Our research aims to understand how policies, institutions, and digital technologies shape outcomes for both people and ecosystems. We explore how algorithms and data influence environmental governance and how emerging computational tools can be used to support—or hinder—progress toward more just and sustainable futures for our biosphere.
epl.ethz.ch
We strive to stay curious about, humbled by, and grateful for the ecosystems and communities we learn with and from. We’re based in Zürich, a city whose prosperity is deeply intertwined with historic and contemporary global inequities that shape today’s environmental challenges. Throughout our work, we aim to acknowledge and thoughtfully navigate this positionality.
Our research examines the interactions between environmental, social, and technological systems, focused on:
What drives coordinated and cooperative environmental action between individuals, jurisdictions, and sectors? How do institutional arrangements and governance structures shape climate and biodiversity policies and their outcomes? We investigate these and related questions using a combination of simulation-based approaches and large-scale observational analyses.
How can we translate the vast amounts of information about our biosphere into effective and equitable decisions? Our research uses computational approaches to explore and design decision strategies and policy interventions that are robust to biophysical and sociopolitical uncertainty. We work to integrate the social and political dimensions of environmental decision-making into computational approaches, ensuring that derived strategies are more actionable and equitable.
What role should algorithms and digital technologies play in shaping environmental futures? We critically examine the use of decision-making technologies in the environmental domain, grounding our work in broader societal discussions about accountability, transparency, and bias in data and algorithms. Our goal is to understand and help build systems in which digital tools and information support just, accountable, and enduring forms of environmental governance.
Official openings are posted through ETH Zürich and the Environmental Policy Lab website.
If you are interested in applying for external fellowships (SNSF, MSCA, Fulbright, etc.) with our group, feel free to reach out with a short note, your CV, and a 1–2 page project idea.
