Vera Vernooij Postdoc onderzoeker

Vera Vernooij (she/her) is a postdoctoral researcher at DRIFT and focuses on the social dimensions of transitions. She enjoys collaborating with policymakers and practitioners, and sees her role in connecting perspectives, zooming out in complex processes, and critically reflecting on transition challenges.

She is interested in how global challenges and ambitions are experienced locally and how this connection can be supported to accelerate sustainable change. In doing so, she focuses on the alignment between policy and people’s lived realities, and on the role of research and different forms of knowledge in this process. In her work at DRIFT, she concretizes this interest in two research projects in Rotterdam: Our Smart Family Buddy explores how a healthy living environment and lifestyle can be strengthened and health inequalities reduced, and in CATALYSE she works on deepening collaboration between public and civic parties in the heat transition.

Vera’s interest in people and (in)justice began during her Bachelor’s degree in Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (University of Amsterdam). During her Master’s in Sustainable Development (Utrecht University, track ‘International Development’), she further engaged with the context of climate change and persistent global inequality. She then began her PhD research (Wageningen University), in which she studied the socioeconomic diversity of farmers, agricultural practices, and dairy markets in Kenya. Based on this analysis, she critically explored how climate policy could better align with these realities to foster more inclusive development. Before starting at DRIFT, she worked as a food supply chain researcher and project leader at Wageningen Food & Biobased Research, including in projects closer to home. She now draws on these experiences to approach societal challenges in a context- and culture-sensitive way.

Vera’s hobbies change with the seasons: from indoors to outdoors, and from familiar activities to trying new things. Her attempts to shift from head to heart and hands, while keeping screens at a distance, prove rewarding.