Research Institute for Sustainability Helmholtz Centre Potsdam

Ingeborg Niestroy

Dr. Ingeborg Niestroy

Scientific Project Leader

E-Mail

ingeborg [dot] niestroy [at] rifs-potsdam [dot] de

Ingeborg Niestroy is Project Coordinator of the EU Horizon 2020 project REAL-DEAL: "Reshaping citizen deliberations for the European Green Deal" since February 2022 - both for the RIFS work packages and the consortium, which consists of 16 partners from research and civil society organisations. Previously, she was a Senior Fellow at RIFS, collaborating in the Science Platform Sustainability 2030 and the TD-TEC team (Transdisciplinary Theory, Evaluation and Culture).

Ingeborg is (physical) geographer and completed an interdisciplinary Ph.D. at the TU Berlin, combining planning, political science and law. She has worked for more than 20 years in environment policy and sustainable development, at the interface of science, policy and society - in Europe and internationally. From 1999 to 2012 she was executive director of EEAC, the European Environment and Sustainable Development Advisory Councils. 2014/2015 she worked as liaison person for the Ministry for Environment and Agriculture of Rhineland-Palatinate in the Representation to the EU. She then worked in different projects, countries and levels on governance for SDG implementation and in 2019 joined the RIFS.

Projects

  • since 02/2022: Project Coordinator of REAL DEAL at the RIFS Potsdam
  • 2019-2021: Senior Fellow at the RIFS Potsdam & Science Platform Sustainability 2030 (WPN2030) & Research Group Transdisciplinary Theory, Evaluation and Culture (TDTEC), Potsdam
  • seit 2015: Co-founder Public Strategy for Sustainable Development (ps4sd) and Associate of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), Brussels
  • 2013-2015: Head of Division EU Policy for the Ministry of Environment, Agriculture, Food, Wine-growing and Forestry of Rhineland-Palatinate (Germany) at the Brussels Representation
  • 2008-2010: Research Fellow at the Open University of the Netherlands, Heerlen
  • 1999-2012: Executive Director of the European Environment and Sustainable Development Advisory Councils (EEAC), Wiesbaden, The Hague & Brussels
  • 1996-2000: Doctorate in Planning at Technical University of Berlin, with studies at the German University of Administrative Sciences, Speyer. Thesis: Strategic Environmental Assessment as an instrument for environmental integration - Case studies in waterway planning at the river Elbe and the San Francisco Bay
  • 1992-1995: Planning office for transport infrastructure and environment, Hannover
  • 1990-1991: University of California at Berkeley, USA
  • 1983-1990: M.S. Geography at University of Goettingen, Germany. Thesis: Availability of geogenic and anthropogenic heavy metals on arable soils.

  • Governance for sustainable development, public administration; geography of governance for sustainability
  • Policy coherence for sustainable development and tools like Regulatory/Sustainability Impact Assessment (RIA / SIA)
  • Participation and democratic innovation
  • EU policies and research for the SDGs, European Green Deal

Publications at the RIFS

Publications prior to joining the RIFS

  • Master course "Food controversies", Catholic University of Lille, ESPOL (European School of Political and Social Sciences), 2017
  • Presentations at Various UN OSD, UNDP, UN DESA and other international organisations conferences and workshops (since 2012) as well as multiple EU actors' conferences and workshops (EESC, ESDN, JRC..) (since 2002)
  • Presentations & guest lectures at Universities: Central European University (Budapest / Vienna), University of Freiburg (Germany), Catholic University of Lille (France), University of Rome Tor Vergata, University of Amsterdam, Fletcher School of Governance, Tufts University (Boston), Leuphana University (Lüneburg, Germany), Free University of Berlin, Open University of the Netherlands

  • Ph.D.: Scholarship of the German Environmental Foundation (DBU)
  • Post-graduate studies at Berkeley: Scholarship of the University of Göttingen, Germany