NIVA Denmark Water Research is an independent non-profit unit focusing on research and consulting supporting evidence-based implementation and reporting of the Water Framework Directive (WFD), the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) as well as other EU Directives (e.g. MSPD and Natura 2000).
At NIVA Denmark Water Research we are a mix of experienced scientists and experts passionate about the application of the best available knowledge when implementing evidence-based management strategies. We work in streams, rivers, lakes, estuaries, coastal waters and offshore marine waters. Our key research areas are: biodiversity, nutrient enrichment and eutrophication, climate change, hazardous substances including litter and microplastics, physical modification, ecosystem health as well as the multiple human activities potentially impairing aquatic ecosystems. Hence, we develop and test indicators, monitoring methods and assessment tools with an ultimate aim of carrying out ecological analyses and synthesises related to the current environmental challenges in aquatic ecosystems.
NIVA Denmark Water Research is formally a regional office of Norwegian Institute for Water Research. Hence, we are backed by more than 350 dedicated experts and aquatic research scientists.
Our team
Pål Molander, general manager at NIVA Denmark.
Jesper H. Andersen, Chief scientist (PhD) and market director. Jesper’s research interests include eutrophication, hazardous substances, biodiversity, development and application of indicator-based assessment tools, and ecosystem-based management of coastal and marine waters (e.g. WFD, MSFD, HELCOM BSAP, etc.). Jesper has been Project Manager of large national and international projects (e.g. M-FDC, BALANCE, EUTRO-PRO, HOLAS, MSFD-DIA, HARMONY, MONIS, ECOMAR, etc.). Jesper has a passionate interest in synthesis research and is leader of the Aquatic Synthesis Research Centre (AquaSYNC). Former employments include: Danish Environmental Protection Agency, National Environmental Research Institute (NERI), DHI and Aarhus University – as well as an adjunct Professorship in Ecosystem-based Management of the Baltic Sea (2014-2018) at the Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE).
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Ciarán Murray, Senior research scientist (PhD). Ciarán’s research interests include light in marine ecosystems, development of indicator-based assessment tools (e.g. HEAT, BEAT, CHASE, NEAT, MESH and WATERS) and status assessments in relation to eutrophication, biodiversity and “chemical status”. Ciarán has participated in major international projects including HELCOM HOLAS, HARMONY, WATERS and DEVOTES. Ciaraán has previously held positions at Aarhus University and DHI.
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Therese Harvey, Senior research scientist (PhD). Therese has more than 15 years experience in environmental monitoring, water resource management and mapping marine ecosystems. Her research interests include eutrophication, environmental monitoring and management in relation to human influences within the EU’s water and marine directives (WFD and MSFD). Therese has great experience in applying satellite data in environmental monitoring and development of optical water quality indicators. Therese has previously worked at the University of Stockholm, Sweden and at WaterInsight, Holland.
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Steen W. Knudsen, Research scientist (PhD). Steen has a background in molecular biology, ichthyology, taxonomy, marine biology, population genetics, evolutionary relationship of fishes and environmental DNA (eDNA). Works with development of molecular diagnostic tools to identify presence of species in aquatic environments via non-invasive sampling techniques.
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Andy Stock, Senior research scientist (PhD). Andy studies how people change marine systems through the lens of environmental data science. His main interests are developing new modeling approaches to understand cumulative impacts on marine ecosystems better, statistical pitfalls in machine learning applications with imperfect spatial data and the limitations of predictive models and how they can nevertheless provide valuable information for environmental management.
Ellen Johannesen, Research scientist (PhD). Ellen is an interdisciplinary researcher in marine social science, holding a PhD in gender equality in ocean science from the World Maritime University in Malmö, Sweden. She has worked at the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) for the past 15 years, where she has supported executive leadership and contributed to projects focused on ecosystem-based management and ocean governance. Ellen actively contributes to initiatives for gender equality as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion under the UN’s Ocean Decade.
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Helle M. Sommer, Research scientist (PhD). Helle holds a Ph.D. in statistics from DTU and has extensive experience in data analysis across microbiology, nutrition, zoonoses, and Life Cycle Assessment. She has worked at DTU Food, DTU Compute, SEGES Innovation, and 2.-0 LCA Consultants, contributing to experimental design, statistical modelling, and uncertainty estimation in large research projects. An expert SAS user with solid R programming skills, she is also active in the Symposium for Applied Statistics. Outside of work, she enjoys sailing, skiing, and badminton.
Paula Ocampo, MSc in Environmental Biology. Paula has worked with large datasets and the CHASE tool. Paula is employed as a research assistant at NIVA Denmark.
Simon Andresen Özkan, MSc in Environmental Engineering from DTU, with specialization in environmental chemistry, water resources and sustainability. Simon is employed as a research assistant at NIVA Denmark.
Emma Dubois Barkardóttir, student at Technical University of Denmark (DTU) Aqua. Emma is a student assistant at NIVA Denmark. She is writing her master thesis at DTU in collaboration with NIVA Denmark. Her thesis is about mapping of land-sea interactions in Norwegian Fjord systems with the use of Earth Observation data.
Associates
Nikolai Friberg, (PhD). Former head of research and department at NIVA Denmark. Now employed as Professor at Aarhus University – Institute for Ecoscience. NF has more than 25 years of research experience within freshwater ecology, including climate change and nature and environmental restoration. NF has worked in Denmark and abroad and has focused on the application-oriented aspects, especially how human activities affect freshwater communities. NF is Appointed Expert for the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) under UNESCO and also Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Leeds, England. From 2009 until 2011, when Denmark’s Environmental Investigations (DMU) was closed down, NF was head of research for the Department of Freshwater Ecology (FEVØ).
Paulina Ramirez-Monsalve, former Research scientist (PhD) at NIVA Denmark. Paulina is an interdisciplinary researcher in ocean- and nature-human relations (environmental engineering, qualitative research methods, policy and legal analysis). Main research interests include stakeholder involvement, policy development and policy implementation processes, primarily focusing on European Union’s nature and marine policies (i.e. Water Framework Directive, Natura2000, Marine Strategy Framework Directive, Maritime Spatial Planning) and understanding how they are implemented especially from an institutional and governance perspective.
Marie Neel Jørgensen (Above) is a student in Biology at the University of Copenhagen and Nanna Meilholm Christiansen (Below) employed at TænkeTanken Hav. They have written their master’s thesis in collaboration with NIVA Denmark, using the HEAT tool to classify the eutrophication status of Danish coastal waters for the period 1980–2023.
NIVA Denmark 