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
It takes a Community: Human Dynamics in Biodiversity Monitoring
BioMonWeek 2026 brought together Europe's biodiversity monitoring community for a week of exchanges on how to better observe, measure, and ultimately protect the natural world. The conference, organised under the
Studying International Organizations in Turbulent Times – new challenges and chances
On April 15, 2026, the Environmental Politics Research Group and the ERC Project TwinPolitics hosted a workshop bringing together current research on international organizations, institutional change and multilateral reform, with
ERC – Project “TwinPolitics” is hiring a student assistant
Are you interested in environmental governance and working on cutting edge political science research on the future of international negotiations regarding marine ecology? Emerging digital twin technology holds promise
Vilmreif – wie drei Österreicher*innen an der Ostsee über Biodiversität nachdenken
Vom 20. bis 24. April 2026 fand in der Internationalen Naturschutzakademie Vilm auf der gleichnamigen Insel vor Rügen der Workshop „Transformation gestalten - Jugendworkshop zum Bericht des Weltbiodiversitätsrats (IPBES)“ statt.
A constructivist view on Portugal’s position in the ISA
Portugal's geographic position and its history as a sea crossing nation are deeply ingrained in the country's history and in its policy preferences. How is this reflected in Portugal's behaviour
IPW Lecture with Philipp Pattberg
We are excited to host an IPW Lecture with Prof. Dr. Philipp Pattberg from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (currently a guest researcher at CEU). He will give us insights from his
