TwinPolitics is an ERC Consolidator Grant project running from July 2024 to June 2029. The interdisciplinary research team led by the Principal Investigator Assoc. Prof. Dr. Alice Vadrot investigates the development of digital twins as a (geo)political phenomenon that could permanently change the interface between science and politics. The focus here is on the question of whether, and if so, how digital twins can contribute to a fairer organisation of multilateral negotiations in the future. TwinPolitics will develop new methods to empirically investigate digital twins as socio-technical and political relationships and to model their emergence at the interface between science and politics.
To this end, Alice Vadrot and her research group will combine methods from ethnography and computational social science and apply them to digital ocean twins in the EU, China and the USA. In order to identify which features of digital twins promote inclusion, diversity and equity, ethnographic data will be collected at different policy levels and from a variety of research sites. These will then be fed into socio-technical models. In a final step, the use of digital twins in multilateral negotiations will be tested using three examples: the International Seabed Authority, negotiations on a new UN plastics agreement and negotiations on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity.
Team
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Alice Vadrot
Principal Investigator
Political scientist Alice Vadrot has been Associate Professor for International Relations and Environment at the Department of Political Science since February 2022. She completed her doctorate on the World Biodiversity Council in 2013 and returned to the University of Vienna in 2017 after a two-year research stay at Cambridge University as an Erwin Schrödinger Fellow of the Austrian Research Fund (FWF). Her focus is on researching the interface between science and politics in international environmental diplomacy and developing new methodological approaches to examining the role of knowledge in international negotiations. In 2018, the political scientist received an ERC Starting Grant for her project MARIPOLDATA (2018-2024), in which she and her research group are mapping negotiations on a new agreement to protect the high seas and the development of the scientific field of marine biodiversity. As part of the EU project MARCO-BOLO (2022-2026), she is investigating the need for data in biodiversity policy and nature conservation practice. Vadrot is a member of the Young Academy of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), the Mission Board of the EU Water Mission, the Management Board of the Environment and Climate Hub of the University of Vienna and the management team of the Austrian Biodiversity Council.
E-Mail: alice.vadrot@univie.ac.at
Recent publications:
Julia Chapotot-Necker, MA
Research Administrator
Julia Chapotot–Necker joined the Team in July 2024 as a research coordinator and is responsible for the daily operational, administrative and financial operations as well as for the internal and external communication activities of the project.
She holds a Bachelor degree in European Studies from Maastricht University in the Netherlands and a Master degree in Political Sciences from the University of Vienna. Before joining MARIPOLDATA, she has worked in the non-profit sector for organisations such as Amnesty International and Ehe Ohne Grenzen as a coordinator.
Felix Wurm
Research Assistant
Felix Wurm is a Bachelor student of political science at the University of Vienna, with an earlier background in financial law and joined the team in March 2023 as a student assistant within the Europe Horizon MARCO-BOLO project. Being part of the TwinPolitics project since July 2024, he will support the project’s start-up phase. Currently his focus lies on European environmental policy and biodiversity data use, primarily working with quantitative methods to conduct his research.
E-mail: felix.wurm@univie.ac.at
Simon Fellinger
Research Assistant
Simon Fellinger is a Master student of Political Science at the University of Vienna. He joined TwinPolitics to support the early phases of the project. Previously, Simon joined MARIPOLDATA in January 2023 as a Student Assistant and wrote his Master thesis in the MARIPOLDATA Project on the negotiation of the BBNJ Scientific and Technical Body. Simon completed his bachelor’s degree in governance and public policy at the University Passau. His focus lies on international environmental policy, international institutions, and the relation between science and policy.
Emil Wieringa Hildebrand
PhD Student
Emil Wieringa Hildebrand is a PhD candidate at the Department of Political Science of the University of Vienna. His research is focused on the role of emerging technologies in international negotiations on deep sea mining and marine environmental policies. He works predominantly with quantitative methods. Emil has a master’s degree in political science from the University of Vienna, a bachelor’s degree in political science from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, and has done a year of international communication studies at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam.
Carolin Hirt
PhD Student
Carolin Hirt is a PhD candidate at the Department of Political Science at the University of Vienna. Her doctoral research focuses on critically examining and modeling the development of the EU Digital Twin of the Ocean (DTO) exploring how, why, and by whom the EU DTO is developed. Her academic interests lie at the intersection of science and politics, with previous work addressing ocean circulation, climate policy, and carbon dioxide removal technologies in the EU.
Carolin holds a master’s degree in political science and a bachelor’s degree in meteorology, both from the University of Vienna, as well as a bachelor’s degree in marketing communication from the SRH Berlin School of Design and Communication.
E-mail: carolin.hirt@univie.ac.at
Wenwen Lyu
PhD Student
Wenwen Lyu is a PhD candidate at the Department of Political Science of the University of Vienna. Her doctoral research examines issues of justice and equity in international negotiations on marine biodiversity, with a particular focus on the power imbalance at global, national and local level, as well as the role of innovative technologies in promoting environmental justice.
Before joining the University of Vienna, she has received a dual master degree in International Relations from Renmin University of China and in European Integration from Vrije Universiteit Brussel. She received her dual bachelor degree in German Studies and Journalism from the Communication University of China. During her studies, she interned and worked with international organizations, including UNFCCC, UNIDO, and FAO, engaging in development project management. Her work spanned various topics, including global climate adaptation efforts, the sustainable development of the textile industry in West Africa, sustainable land management and food system transformation in Tanzania.
E-mail: wenwen.lyu@univie.ac.at
Felix Nütz
PhD Student
Felix Nütz is a PhD candidate at the Department of Political Science of the University of Vienna. His research is focused on the role of data and emerging technologies in plastics governance, especially in the context of the ongoing international negotiations for a global plastics treaty. He has previous experience working in environmental policy on topics of plastics governance, citizen science and local climate policies, amongst others. Felix holds a master’s degree in political science from Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, where he already completed his bachelor’s in the same field.
E-mail: felix.nuetz@univie.ac.at
Affiliated Researchers
Dr. Arne Langlet
Affiliated Researcher
Arne Langlet, holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of Vienna, specializing in the marine biodiversity regime complex and the study of international negotiations and organizations. His academic background includes a Master’s in International Relations from Berlin, focusing on environmental policy and quantitative analysis, and a Bachelor’s in European Studies from Maastricht University. From 2019 to 2023 he was a PhD student in the ERC research project MARIPOLDATA. He currently works as a research associate (post-doc) at the Horizon Europe project MARCO-BOLO (MARine COastal BiOdiversity Long-term Observations) researching the use of marine biodiversity data among stakeholders to align product development with needs of policy-making and as a Fisheries Consultant for the FAO, focusing on ecosystem restoration. Additionally, he offers his expertise to the IUCN as a member of the High Seas Specialist Group. He is also a data scientist, volunteering with CorrelAid to consult for social organizations and develop workshops on data visualization. His work is reflected in multiple publications focusing on marine biodiversity, policy-making and the study of international negotiations.
Email: arne.langlet@univie.ac.at
Recent Publications:
Paul Dunshirn, MA
Affiliated Researcher
Paul Dunshirn is a PhD student at the research platform “Governance of digital practices” (University of Vienna). He is an affiliate researcher at the ERC-funded project MARIPOLDATA. Paul has a background in political science and anthropology.
His current research focuses on questions of governance and global equity around marine genetic resources. Using computational methods, he traces marine genetic resource pathways from the moment of sampling to scientific research and patenting. The aim is to provide a better empirical grounding to current debates on biodiversity governance in the context of various UN processes (see BBNJ negotiations and Convention of Biological Diversity).
Email: paul.dunshirn@univie.ac.at
Recent Publications:
Silvia C. Ruiz-Rodríguez, MA
Affiliated Researcher
Silvia Ruiz-Rodríguez is a PhD student at the Department of Political Science of the University of Vienna. She has been awared a Sowi:Docs Fellowship by the Vienna Doctoral School of Social Sciences and is associated to the European Research Council Project MARIPOLDATA. Her PhD project focuses on in-person and digital multilateral diplomacy at marine biodiversity negotiations.
Silvia has a master’s in political science form the University of Vienna and a bachelor’s degree in law from the Metropolitan University in Caracas, Venezuela, where she graduated with honors. She received a double master’s degree in Piano Performance and Piano Pedagogy from Baylor University, Texas and a postgraduate diploma on Piano, Lied and chamber music repertoire from the University for Music and Performing Arts of Vienna”
Email: silvia.ruiz@univie.ac.at
Recent Publications
