Bálint Balázs

Senior research fellow and managing director of ESSRG Nonprofit Ltd. Budapest. Hungary

As a founding member and Senior Research Fellow of ESSRG, I have acted as managing director of the ESSRG Nonprofit Ltd team since 2009. I enjoy teamwork via inspiring action-planning, playful organising, partnership-building, co-creating, and public engagement procedures. After completing an MA in Sociology from Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) and an MA in History from Central European University (CEU), I did my PhD in Environmental Sciences at Szent István University (now MATE). As a lecturer in environmental sociology and qualitative (participatory, cooperative) research methodologies, I participated in developing and introducing several courses at Szent Istvan University. By the Semmelweis University, Faculty of Health and Public Administration, Institute of Mental Health, I teach sociological theories and the environment in the MA in Interdisciplinary Family Studies programme (2020-), and I have a course on Sustainable Food Systems at the Kyoto University, Graduate School of Agriculture, Faculty of Agriculture. I participated and acted as a task- or work package leader in 20+ EU research and innovation projects. These international research and innovation collaborations formed my attitude toward making things happen in environmental and social sciences, socioeconomic analysis of the agri-food innovation sector, sustainable and local food systems, transition to sustainability and policy analysis. On the science-policy interface, I contributed to the JRC scientific and policy report on Short Food Supply Chains and Local Food Systems in the EU in 2013. I collaborated as lead author to Chapter 3 on Eco-agri-food systems of the TEEB for Agriculture & Food: Scientific and Economic Foundations report in 2017-2018. Promoting the EU Farm to Fork Strategy, I also participated in the Sustainable food system framework initiative by contributing to the publication "Concepts for a Sustainable EU Food System" by DG SANTE – AGRI – ENV- MARE.