Åsa Gerger Swartling

Åsa Gerger Swartling is a Senior Research Fellow and Head of Knowledge Management at the SEI Headquarters. She has extensive professional experience that integrates social science research, scientific leadership, as well as project and programme management within the sustainable development sphere.

In her role as Head of Knowledge Management, Åsa is responsible for enhancing and supporting SEI’s organizational learning process, including knowledge platform development and content management. Since 2016, Åsa has served on the SEI Global Research Committee, which manages internal research funding, oversees research quality and ethics policies, and facilitates research innovation across SEI’s eight centres and headquarters.

Åsa’s research interests encompass sustainability governance and transitions at local and subnational levels, with a particular emphasis on participatory research methods, collaborative processes, climate change adaptation, co-design of climate services, disaster risk reduction, and natural resource management. Throughout her career, she has actively contributed to and led the design, implementation and management of numerous research projects and programmes both in Sweden and internationally. Her leadership roles in large-scale projects and programmes at SEI include serving as co-leader of the SEI cross-centre Initiative on Climate Services (2016 – 2019), project manager of the Mistra-SWECIA programme (2008 – 2015), the European Commission-funded projects Urban Lifestyles, Sustainability and Integrated Environmental Assessment (ULYSSES) (1996 – 1999), and the Methods and Tools for Integrated Sustainability Assessment (MATISSE) (2005 – 2008). Currently she leads the SEI efforts on the European Commission-funded AGORA project as well as the Fairwater project funded by Formas, Sweden.

In prior years, Åsa has held several organizational support and management positions at SEI, including the role of Capacity Development Director from 2015 to 2019, as well as serving as the theme leader for the Transforming Governance Theme from 2010 to 2014. Additionally, she has been a member of the SEI Executive Team, the Global Management Committee and the former Research Directorate.

In her capacity as an Affiliated Researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC), from 2009 and 2014, Åsa held the position of theme co-leader for three of SRC’s research themes: Stewardship; Adaptive Governance of Social-Ecological Systems; and Knowledge Management, Learning and Social Networks. 

Expert assignments include: advisory committee member of the International Network of Boundary Organizations on Adaptation (2023 -present); board member of the Swedish International Centre of Education for Sustainable Development (SWEDESD) at Uppsala University (2017 – 2021);  national expert and member of the JPI Climate Action Group on Social Sciences and Humanities (2017 – 2018); SEI representative on WWF Sweden’s Council of Trustees (2016 – 2019); committee member of the International Network of Climate Change Centers of Excellence and Think Tanks for Capacity Building (INCCCETT 4CB) (2017 – 2019); advisory committee member of the Brock University Environmental Sustainability Research Centre (ESRC), Ontario, Canada (2011 – 2016);  SEI representative on the Swedish government-led Programme Council of the Swedish National Forest Programme (2014 – 2015); and contributing author of the Global Environment Outlook 5 report, Working Group 4 (2011 – 2012).

Åsa has published extensively in scientific journals, popular science, and technical reports. Since 2022, she has served as a Review Editor for the Climate Risk Management section of the journal Frontiers in Climate. In this capacity, she co-edited a Research Topic titled Approaches to Local Climate Change Risk Analysis (2022 – 2023), which is available to the public as an electronic book.

Åsa holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of York (2002, degree formally awarded after maternity leave in 2003).