Since August 2025, I have been a Group Leader at TdLab of ETH Zurich and an academic guest at Eawag (Group Inter- and Transdisciplinary Research). I completed my studies at the University of Salzburg, Austria (2006-12), and at Aarhus University, Denmark (guest student, 2009) with a BA and an MA in Political Science. As a policy officer at the Central Commission for the Navigation of the Rhine, the world’s oldest international organization based in Strasbourg, France, I gathered practical experience in sustainable transport policy (2012-15). In Switzerland, I did a PhD in International Affairs and Political Economy at the University of St.Gallen (2015-20). In the context of my thesis, which focused on environmental regulation of maritime industries, I was an observer in the Swiss delegation to the International Maritime Organization IMO (2017-19). In parallel, I worked as a research assistant in energy governance (2015-21) and completed a CAS in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, both at the University of St.Gallen (2016-18). I then joined Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, first as a postdoc researcher (2021-24) and later as a scientist (2024-25) in the Inter- and Transdisciplinary Research Group. During this time, I was also Lecturer at University of St.Gallen (2021-25) as well as a visiting scholar at the University Centre of the Westfjords, Iceland (Grimsson fellowship, 2024), and at the University of Oulu, Finland (ROAM fellowship, 2025). I have been a fellow of various academic networks, including the Postdoc Academy for Transformational Leadership of the Robert Bosch Foundation (2021-23), the Earth System Governance Project (since 2021), the tdAcademy (2023-24), and the Swiss Young Academy (2023-28). In the Earth System Governance Project, I have been a member of the task forces on Knowledge Cumulation and Ocean Governance.
My research explores the role of knowledge in governance responses to human-driven environmental changes. It analyzes how scientific evidence and other kinds of knowledge (e.g., experiential, local, and technical) inform decisions in both policy and practice. My research seeks to advance the theorizing on relations between science and societal stakeholders and related roles of researchers. It uses qualitative social science methods and applies, reflects on, and further develops transdisciplinary methods for the purpose of impactful knowledge coproduction by researchers and stakeholders. Grounded in political theory, I pay special attention to the role of power relations between actors in transdisciplinary settings. Empirically, I have worked across different environmental issues in the past, including oceans, energy, and agricultural pesticides. I led inter- and transdisciplinary knowledge integration in the project “Transformation in Pesticide Governance” (Trapego, 2021-25). Currently, I am leading the research project “Transforming Science-Society Relations in the Anthropocene” (Anthro:Relate, 2025-26). The empirical focus of my future research is on the nexus of adaptation to climate change, biodiversity conservation, and human well-being.
Selected publications:
Hofmann, B.; Reber, U.; et al. (2025) A typology of interdisciplinary collaborations: insights from agri-food transformation research, Sustainability Science, doi:10.1007/s11625-025-01702-x
Hofmann, B.; Fischer, M.; et al. (2025) Knowledge cumulation at science‐policy interfaces: opportunities for environmental governance research, Environmental Policy and Governance, 35(3), 538-546, doi:10.1002/eet.2155
Hofmann, B.; Salomon, H.; Hoffmann, S. (2025) Roles of researchers in inter- and transdisciplinary sustainability research: a reflection tool, Sustainability Science, 20, 777-792, doi:10.1007/s11625-024-01619-x
Hofmann, B. (2024) Persuasive innovators for environmental policy: green business influence through technology-based arguing, Environmental Politics, 33(1), 45-69, doi:10.1080/09644016.2023.2178515
Hofmann, B.; Ingold, K.; et al. (2023) Barriers to evidence use for sustainability: insights from pesticide policy and practice, Ambio, 52(2), 425-439, doi:10.1007/s13280-022-01790-4
Hofmann, B. (2022) Mainstreaming Earth System Governance into the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, Earth System Governance, 12, 100139 (6 pp.), doi:10.1016/j.esg.2022.100139