Eszter Kelemen

I hold an MSc in economics and a PhD in environmental sciences. I have been working at ESSRG since its foundation, currently as full-time senior researcher. Between 2008-2019 I taught environmental conflict management, ecological economics and decision techniques at different Hungarian universities.

I have been engaged in research since my graduation at the Corvinus University of Budapest, first focusing on the challenges of rural development, later on engaging local communities in the assessment of ecosystem services. The socio-cultural valuation of ecosystem services – beside being the topic of my PhD thesis – is still one of my core research interests. I love working with people who have diverse backgrounds and on-the-ground experience, and over the years I have developed skills in social scientific, participatory and deliberative techniques which help me facilitate knowledge co-creation processes.

Lately I have familiarized myself with policy analysis and evidence synthesis approaches. I have been engaged in the work of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) since 2014, first as a member of the Values Expert Group, later as a Lead Author of the Global Assessment and Coordinating Lead Author of the Values Assessment. This experience has given new impulses and urged me to conceptualize and reflect on science-policy interactions in general. The János Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences provided financial support to my research on engaging diverse actors in science-policy interactions.

External positions:

• President of the European Society for Ecological Economics
• Member of the editorial board of Kovász

Core research interests:

• ecosystem services and biodiversity
• agri-environmental public goods and alternative food systems
• diverse values, trade-offs and conflicts
• science-policy interface and boundary organizations

Selected publications: