Past and current research projects (as of July 2022):
2023-2026 Principal Investigator: UrbEnPro - Policy and governance of urban energy prosumption models – examining and co-visioning a social transformation process. Funded by the Austrian Climate Research Programme (ACRP): 280.000.-
2022-2023: Work Programme and Project Ethics Lead: X- gain - Enhancing Competitiveness, Resilience and Sustainability of Remote Farming, Forestry and Rural Areas through Holistic Assessment of Smart XG, Last-mile and Edge Solutions’ Gains (101060294), funded by Horizon Europe, Pillar II. Budget: 5.000.000.-
2022-2023: Co-Investigator/Evaluator: Tender Evaluation for the European Commission (EC): Evaluation study on the European Framework Programmes for Research and Innovation for addressing Global Challenges and Industrial Competitiveness Focus on activities related to the green transition RTD/2021/SC/023, led by AIT (Austria) with Technopolis, Fraunhofer IS, Kerlen Evaluations. Budget: 2.000.000.-
2022/2023 Principal Investigator: Mobilisierung österreichischen Berufsbildungs-Knowhows für die Österreichische Entwicklungszusammenarbeit (English: Mobilisation of Austrian Know-How in the Field of Vocational Trainings for the Austrian Development Cooperation), Austrian Development Agency (ADA). Budget: 80.000.-
05/2020 Principal Associate: GovLab. Multiscale State and Non-state Governance, Competing Sovereignties and Border Mobilities. Submitted to the Swiss Network for International Studies (SNIS), with Swiss (HES-SO, U of Neuchâtel) and Colombian (Peace Commission, Universidad Externado of Bogotá) researchers. Budget: 287.000.
04/2020 Principal Investigator: Revision of Ecuador's Eco-Politics: Coastal Ecosystem-Services and REDD+, locally Beneficial or a Public-Private Business? Submitted to the Universidad de Las Américas (UDLA), 18 month, 10.000 (approval pending).
07/2019 Principal Investigator: Gendered Dimensions of Postdisaster Reproduction and Securitization of Life in the Afro-Pacific Region of Esmeraldas and Nariño. Preparation of a funding proposal to FLACSO Ecuador.
12/2018: Principal investigator (Latin America): Historical Revision of Ecuadorian Development Trajectories in the Light of Disasters and Political and Economic Cycles. Funded by Universidad de Las Américas (UDLA), 18 month, 10.000.- USD (approved).
12/2018 Mercator Fellow (co-applicant): Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Emmy Noether Programme, proposal by Yonatan N. Gez, PhD: „Interventions of Development and their Afterlives: Traces, Legacies, and Lived Experiences (Haiti, Uganda, Ecuador). If accepted, this project would guarantee me an annual visiting position at the University of Konstanz for the duration of 2 weeks/each February over 6 years. Total requested funding: 450.000.- € (turned down, currently under internal revision).
12/2018 – 12/2019 PI (Latin America): Indigenous Conceptions of the Common Land Use and Hospitality in the Border Region of Ecuador and Colombia, funded by the St. Gallen Latin-American Studies Leading House and the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI). Collaboration with 3 researchers from the Western University of the Applied Sciences and the Unversidad Externado of Colombia. Funding: 18.000.- CHF (approved).
07/2018 – 08/2019 PI: Socioeconomic and Socioenvironmental Capabilities’ Analysis of Artisanal Fisheries in the Northern Pacific Coast, funded by the Ecuadorian National Institute of Fishing (INP) carried out in collaboration with the Universidad de Las Américas and the University of Rhode Island, including the supervision of team of 4 researchers. Funding: 37.000.- USD (approved).
08/2017 Co-applicant: “Relocation as Disaster Risk Reduction Strategy: Social Cohesion, Vulnerability and Resilience between Urban and Rural Spaces in Latin America.” Submission of a seed money grant proposal with Prof. Jennifer Duyne-Barenstein (ETH Zurich) to the Leading House University of St. Gallen/Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) on Resettlement as Disaster Risk Reduction Strategy, SDGs, human development and the right to housing in the Andes (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina), with the aim of elaborating a multiyear research proposal for 2019 in the aftermath. Requested funding: 24.800.- CHF (turned down).
08/2017 Co-applicant: submission of a 3-year joint research proposal to the Escuela Politécnica Nacional, Quito on urban-rural food chains, SDG implementations, waste and recycling management around Quito and Guayaquil, including local 3 professors, 2 PhD students and 3 Masters’ students: 200.000.- USD (approved).
06/2017 Co-applicant: “How the Amazon Thrives: Comparing Resilient Livelihoods, Institutions and Politics in the Andean Amazon of Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru. Multi-Scalar Resilient Andean Amazon Livelihoods, Politics, and Institutions.” submission of a 4-year joint research proposal to the Swiss National Science Foundation (R4D Open Grant), led by Prof. Susanna Hecht (IHEID, Geneva/Berkeley University), together with a research consortium from 4 countries (4 professors): Livelihoods, SDG implementations, human rights, multiscalar institutions and politics in the semi-urban Andean Amazon (Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador): 600.000.- CHF (rejected, currently under review).
04/2017 Co-Investigator: Member of TIERRA (Rural Studies Research Network Ecuador): Nominated representative of Universidad de Las Américas. Working on compiling a full list of publications and theses dealing with food, environment, ruralities and land in Ecuador as well as on co-organizing the 1. National Rural Studies Conference in April 2018. Registered in and supporterd by REDU (Ecuadorian University Network).
02/2017 PI: Research grant (Universidad de las Américas) as project leader (supervising 3 professors, 4 students), focusing on post-disaster aid flows and reconstruction with regard to territorial impacts, local food sovereignty and urban-rural transformations in the Ecuadorian coast (Manabí and Esmeraldas) after the earthquake of April 2016 (18 months, 10.000.- USD) (approved).
10/2016 Convener (Coordinator) of the Thematic Group on Ethics and Development for the Human Development and Capabilities Association (HDCA), 252 members worldwide. Coordination, design and realization of small field trips and development project visits in Nicaragua (rural hospitals), Costa Rica (community forests), Japan (Fukushima site) and South Africa (Cape Town).
10/2016 – 12/2017 Co-Investigator: Research on Indigenous Livelihoods, Water and Sustainable Transformations around El Cerrejón Coal Mine in La Guajira, Colombia, aiming at identifying promising local (rural) transition projects with regard to food sovereignty and agroecology. Funded by the Rosa-Luxemburg Foundation, Quito.
since 2016: Support and voluntary collaboration with local resilience projects on community libraries, women rights, human rights and agroecology in the Ecuadorian coast (Fundación A Mano Manaba, Don Juan).
06/2015 – 11/2015 Consultant and Project Head for the Ecuadorian Council of Intergenerational Equality. Design and country-wide implementation of an equality measurement and monitoring system. Funded by Save the Children Spain: 17.200.- USD.
09/2014 PI: Seed funding grant by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) for conducting a participatory GPS-backed mapping workshop (deep mapping) in Nairobi on the emerging middle classes, housing markets and social mobility with Kompreno: 10.000.- CHF.
Since 2014: Support for, and collaboration with, various local food sovereignty and agroecological projects in Ecuador (highlands and coast) (e.g. http://www.permaculturacaimito.org/?lang=en) .
Since 2014: Ongoing support and collaboration with ATREE (Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment) in India (Sikkim) and Nepal: http://atree.org.
09/2013 - 12/2013 Consultant for the Programa Andino de Derechos Humanos (Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar). Review and design of a proposal of human rights indicators for the public sector in collaboration with national human rights NGOs: 3.000.- USD.
02/2013 – 05/2013 Consultant: As Kompreno Vice-President Member of a NGO-Consortium to define a new marketing strategy for the City of Geneva together with UNOG (United Nations Office at Geneva), aiming at highlighting its international position. Unpaid.
05/2013 – present Launch of Kompreno International (www.kompreno.org), a Geneva-based international research platform (registered as association) with offices in Sao Paolo and Ouagadougou. Focus on South-South Cooperation, linking human rights, human development and sustainability in theory and practice on three continents. Kompreno conducts commissioned projects and research for the international, public and private sector. In addition, Kompreno competes for public and private project and research grants, generating its own knowledge.
2009 – 2014 Co-Founder and Managing Director of “Brooding Opportunities” (2009-2014), registered development NGO in Austria. Learned “development business”, and all related activities, in East Africa, Eastern Europe and the Andes from the scratch. Responsible for fundraising, project implementation, selection and training of volunteers, campaigning and communications under the framework of human development. 4 Collaborators for the following projects:
12/2011 – 02/2012 Member of a Human Rights Fact-Finding Mission to Mexico and Colombia, Consultant for the UNOHCHR offices in Geneva and Quito.
02/2010 – 04/2010 Field Research Assistant in a research on human trafficking flows and networks between Nepal, India, VAE and Oman, funded by the Swiss Network for International Studies (SNIS), 18.000.- CHF (field budget).
06/2007 – 02/2008 Consultant and Researcher for the King Baudoin Foundation, Brussels, and the Zentrum für Soziale Innovation, Vienna. Participation and research on the “1. European Citizens’ Consultations” during 1,5 years: 2000.- EUR.
2022-2023: Work Programme and Project Ethics Lead: X- gain - Enhancing Competitiveness, Resilience and Sustainability of Remote Farming, Forestry and Rural Areas through Holistic Assessment of Smart XG, Last-mile and Edge Solutions’ Gains (101060294), funded by Horizon Europe, Pillar II. Budget: 5.000.000.-
2022-2023: Co-Investigator/Evaluator: Tender Evaluation for the European Commission (EC): Evaluation study on the European Framework Programmes for Research and Innovation for addressing Global Challenges and Industrial Competitiveness Focus on activities related to the green transition RTD/2021/SC/023, led by AIT (Austria) with Technopolis, Fraunhofer IS, Kerlen Evaluations. Budget: 2.000.000.-
2022/2023 Principal Investigator: Mobilisierung österreichischen Berufsbildungs-Knowhows für die Österreichische Entwicklungszusammenarbeit (English: Mobilisation of Austrian Know-How in the Field of Vocational Trainings for the Austrian Development Cooperation), Austrian Development Agency (ADA). Budget: 80.000.-
05/2020 Principal Associate: GovLab. Multiscale State and Non-state Governance, Competing Sovereignties and Border Mobilities. Submitted to the Swiss Network for International Studies (SNIS), with Swiss (HES-SO, U of Neuchâtel) and Colombian (Peace Commission, Universidad Externado of Bogotá) researchers. Budget: 287.000.
04/2020 Principal Investigator: Revision of Ecuador's Eco-Politics: Coastal Ecosystem-Services and REDD+, locally Beneficial or a Public-Private Business? Submitted to the Universidad de Las Américas (UDLA), 18 month, 10.000 (approval pending).
07/2019 Principal Investigator: Gendered Dimensions of Postdisaster Reproduction and Securitization of Life in the Afro-Pacific Region of Esmeraldas and Nariño. Preparation of a funding proposal to FLACSO Ecuador.
12/2018: Principal investigator (Latin America): Historical Revision of Ecuadorian Development Trajectories in the Light of Disasters and Political and Economic Cycles. Funded by Universidad de Las Américas (UDLA), 18 month, 10.000.- USD (approved).
12/2018 Mercator Fellow (co-applicant): Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Emmy Noether Programme, proposal by Yonatan N. Gez, PhD: „Interventions of Development and their Afterlives: Traces, Legacies, and Lived Experiences (Haiti, Uganda, Ecuador). If accepted, this project would guarantee me an annual visiting position at the University of Konstanz for the duration of 2 weeks/each February over 6 years. Total requested funding: 450.000.- € (turned down, currently under internal revision).
12/2018 – 12/2019 PI (Latin America): Indigenous Conceptions of the Common Land Use and Hospitality in the Border Region of Ecuador and Colombia, funded by the St. Gallen Latin-American Studies Leading House and the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI). Collaboration with 3 researchers from the Western University of the Applied Sciences and the Unversidad Externado of Colombia. Funding: 18.000.- CHF (approved).
07/2018 – 08/2019 PI: Socioeconomic and Socioenvironmental Capabilities’ Analysis of Artisanal Fisheries in the Northern Pacific Coast, funded by the Ecuadorian National Institute of Fishing (INP) carried out in collaboration with the Universidad de Las Américas and the University of Rhode Island, including the supervision of team of 4 researchers. Funding: 37.000.- USD (approved).
08/2017 Co-applicant: “Relocation as Disaster Risk Reduction Strategy: Social Cohesion, Vulnerability and Resilience between Urban and Rural Spaces in Latin America.” Submission of a seed money grant proposal with Prof. Jennifer Duyne-Barenstein (ETH Zurich) to the Leading House University of St. Gallen/Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) on Resettlement as Disaster Risk Reduction Strategy, SDGs, human development and the right to housing in the Andes (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina), with the aim of elaborating a multiyear research proposal for 2019 in the aftermath. Requested funding: 24.800.- CHF (turned down).
08/2017 Co-applicant: submission of a 3-year joint research proposal to the Escuela Politécnica Nacional, Quito on urban-rural food chains, SDG implementations, waste and recycling management around Quito and Guayaquil, including local 3 professors, 2 PhD students and 3 Masters’ students: 200.000.- USD (approved).
06/2017 Co-applicant: “How the Amazon Thrives: Comparing Resilient Livelihoods, Institutions and Politics in the Andean Amazon of Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru. Multi-Scalar Resilient Andean Amazon Livelihoods, Politics, and Institutions.” submission of a 4-year joint research proposal to the Swiss National Science Foundation (R4D Open Grant), led by Prof. Susanna Hecht (IHEID, Geneva/Berkeley University), together with a research consortium from 4 countries (4 professors): Livelihoods, SDG implementations, human rights, multiscalar institutions and politics in the semi-urban Andean Amazon (Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador): 600.000.- CHF (rejected, currently under review).
04/2017 Co-Investigator: Member of TIERRA (Rural Studies Research Network Ecuador): Nominated representative of Universidad de Las Américas. Working on compiling a full list of publications and theses dealing with food, environment, ruralities and land in Ecuador as well as on co-organizing the 1. National Rural Studies Conference in April 2018. Registered in and supporterd by REDU (Ecuadorian University Network).
02/2017 PI: Research grant (Universidad de las Américas) as project leader (supervising 3 professors, 4 students), focusing on post-disaster aid flows and reconstruction with regard to territorial impacts, local food sovereignty and urban-rural transformations in the Ecuadorian coast (Manabí and Esmeraldas) after the earthquake of April 2016 (18 months, 10.000.- USD) (approved).
10/2016 Convener (Coordinator) of the Thematic Group on Ethics and Development for the Human Development and Capabilities Association (HDCA), 252 members worldwide. Coordination, design and realization of small field trips and development project visits in Nicaragua (rural hospitals), Costa Rica (community forests), Japan (Fukushima site) and South Africa (Cape Town).
10/2016 – 12/2017 Co-Investigator: Research on Indigenous Livelihoods, Water and Sustainable Transformations around El Cerrejón Coal Mine in La Guajira, Colombia, aiming at identifying promising local (rural) transition projects with regard to food sovereignty and agroecology. Funded by the Rosa-Luxemburg Foundation, Quito.
since 2016: Support and voluntary collaboration with local resilience projects on community libraries, women rights, human rights and agroecology in the Ecuadorian coast (Fundación A Mano Manaba, Don Juan).
06/2015 – 11/2015 Consultant and Project Head for the Ecuadorian Council of Intergenerational Equality. Design and country-wide implementation of an equality measurement and monitoring system. Funded by Save the Children Spain: 17.200.- USD.
09/2014 PI: Seed funding grant by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) for conducting a participatory GPS-backed mapping workshop (deep mapping) in Nairobi on the emerging middle classes, housing markets and social mobility with Kompreno: 10.000.- CHF.
Since 2014: Support for, and collaboration with, various local food sovereignty and agroecological projects in Ecuador (highlands and coast) (e.g. http://www.permaculturacaimito.org/?lang=en) .
Since 2014: Ongoing support and collaboration with ATREE (Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment) in India (Sikkim) and Nepal: http://atree.org.
09/2013 - 12/2013 Consultant for the Programa Andino de Derechos Humanos (Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar). Review and design of a proposal of human rights indicators for the public sector in collaboration with national human rights NGOs: 3.000.- USD.
02/2013 – 05/2013 Consultant: As Kompreno Vice-President Member of a NGO-Consortium to define a new marketing strategy for the City of Geneva together with UNOG (United Nations Office at Geneva), aiming at highlighting its international position. Unpaid.
05/2013 – present Launch of Kompreno International (www.kompreno.org), a Geneva-based international research platform (registered as association) with offices in Sao Paolo and Ouagadougou. Focus on South-South Cooperation, linking human rights, human development and sustainability in theory and practice on three continents. Kompreno conducts commissioned projects and research for the international, public and private sector. In addition, Kompreno competes for public and private project and research grants, generating its own knowledge.
2009 – 2014 Co-Founder and Managing Director of “Brooding Opportunities” (2009-2014), registered development NGO in Austria. Learned “development business”, and all related activities, in East Africa, Eastern Europe and the Andes from the scratch. Responsible for fundraising, project implementation, selection and training of volunteers, campaigning and communications under the framework of human development. 4 Collaborators for the following projects:
- Schooling, agriculture and livelihood projects (chicken farm construction and training) for orphans’ homes in the periphery of Kampala, Uganda; close and repeated cooperation with GIZ, UNDP, UNWFP, World Bank.
- School, food, medicinal plants/gardening and volunteering projects for Shuar indigenous communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Close cooperation with Heifer International, Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, CONAIE, etc (since 2008).
- Diverse support to social help, work and formation projects for street children in Bucharest, Romania. In collaboration with Concordia Austria (http://www.concordia.or.at/projekte/rumaenien.html ).
12/2011 – 02/2012 Member of a Human Rights Fact-Finding Mission to Mexico and Colombia, Consultant for the UNOHCHR offices in Geneva and Quito.
02/2010 – 04/2010 Field Research Assistant in a research on human trafficking flows and networks between Nepal, India, VAE and Oman, funded by the Swiss Network for International Studies (SNIS), 18.000.- CHF (field budget).
06/2007 – 02/2008 Consultant and Researcher for the King Baudoin Foundation, Brussels, and the Zentrum für Soziale Innovation, Vienna. Participation and research on the “1. European Citizens’ Consultations” during 1,5 years: 2000.- EUR.