Elisa is a social and political scientist working in the ‘Risk Assessment and Adaptation Strategies’ division, which she joined in 2013. Her research explores the role of institutions and governance arrangements in supporting climate change adaptation, and the emerging policy field of loss and damage associated with climate change impacts.

She has contributed to several large-scale international projects on disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation in Europe and beyond (Caribbean Small Island Developing States, Mexico, Paraguay, Uganda). She has also been involved in policy-oriented research efforts, like co-authoring the Italian Climate Change Adaptation Plan, the 2017 Science for Disaster Risk Management Report of the European Union, and acted as expert on adaptation in transnational regions for the European Topic Centre on Climate Change Impacts, Vulnerability and Adaptation.

She is now based at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Vienna, after being awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships for her project ITHACA (planned relocatIon as adapTation in a cHAnging ClimAte).

Before joining IIASA, she worked as Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Political Science at University College London (2018-2022) where she co-led cross -national comparative research on domestic loss and damage policymaking, with a specific focus on developing countries (Fiji, Tuvalu, Peru), and analysed loss and damage negotiations under the UNFCCC.

Since March 2022 she provides technical advice to the Italian Ministry of Ecological Transition on loss and damage, and is a member of the Italian delegation to the UNFCCC.

Elisa has background in International Relations and Diplomacy (MSc, University of Trieste), a specialization in Environmental Economics and Management (MSc, Bocconi University) and holds a Phd in Science and Management of Climate Change (Ca’Foscari University of Venice).