Completing the Gaia Fellowships: SDU Welcomes the Final Six Gaia Fellows
The SDU Climate Cluster at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) is pleased to announce the final six Gaia MSCA Fellows who will join SDU in the coming months, completing the programme’s fellow intake of 15 international postdoctoral researchers.
Together with the first nine fellows already welcomed to the programme last year, these researchers will contribute to Gaia’s mission of advancing excellent, interdisciplinary, and solution-oriented climate research across SDU’s faculties.
Their projects will further strengthen Gaia’s broad research portfolio, addressing climate-related challenges through approaches that connect scientific insight, societal relevance, and collaboration with academic and non-academic partners.
Meet the final Gaia MSCA Fellows joining SDU:
- Jiejie Lyu
Framing Sustainability in Entrepreneurial Ecosystems: A Mixed-Methods Study of Discursive Dynamics and Sustainability Outcomes
Supervisor: Kim Klyver (Department of Business and Sustainability)
- Grace D'Angelo
Microbial ecology and nutrient dynamics in coastal deoxygenated zones
Supervisor: Beate Kraft (Department of Biology)
- Ahmed Muhammad Ajaz
Circular Cosmetic-Grade Lignocellulosic-Algal Platform for Bio-Based Nanotechnology-Enabled Sustainable Haircare
Supervisor: Waheed Miran (Department of Green Technology)
- Biraj Kanta Satpathy
Chloride-Resistant Bifunctional Transition Metal Chalcogenides Derived from 2D Conductive MOFs for Durable Seawater Electrolysis
Supervisor: Shuang Ma Andersen (Department of Green Technology)
- Pedro Andres Munoz Santibanez
The eco-social dissonance in Danish urban landscapes: quantifying the conflict between perceived and ecological resilience
Supervisor: Owen Jones (Department of Biology)
- Jamie C. Weir
Reassessing the resilience of food-chains to phenological mismatch
Supervisor: Owen Jones (Department of Biology)
”With the final Gaia fellows joining SDU, we now complete the programme’s two fellowship cohorts, bringing together diverse perspectives, strong scientific ambition, and a shared commitment to addressing climate challenges through research with societal relevance."
With the arrival of these final fellows, Gaia reaches an important milestone: two complete fellowship cohorts of 15 researchers working across disciplines to develop knowledge, methods, and collaborations that support climate action and societal transformation.
As the fellows begin their projects, Gaia will continue to support them through tailored training, supervision, secondments, and opportunities for interdisciplinary exchange within SDU and beyond.
About the GAIA programme
About the Gaia Programme
Gaia is an MSCA COFUND programme coordinated by the University of Southern Denmark and co-funded by the European Research Executive Agency. Launched in 2025, the programme supports up to 15 two-year postdoctoral fellowships designed to advance climate research while bridging innovation, policy, and societal engagement.
Anchored in SCC, Gaia offers a comprehensive and impactful framework for researcher development. Fellows receive structured training in open science, research ethics, and stakeholder engagement. Their projects are further enriched through tailored secondment opportunities with a network of 24 academic and non-academic partners across Europe. Each fellow benefits from close mentorship by leading SDU scholars and works within an environment that places strong emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration and research with tangible societal relevance.
Through Gaia, SDU strengthens its role as a catalyst for solution-oriented, international climate research.
Learn more at www.thegaiaproject.eu