Exciting Time

In the spring of 2020, I did my internship at the division of “International Cooperation on Biodiversity” of the “Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety” in Bonn for twelve weeks. Three reasons that made it a very exciting and special time were:
– Germany prepared itself to takeover the Presidency of the Council of the European Union (second half of 2020);
– The draft of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework has been developed – which originally was planned to be adopted during the CBD COP 15 (15th “Conference of the Parties” to the “Convention on Biological Diversity”) in Kunming, China, in October, 2020, within the German EU Presidency. However, the COP 15 has been postponed to 2021 due to the corona pandemic;
– The corona pandemic has started to spread in Germany.

Corona and the Internship

At the beginning of the internship, I was mainly involved in the preparations for the CBD COP 15. However, the CBD COP 15 process was shifted because of the corona pandemic. Concerning my internship alone, the corona pandemic had disadvantages as well as advantages:
The biggest disadvantage was that I could not enter the ministry building anymore after my first weeks. Instead, I had to work from home like my colleagues did but it turned out to work surprisingly well.
The biggest advantage was that I got insight how a federal ministry is working during a crisis. Due to the crisis, I could witness how the ministry handles a totally new, dynamic situation right from the start and I was closely involved. My tasks switched from the topic “CBD COP 15” to the new topic “nature destruction and zoonoses”.

Tasks

Some of my tasks were:
– Review of comments on the latest IPCC (“Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change”) Assessment Report (AR6) within the peer review process;
– Analysis of preparatory documents for the CBD COP 15 and defining and evaluating indicators;
– Contributing to the preparations of a Federal Press Conference held by the Environment Minister;
– Preparation of an interview with the Environment Minister;
– Involvement in the creation of an internal strategic discussion paper;
– Responding to citizen´s e-mails;
– Preparation of an internal expert talk and giving an internal presentation;
– Preparation of speaking notes for the Minister and Parliamentary State Secretary;
– Preparation of the participation of the Minister in an online-panel;
– Review of different working papers, amongst others, within the interdepartmental coordination.

Working as Policy Officer

I am very grateful that my unit and subdivision had confidence in me and handed tasks with high responsibilities over to me. Those sometimes challenging tasks allowed me to get deeper insights into policy and now I feel better prepared for a job position after the university.
I hold the employees of the Ministry in high esteem. They have to deal with a high workload and oftentimes must fulfil their demanding tasks, which have a high responsibility, in a little while. Those experiences were very valuable to me because I could feel the work as policy officer very closely.
In my opinion, the advantages of being a policy officer in the Ministry outweigh clearly. For example, one can participate in international conferences all over the world, one has to manage changing, challenging tasks and topics and is close to the highly topical political events. But most of all, the greatest advantage is that I had the feeling that one’s work can really help to improve the protection of nature. And that’s what is necessary to keep alive the underlying motivation for the daily work.
I appreciate very much that I was treated like a normal member of the team and am very happy that I can continue to support the Ministry together with my new very nice team of the GIZ (German Corporation for International Cooperation GmbH) as student assistant.

If you are interested in an internship at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, check the latest organisation plan and application requirements (the German language is a precondition).

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Why did you decide to study GCE?
The general topic of Global Change Ecology combined with the diversity of branches of the topic one could pick and delve into.

What did you like most about GCE?
When I started studying GCE, we were 7 people altogether in my year, which allowed for a very intensive supervision from the side of the GCE profs; additionally, the study course supported our education by enabling us to visit international conferences and to participate in summer and winter schools. One amazing experience I had was a summer school in the Brazilian Amazon, where we did research with international students, experienced new cultures, and lived on a boat.

How has your career continued after GCE?
After I graduated GCE, I started working as a junior policy advisor for the GIZ at the headquarters in Eschborn and later in Bonn. During this time, I advised the BMZ on the water-energy-food security nexus topic.
Later on, I continued with obtaining my PhD degree in PhD program Ecology in Zurich. After I obtained my PhD degree, I worked shortly as a scientific assistant on project funded by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment. After that I left academia.

What is your current position? What are your tasks?
I am a research manager at a joint office of UZH and ETH Zurich. The office is part of the offices of the vice-presidents for research at both universities. In my role, I advise researchers on EU funding schemes. Also a big part of my work is the negotiation of contracts and agreements.

How has GCE supported your career?
I loved that there was a good mixture of mandatory and optional courses, ensuring that all students get a very good overall quality of knowledge and yet still have the option to go into their own specific area of interest. Furthermore, I won friends for life with the people I got to know there. Last but not least, we could always discuss openly with our professors about politico-scientific topics but could also always give input to the structuring of the study course.

What do you recommend to the current GCE students?
What you learn now, during GCE, will help you during your entire career and will influence who you become as a person. Enjoy it as much as you can and be active!

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