Anna Wieczorek
Professor, Chair of Sustainable Innovation and Transitions,
Eindhoven University of Technology the Netherlands
Anna J. Wieczorek
Anna J. Wieczorek is a full professor and a chair of sustainable innovation and transitions at Eindhoven University of Technology the Netherlands, and an adjunct professor at NTNU, Norway. She is a founding member of the Sustainability Transitions Research Network (STRN) and an initiator of the Global South and Brazilian chapters of the network. Between 1999 and 2011 Anna was executive director of the IHDP Industrial Transformation program, leading a network of transition researchers and practitioners in defining the international dimensions of sustainability transition agenda.
With background in sustainability and innovation sciences and 25 years international experience, Anna contributes to theory development on socio-technical system innovation, governance, and sustainable development and she studies novel ways of organising systems through new institutional arrangements. In that work she unpacks upscaling, experimentation and new business models by energy communities and academia. Anna uses transition studies as her home discipline from where she takes trans-disciplinary ‘detours’ to other fields.
Being driven by the urgent need to act on sustainability, Anna regularly engages with practical contexts. Her research is funded by NWO, EU, APN, NRC, DFG and Dutch Ministries. She has been a leader of a number of large research projects with a recent € 7.1M Interreg NWE project on community-based Virtual Power Plant (cVPP), which won several prizes: the EU Citizens Award for Sustainable Energy Innovation, TU/e Valorization Award and the KNAW Science Communication Award.
From 2021 Anna has been appointed the TU/e Sustainability Ambassador. As part of that work, she leads a core team that integrates sustainability in the university research, education, operations and governance. She also advises the University Executive Board on sustainability related matters.
Anna is a regular guest speaker, guest editor, reviewer and she publishes in leading journals. With several teaching awards she is a passionate teacher and supervisor.