I am a senior researcher with 17 years of work experience. My main research focus lies within the fields of urban studies, urban planning and migration studies. In 2002 I received my diploma degree from the University of Hamburg in geography, sociology and urban planning. In 2006 I received my doctoral degree from the University of Kiel in geography. During my academic career I have worked at the University of Kiel (2002-2005), the London School of Economics, LSE (2006-2009) and the ILS - Research Institute for Urban and Regional Development (2009-today). During this time I have worked on numerous research projects, including the following (see attached CV for more information): - RELOCAL (Horizon 2020): Resituating the local in cohesion and territorial development (Role: senior researcher) - CITITALENT (Spanish government): Talent attraction, innovation and creativity for urban development of Madrid city region (Role: international project expert) - Wiedererstarkte Städte / Regenerating cities (German government): strategies and factors for supporting cities characterised by structural change (Role: project lead) - Weak Market Cities in Europe (Joseph Rowntree Foundation): strategies and approaches by larger older-industrial cities in Europe and the U.S. (Role: senior researcher) From 02/2020 I will be the ILS project supervisor of a H2020-funded project MIMY (Empowerment through liquid integration of migrant youth in vulnerable conditions) (Role: project lead)

During my academic career I was involved in several transnational projects and cooperations. Let me briefly outline some of these: - I built up a cooperation between ILS and University of Missouri - St. Louis (UMSL) in 2015, which is built on the joint work on the debates around gentrification in larger older-industrial cities (such as St. Louis or Dortmund). This included guest visits in the U.S., joint conference sessions (UAA conference, Los Angeles), student exchanges (between TU Dortmund and UMSL), preparation of joint academic papers - The project Weak Market cities (mentioned under B.1) involved research in several European cities (e.g. Belfast, Bilbao, Bremen, Leipzig) and had a strong practitioner focus, including several so-called City Reformers Group meetings in London as well as in all of the 7 studied cities. Two follow-up projects funded by the German government continued with this approach and international networking of practitioners. - For a project funded by ILS about high-skilled migrants I spent several months at the University of Manchester do carry out fieldwork, for lectures as well as networking. - I currently involved in one EU project (RELOCAL) and will be working on another one starting next year (MIMY), both Horizon 2020.