Meet the team
The EMPOWER consortium is made up of research partners, municipalities and network leaders, domain experts, industrial and supplier partners, corporate third-parties and follower cities from across Europe and beyond. Discover some of the faces behind our team below!

Prof. Susan Grant-Muller
Project Co-ordinator, University of Leeds
Susan is co-ordinator for the EMPOWER project as a whole, also leading the University of Leeds team contribution with Frances Hodgson (co-investigator). Susan is Professor of Technologies and Informatics at Read More

Frances Hodgson
Co-investigator, University of Leeds
Frances Hodgson, UNIVLEEDS Frances has been a PI and Co-I on seven collaborative projects both national and international for a wide set of clients. She has over 25 years’ experience Read More

Rosie Samuel
Project Administrator, University of Leeds
Rosie (on the right) is the Project Administrator for EMPOWER. Rosie acts as a principal point of contact for the EMPOWER project, is in charge of keeping the website up Read More

Magda Cepeda
Research Assistant, University of Leeds
Magda joined the EMPOWER Project in January 2017 as a Research Assistant. With a background in Sustainability and Transport, she is currently in the last year of her Ph.D. in Read More

Dr. Alexander Köppen
Pocketweb
Alexander is CEO of Pocketweb, one of the ICT development partners in the consortium. He is an expert in app design and development and is experienced in citizen centric solutions Read More

Dr. Magnus Kuschel
Pocketweb
One of Magnus’ passions in life is sustainable development. As founder of Commute Greener, Magnus contributes to the EMPOWER project with advice and solutions primarily in the realm of technology, Read More

Dr. Tiago Fioreze
University of Twente
Tiago Fioreze is an Italian-Brazilian researcher at the University of Twente, The Netherlands. His research interest within the EMPOWER project includes smart cities and behavioural economics. In his spare time, Read More

Dr. Tom Thomas
University of Twente
Tom is the Project Manager for EMPOWER at the University of Twente. His topics of interest are travel behaviour, modelling traffic flows, and developing algorithms for the prediction of travel Read More

Benjamin Groenewolt
Gemeente Enschede
Benjamin is work package leader for the EMPOWER Living Labs. As an all-round expert who loves to be the intermediary between different fields of expertise, he tries to bring all Read More

Caroline van der Weerdt
TNO
Social marketing means using marketing methods and tools to motivate people to change their behaviour for social good. In EMPOWER Caroline supports the participating cities with her social marketing expertise Read More

Prof. Marieke Martens
TNO
Prof. Marieke Martens is particularly interested in why people do what they do and how this can be affected. She firmly believes in a personalised approach, since not all people Read More

Sharon Prins
TNO
Besides leading teams in the areas of human behaviour and technology innovation, Sharon likes to coach people on the job. Together with her husband Sharons love to take care of Read More

Tineke Hof
TNO
Tineke Hof MSc is working at TNO as a research scientist in traffic and mobility. Her research activities are in the field of developing, evaluating and improving behaviour change programmes Read More

Sigma Dolins
RISE Viktoria
Sigma Dolins joined Viktoria Swedish ICT and the EMPOWER project at the end of September, armed with a background in sustainable transportation innovation and urban planning. She works with Dirk Read More

Dr. Marcel E. Bijlsma
Mobidot
Marcel Bijlsma is the Co-founder of Mobidot, innovative ICT specialist in measuring and analysing personal travel behaviour via the Smartphone. Within EMPOWER Marcel is responsible for the application and maintenance Read More

Marcel Meeuwissen
Gemeente Enschede
Marcel is an enthusiastic mobility expert within the Municipality of Enschede, working as a senior advisor for traffic and transport. Within EMPOWER, Marcel supports the Living Lab operation in Enschede, Read More

Kain Glensor
Wuppertal Institute
Kain is an engineer and political scientist, who works on research projects on sustainable urban transport, policy assessment, climate change adaptation and science-policy interface. He is co-leader of EMPOWER’s work Read More

Oliver Lah
Wuppertal Institute
Oliver Lah works at the Wuppertal Institute where he focuses on sustainable mobility and international cooperation issues. Oliver supports the EMPOWER team in the impact assessment work, where he brings in experiences from transferability assessments of sustainable Read More

Hande Dönmez
WRI Turkey
Hande is Strategic Communications Coordinator at WRI Turkey Sustainable Cities where she supports EMPOWER through dissemination activities. She shares the latest news and updates from EMPOWER with Turkish audience, as Read More

Stephanie Holzwarth
UN-Habitat
Stefanie Holzwarth is working as an Associate Human Settlements Officer in the Urban Mobility Unit at UN-Habitat, headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. Previously, she has worked in Urban Development Projects in Read More

Marie-Claire Ottenhof
Municipality of Enschede
Marie-Claire is a brand new trainee within the Municipality of Enschede, working on projects to promote the use of sustainable energy. She tries to involve various stakeholders to enable an Read More