Who are we?
The Environmental Politics Research Group (EPRG) is based at the Department of Political Science at the University of Vienna. The EPRG was established in 2024 to foster excellent research, teaching, and (science-policy-society) engagement related to global environmental agreement-making in the areas of ocean governance, biodiversity, conservation, and sustainable use of natural resources. We conceptualize agreement-making as encompassing actors, sites, and processes, focusing on how these are shaped by, reflect and have the potential to transform the intertwined global order of social, political and economic relations. In addition, we have a strong interest in how knowledge, science, data, and technology interact with and shape environmental politics. The EPRG is led by Professor Dr. Alice Vadrot and counts on a staff of twelve academics working in three different national and international projects.
Our research statement
The Environmental Politics Research Group (EPRG) at the Department of Political Science at the University of Vienna conducts sound, excellent, reflexive, relevant and internationally visible research spanning different actors, sites and processes of global environmental agreement-making. Our research strives to be creative, innovative and impactful within and beyond academia. We have a strong focus on empirical research, combining different qualitative and quantitative methods such as event ethnography, social network analysis, surveys, interviews, bibliometrics, oral histories, and text-mining. We approach global environmental politics as unfolding through practices, and social relations. We collect data in, and contributed to the understanding of several international agreements and negotiations such as the Agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ Agreement), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the International Seabed Authority (ISA), the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution, and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

All the Latest: News, Events, Publications, and More
IPW Lecture with Alejandro Esguerra
Jointly with the Chair of Digital Health Governance the EPRG is excited to invite you to our IPW Lecture with Dr. Alejandro Esguerra! On May 7 at 5 p.m. Dr.
Neuer Bericht zum transformativen Wandel in Österreich
Das Projekt Biodiversity Austria - International hat mit dem neuen Bericht "Neues Denken – neues Handeln: Schlussfolgerungen und Handlungsperspektiven aus dem globalen IPBES Assessment zu transformativem Wandel für Österreich" die
IPW Lecture with Rakhyun Kim – Institutional paralysis in the Anthropocene
We are inviting you to our first IPW Lecture and Ocean Seminar of this Summer Semester with Prof. Dr. Rakhyun Kim from Utrecht University speaking about "Insititutional Paralysis in the
A Busy February: IPBES 12 and the German IPBES Forum
Written by Simon Fellinger & Margarita Hartlieb It has been over a year since Biodiversity Austria – International started its work as Austria's national IPBES platform — and what an eventful year it has been. From
IPW Lectures at the EPRG – Summer Semester 2026
We are very excited to share our contributions to this semester's IPW Lectures! With our events we want to connect international researchers with students, researchers and interested public at the
PhD position in the research platform “Multilateralism Revisited”
The Environmental Politics Research Group is participating in the new, interdisciplinary research platform "Multilateralism Revisited". This research platform is dedicated to enhancing the University of Vienna’s research profile by building



