Management

COPERNICUS Alliance (CA) was established and is run by members, for members. It is coordinated by a Leadership Team and supported by an Advisory Board, a Network and a Finance Coordinator.

Leadership Team

The President is elected every second year by the CA members and Advisory Board. The Executive Director is elected for a period of four years.

President 2019-20: Dr. Anne Zimmermann, University of Bern

Anne Zimmermann

Anne Zimmermann is a senior research scientist at the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), University of Bern, and Head of CDE’s Education for Sustainable Development cluster. She holds a doctorate in English languages and literatures, with a focus on post-colonial studies. She joined CDE in 1999 and has focused on issues related to integrating sustainable development into research and teaching ever since. Currently, she is a member of a small team that is supporting the Vice-Rectorate Quality’s efforts to mainstream sustainable development in teaching at all faculties. She is also involved in researching and publishing on transformative learning and science for sustainable development, and is a member of the SAGUF’s Working Group on Education for Sustainable Development. She has long-term experience of teaching inter- and transdisciplinary research skills in a North-South context and is committed to supporting young researchers' skills through offering scientific writing courses. She also coordinated efforts to support young women’s careers as well as mainstream gender in research in the 12-year NCCR North-South programme. 
 

Executive Director 2019-22: Dr. Ingid Mulà, University of Girona

Ingrid Mula colourIngrid is research and knowledge transfer manager at the Institute of Educational Research (IRE) of the Universitat de Girona. She holds a doctorate in Sustainability from the University of Gloucestershire, with a focus on social learning and institutional change for sustainable development in higher education. She joined the IRE in November 2017 with the specific role of supporting researchers' projects and outputs especially in the area of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Her research trajectory has always focused on researching and bringing about change for sustainability at the university level. During her time in the UK, Ingrid coordinated the COPERNICUS Alliance secretariat (2012-14) and took a pivotal role in writing, and coordinating the “University Educators for Sustainable Development (UE4SD)” which involved 53 universities in 33 countries. In addition to this, she coordinated a United Nations University Regional Centre of Expertise in ESD (UNU RCE Severn) and actively participated in the RCE global network.

 

Network Coordinator: University of Girona

Finance Coordinator: Mario Diethart

Finance

CA is self-financed and uses its funds to achieve its mission. CA also seeks external funding for projects and activities. The Leadership Team and Advisory Board members are volunteering positions.

Advisory Board

The Advisory Board is elected every four years by partner institutions:

  • Prof Matthias Barth, Professor for Education for Sustainable Development, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany
  • Prof Anna Maria Geli, Professor at the University of Girona (UoG), Former Rector of UoG and President of CADEP-CRUE (2005-13), Spain
  • Prof Hans van Ginkel, Former Under Secretary General of United Nations, Rector of the United Nations University and Rector of Utrecht University, Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands
  • Mr Dario Piselli, Law student at the University of Siena and Founder of Greening USiena, Italy

  • Prof Alessandra Viviani, Deputy Director, Department of Political and International Sciences, Associate Professor of International Human Rights Protection, former Vice Rector for International Relations (2010 -2016), University of Siena, Italy

  • Prof Doris Wastl-Walter, Professor of Human Geography and former Vice-Rector for Quality (2011-2017), University of Bern, Switzerland