Fellows Programme

The Climpact Fellows Programme 2026: Meet the Inaugural Cohort

21 June 2026

We are absolutely thrilled to officially announce the inaugural cohort of the Climpact Fellows Programme.

Given the exceptional level of the candidates, we made the strategic decision to expand the programme. We are proud to welcome 28 brilliant early-career researchers to our international network.

This cohort represents a remarkable diversity of geographic backgrounds—with a strong and necessary representation from the Global South—as well as a rich mix of disciplinary expertise, spanning from environmental law and empirical sociology to climate policy and economics. Together, their unique perspectives will be instrumental in advancing Climpact’s mission to analyze the systemic impacts of climate litigation globally.

While we are preparing their full profiles for the dedicated section of our website, we are delighted to introduce the 2026 Climpact Fellows:

• Brenno Santanna: Brenno Santanna is a Brazilian lawyer and LL.M. candidate at Peking University School of Transnational Law, researching whether the climate emergency qualifies as a threat to international peace and security under the UN Charter.

• Rajratna Sardar: Rajratna Sardar is a climate resilience and environmental governance specialist with over a decade of experience across South Asia and the US, and an Expert Reviewer for the IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Cities.

• Cosmos Nwedu: Cosmos Nwedu is an interdisciplinary academic scientist and lecturer at the Federal University Ndufu-Alike Ikwo in Nigeria, holding an LLM in Climate Change and Energy Law and Policy from the University of Dundee.

• Mauro Giuseppe Smiroldo: Mauro Giuseppe Smiroldo holds a PhD in Civil Procedural Law from the University of Genoa, with his academic research focusing on strategic litigation and new judicial techniques in the protection of rights.

• Juan Diego Amaya-Gómez: Juan Diego Amaya-Gómez is a graduate student at KAIST's Graduate School of Green Growth and Sustainability in South Korea, whose research empirically analyzes the financial-market impacts of climate governance instruments.

• Chiara Padrin: Chiara Padrin is a post-doctoral researcher in Comparative Public Law at the University of Milan, focusing on omnibus legislation, sustainable due diligence, and corporate climate responsibility in European and comparative perspectives.

• Eusebio Castro Salcedo: Eusebio Castro Salcedo is a Dominican-qualified lawyer, former Legal Officer at the Ministry of Environment of the Dominican Republic, and Chevening Scholar pursuing an LL.M. in International Law at University College London.

• Valentina Eisendle: Valentina Eisendle is a University Assistant and doctoral candidate at the University of Innsbruck, investigating the legal interest in a safe climate system and its implications for administrative discretion.

• Cristian Heredia Ligorria: Cristian Heredia Ligorria is a PhD Candidate at the University of the West of England, examining the effectiveness and impacts of rights-based climate litigation in Latin America and the Caribbean through socio-legal and decolonial approaches.

• Lisa Say: Lisa Say is an environmental lawyer from Québec, Canada, and an LL.M. candidate in the Joint Nordic Master's Programme in Environmental Law, researching corporate accountability and the just energy transition.

• Elena Salinas Tuñón: Elena Salinas Tuñón is completing her Law degree at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, specializing in climate change law, environmental governance, and comparative approaches to climate accountability.

• Franka Pues: Franka Pues is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Durham University, focusing on the impact of domestic criminal law reforms on climate protest rights and the intersection of international criminal law and intergenerational climate justice.

• Julia Torres Ventura: Julia Torres Ventura is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Canterbury holding a PhD in Legal Geography, whose comparative research focuses on Indigenous rights, environmental governance, and the criminalization of environmental activists.

• Tanya Mishra: Tanya Mishra is a doctoral researcher in International Law at South Asian University in New Delhi, examining how climate litigation reshapes the normative and practical environment of international investment law.

• Mst Asma Mahmud: Mst Asma Mahmud is a Senior Civil Judge in the Bangladesh Judicial Service and an M.Phil researcher at the University of Rajshahi, investigating judicial activism within climate litigation in Bangladesh.

• Riccardo Aquilini: Riccardo Aquilini holds a PhD in Civil Procedural Law from Università Cattolica in Milan and serves as an Adjunct Professor at Università del Piemonte Orientale, researching the intersection of procedural law, collective actions, and sustainability.

• Viktoriia Pylaieva: Viktoriia Pylaieva is a doctoral candidate at the Universitat de València and licensed Advocate of the Bar Council of Ukraine, analyzing how legal frameworks enable or constrain community-driven climate action and just energy transitions.

• Eoin Jackson: Eoin Jackson is a PhD candidate at the London School of Economics and a Research Assistant at the Grantham Research Institute, investigating how human rights arguments shape corporate climate accountability efforts.

• Emma Sofia Lunghi: Emma Sofia Lunghi is a legal scholar holding a PhD from the University of Milano-Bicocca, whose research focuses on the socio-legal dimensions of food systems, environmental governance, and the legal construction of food quality.

• Angelo Giorgio Cuconato: Angelo Giorgio Cuconato is a PhD candidate in sociology at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Society, empirically researching climate litigation over loss and damage against European carbon majors.

• Simal Efsane Erdogan: Simal Efsane Erdogan is an early-career legal researcher and qualified Scottish solicitor taking up a postdoctoral position at Istanbul University, whose research explores public procurement law as an underexplored site for climate litigation.

• Carla Lucero Tarifa Dianderas: Carla Lucero Tarifa Dianderas is a Peruvian lawyer and dual master's candidate at the University of Genoa and Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, researching climate accountability and the procedural mechanisms addressing structural environmental harms.

• Isil Nur Kurnaz: Isil Nur Kurnaz is a comparative and international human rights lawyer and Affiliated Research Fellow at the University of Copenhagen, examining the strategic mobilization of law and amici curiae within international human rights courts.

• Amy Bugnoli: Amy Bugnoli is a PhD researcher in Italian Constitutional Law at the Universities of Innsbruck and Trento, whose work increasingly examines the intersection of climate change, migration law, and the fundamental rights of displaced minors.

• Minahil Wahid: Minahil Wahid is a PhD researcher in Climate Change Law at the University of Strathclyde, building an original dataset to explore how domestic and international legal norms interact to shape climate governance in Pakistani courts.

• Vani Sharma: Vani Sharma is an India-qualified lawyer and interdisciplinary legal researcher with a Master's from the Geneva Graduate Institute, whose background spans strategic environmental litigation, global health, and access to legal aid.

• Shasha Shao: Shasha Shao is an Environmental Law PhD candidate at China University of Political Science and Law and visiting research fellow at Cambridge, examining due diligence obligations in international climate law and supply chain emissions governance.

• Kristin Qui: Kristin Qui is a climate diplomacy specialist and PhD student at the University of Reading, investigating the role of small island developing states in shaping justice-related norms within global climate governance.

We cannot wait to begin our collaboration through dedicated seminars, the upcoming inaugural conference on October 12-13, and the other initiatives we will develop with our fellows.

For those who were not selected this time, we highly encourage you to stay connected. Given the success of this first round, we will be opening a new Call for Fellows next year.