Our Mission
The GRASP network connects people across the globe, working on and within major projects as sites for innovation and learning towards making our planet a better place to live. From transport corridors to energy grids, we see major projects beyond their technical undertakings and challenges as arenas where questions of resilience, sustainability, climate policy, social justice, public finance, security, democratic accountability and governance converge. Our work focuses on projects with real political and social weight.
We are on a mission to:
- Build a strong, global community focused on collaborative research and shared learning.
- Bridge research and practice by transforming isolated case studies and papers into usable insights with the GRASP Case Bank.
- Support a global knowledge ecosystem that empowers experts and promotes innovative solutions to today’s challenges.
Core Team
GRASP is coordinated by a small core group leading the network’s central activities–the case bank, publications, proposals, pedagogy and policy impact. The core team is supported by rotating working group leads and an extended community of passionate contributors. Our team combines expertise in project governance, public policy, organizational studies and related domains.
Giovanni Esposito
Co-founder & Case Bank Lead
Université Libre de Bruxelles
Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences
Johan Ninan
Co-founder & Case Bank Lead
Delft University of Technology
Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences
Petr Witz
Co-founder & Publicity Lead
Charles University
Faculty of Social Sciences
Athena Roumboutsos
Research Advisor
University of the Aegean
Department of Shipping, Trade and Transport
Andrea Terlizzi
Working Group Lead
University of Florence
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Roksana Tumpa
Publications Lead
CQUniversity Australia
School of Engineering and Technology
Network Members
Albania
Doriana Musaj
Polis University
Department of Planning and Environment
Research Areas: Heritage sites, community participation in creation of urban commons as shared value, community involvement in decision-making, approaches to city life and city planning.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Armela Reka
Polis University
Department of Planning and Environment
Research Areas: Urban Planning Studio, Transport Policy & Traffic Management, Urban Regeneration, Landscape Design, Technology and City Infrastructure, and History of Architecture.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Australia
Roksana Tumpa
CQ University
School of Engineering and Technology
Research Areas: Project governance, sustainability in construction and infrastructure projects, higher education, and the retention of women in the construction industry.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Belgium
Giovanni Esposito
Université Libre de Bruxelles
Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences
Research Areas: Public policy and administration, policy process analysis, change management in public sector organisations, critical policy studies, state–citizen interactions, governance of large-scale and long-term policy interventions.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Bulgaria
Milen Baltov
Burgas Free University
Department of Planning and Environment
Research Areas: Investment management and SME development, innovations management and entrepreneurship, circular economy and sustainable blue economy, Black Sea research and innovation strategy.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Croatia
Anita Ceric
University of Zagreb
Faculty of Civil Engineering, Organization, Technology and Management
Research Areas: Construction management and economics, risk management, human resource management, and communication risk in construction projects, information asymmetry and trust between project parties.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Ivona Ivić Jazvec
University of Zagreb
Department of Organization, Technology and Management
Research Areas: Construction management, risk management and communication in construction projects, information asymmetry and trust between project participants, worker productivity measurement in energy-efficient construction.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Cyprus
Symeon Christodoulou
University of Cyprus
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Research Areas: Construction engineering and management, water loss management and sustainable strategies for urban water distribution networks, artificial agents and information technology applications in construction, pavement management and infrastructure assessment.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Czechia
Kristyna Pulpan
Supreme Audit Office of the Czech Republic
Research Areas: Public audit planning and evaluation, data analytics and survey design, quantitative methods in public sector oversight, capacity building through internal training, international professional engagement.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Petr Witz
Charles University
Faculty of Social Sciences
Research Areas: Legitimacy and legitimation of large-scale public projects and policies, stakeholder management and social acceptance risks in megaprojects, public-private partnerships and their institutional determinants, evidence-informed policymaking in public administration.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Denmark
Josef Oehmen
Technical University of Denmark
DTU Construct
Research Areas: Designing and managing large-scale engineering programmes, advanced risk management techniques including non-probabilistic and ML-based risk quantification methods, principles of resilient engineering and project execution, lean risk management, risk-informed leadership in engineering organisations.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Estonia
Mattias Malk
Oppidan (NGO)
Research Areas: Urban space and infrastructure mobility, the sociological study of architecture and planning, participatory planning practices in public spaces and housing, use of creative and visual methods in urban research, and the politics and imaginaries of large-scale infrastructure development with a focus on Rail Baltica.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Finland
Vertti Sahala
Tampere University
Faculty of Management and Business
Research Areas: Corporate social responsibility and stakeholder responsibility in business and public sector organisations, governance of road and rail infrastructure decision-making and financing (INTO research project), organisational development in complex public–private settings.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
France
Stéphanie Souche Le Corvec
University Lumière Lyon 2
Faculty of Economics and Management
Research Areas: Transport economics and transport policy, pricing implementation and urban road tolling (efficiency, equity, and acceptability), evaluation of public policies, behavioural economics applied to transport, and autonomous vehicle research.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Germany
Uwe Altrock
University of Kassel
Department of Planning and Environment
Chair of Planning Theory and Urban Regeneration
Research Areas: Urban regeneration and renewal, planning theory and governance processes in urban development, urban expansion and suburbanisation in times of re-urbanisation, socially integrative area-based policies and livability in deprived neighbourhoods, megacities and transformative urban development processes in China, USA, South Africa, and Cuba.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Grischa Betram
Bauhaus-Universität Weimer
Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism
Junior Professor, Spatial Planning and Research
Research Areas: (Re)production of spaces, governance analysis in spatial planning, civic protest and citizen participation in local spatial planning, relationship between democracy and planning, socio-economic transformation and sustainability in urban development, urban megaprojects discourse and decision-making.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Jakob Buße von Colbe
University of Kassel
Department of Planning and Environment
Research Areas: Urban megaproject governance and public discourse, planning theories and practice theories, multi-level governance and political geographies, theories of scale in urban and regional planning, urban renewal and structural change in post-industrial regions.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Greece
Athena Roumboutsos
University of the Aegean
Department of Shipping, Trade and Transport
Research Areas: Public-private partnerships in transport infrastructure, risk analysis and management, procurement and contract management, stakeholder management in infrastructure projects, transport infrastructure evaluation, Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) business models and innovation.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Israel
Nir Cohen
Bar-Ilan University
Environment, Planning and Sustainability
Research Areas: Migration, diaspora, and return migration policies, urban geography and ethnic relations in urban space, geography of work and labour struggles in peripheral communities, comparative urbanism with a focus on small and mid-size cities and urban megaprojects.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Italy
Giorgio Locatelli
Politecnico Di Milano
School of Management
Research Areas: Megaprojects and complex projects governance, modularisation, value creation and capture, financing, risk management, and benchmarking in large-scale infrastructure; ethics, corruption, modern slavery, and social sustainability; nuclear energy and small modular reactors (SMRs) in the net-zero transition; project management in the new space economy.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Mauro Pinto
Università della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli
Department of Political Science
Research Areas: Public economics and public policy, education economics, and environmental economics.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Andrea Terlizzi
Università degli Studi di Firenze
Department of Political and Social Sciences
Research Areas: Public policy, policy design, policy process, public administration, and public management, with a particular focus on the development and governance of major public projects.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Netherlands
Johan Ninan
Delft University of Technology
Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences
Research Areas: Transdisciplinary design of infrastructure projects, stakeholder engagement and legitimacy in megaprojects, role of social media and digital tools in infrastructure project governance, narratives and storytelling in project organisation, climate-resilient infrastructure renewal.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Norway
Alenka Temeljotov Salaj
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Research Areas: Sustainability in buildings and settlements, public-private-people partnerships (PPPP), facility management, building refurbishment and energy efficiency, citizen engagement in smart cities and urban development.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Poland
Magdalena Rek-Woźniak
University of Łódźl
Department of Rural and Urban Studies and the Sociology of Social Change
Research Areas: Urban megaproject-based development and its social and political implications, growth discourses in urban policy, labour arrangements and strategic discourse in post-socialist Poland, Nordic welfare states and public policy, moral panics and media manipulation in public discourse.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Portugal
Rosário Macário
Association of Instituto Superior Técnico for Research and Development
CITUA - Center for Innovation in Territory, Urbanism and Architecture
Research Areas: Transport policy and planning, urban mobility and sustainable urban mobility management models, air transport policy and planning, transport system exploitation and regulation, freight and urban logistics governance.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Serbia
Aleksandra Stupar
University of Belgrade
Department of Urbanism
Research Areas: Urban studies including urban phenomena, urban innovations, urban transition, and urban history; urban planning and design; urban morphology; and science and technology studies (STS) as applied to contemporary urban challenges and transformations in globalisation contexts.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Spain
Markku Lehtonen
Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Humanitats
Research Areas: Governance of energy policy controversies (nuclear power, nuclear waste, biofuels), small modular reactors (SMRs), megaproject evaluation, trust and expertise in policymaking, and Science and Technology Studies (STS) applied to energy and environmental governance.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Sweden
Ossi Pesämaa
Luleå University of Technology
Department of Planning and Environment
Research Areas: Strategic management, project management and procurement in the construction industry, inter-organizational networks and cooperative strategies, megaproject governance, performance measurement and management control.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Peter Söderholm
Trafikverket
Purchasing and Logistics
Research Areas: Dependability (reliability, availability, and maintainability), quality and risk management, physical asset management in railway infrastructure, reliability-centred maintenance (RCM), and integrated enterprise risk management with applications to railway systems.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Turkey
Evinç Doğan
Bogazici University
Research Areas: Cultural heritage and tourism, industrial heritage and social inclusion, place marketing and city branding, visual culture and urban history, immersive experience design at heritage sites.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Berfin Şenik
Düzce University
Research Areas: Landscape planning and landscape ecology, open green space system planning, landscape sensitivity analysis, watershed planning, habitat quality assessment, disaster vulnerability and emergency area planning, landscape connectivity impacts of urban mega-projects.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Ilgın Yaşar
Bogazici University
Research Areas: Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), autonomous and connected vehicles, traffic flow modeling and simulation, and real-time traffic prediction using deep learning and computer vision.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
United Kingdom
Katharina Burger
University College London
The Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction
Research Areas: Behavioral Operational Research (BOR), group decision support and participatory methods, smart and sustainable urban transitions, major infrastructure governance, digital data privacy and privacy-enhancing technologies, equitable urban mobility.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Laura De Vito
University of the West of England, Bristol
Research Areas: Environmental and climate change policy, sustainable development governance, EU environmental politics and policy implementation, air quality policy, strategic foresight for long-term and future-oriented policymaking, qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) applied to policy research.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Eric John Ward
University College London
Bartlett School of Planning
Research Areas: Megaproject governance and performance, infrastructure planning and appraisal, interdependency planning and management of infrastructure systems, risk and complexity in infrastructure decision-making, pedestrian demand modelling, business case development for infrastructure investment.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Nigel Williams
University of Portsmouth
Faculty of Business and Law
Research Areas: I have worked to develop the area of Responsible Project Management (ResponsiblePM.com). The RPM team works with academia (UK, Europe and Asia), Project industry associations (APM & PMI), professional societies (the UK Systems Societies) and NGOs (Association for Sustainability Practitioners) to help the profession develop Project Managers that meet societal obligations.
Cases owned:
Case contributions:
Connecting research and practice
Our Partners
The GRASP Secretariat is based in Prague, at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University. The network develops in collaboration with universities, research institutes and practitioners across Europe and beyond.
We actively seek out partnerships with organizations that design, finance, regulate, deliver or scrutinize major projects–from public authorities and infrastructure owners to consultancies, auditors, NGOs and community groups.