Dilek Fraisl
Senior Research Scholar
Novel Data Ecosystems for Sustainability Research Group
Advancing Systems Analysis Program
Biography
Dilek Fraisl is a senior research scholar in the Novel Data Ecosystems for Sustainability Research Group of the IIASA Advancing Systems Analysis Program. She also serves as the managing director of the Citizen Science Global Partnership (CSGP), a global network of networks dedicated to advancing citizen science data and practice for sustainable development.Her research examines citizen science, artificial intelligence, earth observation, and data innovation as tools for enhancing official statistics and advancing evidence-based policymaking to improve the monitoring and achievement of sustainable development. She specializes in data governance and management, including research on citizen science data quality.
Fraisl serves as principal investigator and contributor to numerous projects focused on citizen science, marine litter, land use and land cover, as well as a range of environmental, socioeconomic, and governance issues, funded by the European Commission, United Nations agencies, and various international donors.
In addition to publishing in high-impact scientific journals, she has contributed to several key international reports, including the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Monitoring Assessment, and major publications from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD).
Fraisl also serves on several boards and expert groups across scientific communities, the UN system, and other global initiatives. These include the UN Statistics Division Collaborative on Citizen Data, UN-Habitat Quality of Life Programme, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Resilience Frontiers, and the UNEP Science-Policy-Business Forum, among others.
She is actively involved in the organizing committees and scientific advisory boards of major European and global conferences, including the UN World Data Forum. With many years of experience, Fraisl has collaborated extensively with international organizations such as the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), World Health Organization (WHO) and various government agencies, ministries, and national statistical offices (NSOs) in advisory, consultancy, and expert roles.
Fraisl holds a PhD in Sustainability Transitions from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in Austria. She also has a master’s degree in sustainable development jointly from the Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven) in Belgium, the University of Padua in Italy, and Universite Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne in France.
Last update: 05 NOV 2025
Publications
Fraisl, D. , See, L. , Fritz, S. , Haklay, M., & McCallum, I. (2024). Leveraging the collaborative power of AI and citizen science for sustainable development. Nature Sustainability 10.1038/s41893-024-01489-2.
Fraisl, D. , Scrollini, F., Annim, S.K., Villa, J.A.S., Mast, A., & MacFeely, S. (2024). Citizen science: Opportunities and Challenges for Enhanced Local to Global SDG Monitoring and Action. In: UN World Data Forum, 12-15 November 2024.
Fraisl, D. (2024). Harnessing the U N 2.0 capabilities to improve quality of life in urban areas. In: World Urban Forum 12, 4-8 November 2024, Cairo, Egypt.
Sprinks, J., Maccani, G., Fraisl, D. , Solange Leal, A., Gras-Velazquez, A., Liconti, A., Fritz, S. , Azevedo, C., Ceccaroni, L., & Parkinson, S. (2024). CROPS: changing the scale of citizen science towards the transnational level. ARPHA Proceedings 1 101-105. 10.3897/ap.e126305.
Fraisl, D. , See, L. , McCallum, I. , & Fritz, S. (2024). Complementary use of citizen science and EO data for addressing SDG data gaps. In: URBIS24, 16-18 September 2024, Rome, Italy.