmental conflicts around climate change adaptation, urban climate justice movements, human mobility and climate policy.
Prof. Ina Horlings
Full Professor of Socio-Spatial PlanningProf. Horlings, who is the director of Urban and Regional Studies Institute (URSI), is an expert on socio-spatial planning, climate adaptation, citizen initiatives and transformations. Among many other topics, her recent work focuses on commoning of governance, spatial planning for community energy initiatives, art-based methods, and transformative community strategies responding to climate change and sustainability challenges.
Dr. Özlemnur Ataol
Assistant ProfessorDr. Ataol is an assistant professor of institutional and spatial design, and her expertise lies in participatory urban planning and design, with a particular focus on children’s participation, co-design, and sustainable spatial development. Her work explores how inclusive and collaborative planning approaches can contribute to more just, livable, and climate-responsive urban futures.
Junior Researchers
Emma Bates
Research Master student in Spatial SciencesEmma is a student assistant on the InfraCARE project while studying. She has a previous MA in European Policy and is interested in degrowth and rural communities.
University of the Basque Country
Dr. Elisa Sainz de Murieta
Lecturer and researcherDr. Sainz de Murieta is a lecturer and researcher at the Department of Applied Economy, UPV/EHU. She is also an associate researcher at the Basque Center for Climate Change (BC3) and a former postdoctoral fellow at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change based in LSE.
Dr. Eneko Garmendia
Senior Lecturer and ResearcherDr. Garmendia is a senior lecturer at UPV/EHU and associate researcher at BC3. His research is centred on the study of complex socio-ecological systems from an interdisciplinary perspective. Dr. Garmendia’s research encompasses public participation in sustainability and social learning, biodiversity and green infrastructure in Europe and social multi-criteria evaluation as a decision support tool. Before UPV/EHU, he was a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Geography and Conservation Research Institute, University of Cambridge.
Dr. Xabier Gainza
Senior Lecturer and researcherDr. Gainza is a senior lecturer at the Department of Applied Economics, director of the Master´s degree on Globalization and Development and associate researcher at the Institute for International Cooperation and Development Studies. His research covers issues in urban and regional development from an institutional perspective, such as local development policies, socio-spatial inequalities and more recently the local management of climate-related shocks.
University of Bern
Dr. Deniz Ay
Senior Researcher and LecturerDr. Ay is a Senior Researcher and Lecturer at the Institute of Geography's Political Urbanism & Sustainable Spatial Development group. Her research interests sit at the intersection of land-use planning, public policy, and social justice with a focus on gendered dimensions of urban transformation, community responses to urban change, and urban governance of diversity with a social justice and sustainability perspective.
Dr. Jevgeniy Bluwstein
Senior Research FellowDr. Bluwstein is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Social Anthropology. He leads the Swiss National Science Foundation-funded four-year project on advancing climate politics through climate activism and litigation in Switzerland. His research expertise encompasses the role of social movements, climate activism, the judiciary, and the state in climate politics, as well as political ecology of biodiversity conservation and land use.
University of Galway
Prof. Frances Fahy
Full Professor of GeographyProf. Fahy is an environmental geographer with more than 100 publications. She has vast experience with research projects such as Horizon Europe funded EnergyPROSPECTS (2021-2024) exploring energy citizenship across Europe. Prof Fahy is also one of the founding members of SCORE (Climate Resilience of EU Coastal Cities). Other networks include JPSolstice and JPI climate networks that have fed into the ECCA (European Conference on Climate Adaptation).
Dr. Alma Clavin
Lecturer in Sustainability/ESDDr. Clavin is a lecturer in Sustainability/Education for Sustainable Development in University of Galway and brings her expertise on how sustainability and ecological design can enhance human well-being and quality of life. She is also a part of Repair Acts Ireland, which is a pluralistic, artist-led research programme that explores repair, care, maintenance and healing cultures.
Dr. Kathy Reilly
Associate Professor in Human GeographyDr. Kathy Reilly is an Associate Professor with expertise in social, cultural and environmental geography. Her central research interests include geographies of children, young people and families; geographies of social and environmental justice; climate change adaptation and children’s agency in climate action. In June 2024, Dr Reilly chaired the Mary Robinson Climate and Nature Conference and was awarded an ENLIGHT Impact Ambassador Award for her work on the CCC-CATAPULT project focused on young people’s perceptions of climate crisis.
Dr. Elaine Williams
Fixed Term Lecturer (Geography)Dr. Elaine Williams specialises in community engagement, with a strong focus on Participatory Action Research (PAR), conservation volunteering, social capital, wellbeing, and environmental sustainability. With a vested interest in the Burren Region, Elaine has vast experience working alongside, and from within, communities incorporating creative methodologies such as video walkabouts, photo elicitation and biographical narrative interpretive method (BNIM).