ABOUT US 

Principal investigator:

Anna Berti Suman

Bio

Anna Berti Suman is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow and former Dutch Research Council  Fellow at the European Commission Joint Research Centre. Through the project "SensJus", Anna is performing research on the potential of civic monitoring as a source of evidence for environmental litigation and as a tool to foster environmental mediation. 

After completing the legal practice and passing the qualifying examination, Anna is Qualified Barrister in environmental and climate law  under the Bar Association of Rome, following cases at the Law Firm Dini-Saltalamacchia and at Systasis - Study Centre for the Management of Environmental Conflicts, Milan.

Anna obtained her PhD on May 8, 2020. Her PhD project aimed at investigating how Citizen Sensing, grassroots-driven monitoring initiatives based on sensor technology, influences the governance of environmental health risk and how the practice can be integrated with institutional models of risk governance through its social and policy uptake. A booklet containing the key findings for building an integrative framework has been just published by Tilburg University Open Press series and can be freely downloaded here.

Anna's page on the JRC Science Hub can be visited at https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/anna-berti-suman_en 

Expertise

Anna has a background in Law from the University of Bologna (BA, MA, cum laude) and Transnational Law from the University of Geneva. Her specializations are International and European Environmental Law, Health Law and Technology, and Participation Studies. She also holds a solid education in Comparative Constitutionalism and Constitutional Law. She has work and research experience in the health sector (Royal Brompton and Chelsea & Westminster Hospitals, London), Environmental Litigation (Unión de Afectados y Afectadas por las Operaciones Petroleras de Texaco, Ecuador) and Water Law (Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe, and Fundación Chile, Chile). Besides academia, Anna volunteers for non-governmental organizations on environmental matters.

You can download a English CV of Anna here: 

And an Italian CV here:

Collaboration

Anna is Member of the Association Systasis - Centro Studi per la prevenzione e la gestione dei conflitti ambientali; of the Citizen Science Association Law & Policy Working Group; of the Netherlands Network for Human Rights Research; and of the Italian Society for Social Studies of Science and Technology. She was part of the team of LabGov - Laboratory for the Governance of the City as a Commons of LUISS University, Rome. Anna acted within the University Council of Tilburg University as member of the employees' party "The Independents" and of the Tilburg Law School PhD Council Board as Policy Advisor for Sustainability.

Publication highlights

Berti Suman, A. and Schade, S. "The Formosa Case: A Step Forward on the Acceptance of Citizen-Collected Evidence in Environmental Litigation?", Citizen Science Track, November 2021. https://cstrack.eu/reports/the-formosa-case-a-step-forward-on-the-acceptance-of-citizen-collected-evidence-in-environmental-litigation/

Berti Suman, A. (2021) "The Policy Uptake of Citizen Sensing". Edward Elgar Publishing. ISBN: 978-1-80088-259-1. https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/the-policy-uptake-of-citizen-sensing-9781800882591.html.

Berti Suman, A and Schade, S. (2021). The Formosa Case: A Step Forward on the Acceptance of Citizen-Collected Evidence in Environmental Litigation? Citizen Science: Theory and Practice, 6(1): 16, 1-13. DOI: 10.5334/cstp.367; own drawing from article included in the Formosa Plastics Global Archive: https://disaster-sts-network.org/content/formosa-plastics-archive/essay.

Berti Suman A. and Toscano A. (2021) "Public Acceptance of Water Reuse for Agriculture in the Wake of the New EU Regulation: Early Reflections". Journal for European Environmental & Planning Law. DOI: 10.1163/18760104-18030001.

Petersmann, M. and Berti Suman A. (2021) "Cittadini Sentinella: Percepire Catastrofi tra Covid-19 e Cambiamento Climatico". L'Altro Diritto, Volume 4.

Berti Suman A. (2021). "Citizen sensing from a legal standpoint: legitimizing the practice under the Aarhus framework". The Journal for European Environmental & Planning Law. DOI: 10.1163/18760104-18010003.

Petersmann, M. and Berti Suman A. (2020) "Citizen Sensing and Ontopolitics in the Anthropocene" in Milan, S., Treré, E. and S. Masiero (Eds) COVID-19 from the Margins. Pandemic Invisibilities, Policies and Resistance in the Datafied Society, Theory on Demand series, Institute of Network Cultures.

Berti Suman A., Schade S. and Abe Y. (2020) "Exploring legitimization strategies for contested uses of citizen-generated data for policy". The Journal of Human Rights and the Environment, Volume 11, Special issue: From Student Strikes to the Extinction Rebellion. DOI: 10.4337/9781800881099.

Micheli M., Ponti M., Craglia M. and Berti Suman A. (2020) "Emerging Models of Data Governance in the Age of Datafication". Big Data & Society. DOI: 10.1177/2053951720948087.

Berti Suman A. (2020) "Sensing the risk. A case for integrating citizen sensing into risk governance". Open Press TiU. ISBN: 978-94-6240-631-5.

Berti Suman, A. (2020) "Innovating societal response to radiation risk: insights from the Fukushima Safecast case". The IUCN Academy of Environmental Law Series. Cheltenhm: Edward Elgar.

Berti Suman, A. (2020) "Making visible politically masked risks: the haze case of bottom-up data visualization" in Kennedy, H. and M. Engebretsen (Eds) Data visualization in society. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

Berti Suman, A. (2020) "Multi-stakeholder cooperation for safe and healthy urban environments: the case of Citizen Sensing" in van Montfort, C. and A. Michels (Eds) Partnerships for livable cities. London: Palgrave.

Berti Suman A. (2019) "The role of information in multilateral governance of environmental health risk: Lessons from the Equatorial Asian haze case". Journal of Risk Research. Special Issue on Multilateral Governance of Technological Risk, p. 1-17. DOI: 10.1080/13669877.2019.1617338

Berti Suman A. and van Geenhuizen M. (2019) "Not just noise monitoring: rethinking citizen sensing for risk-related problem-solving". Journal of Environmental Planning and Management. DOI: 10.1080/09640568.2019.1598852. 

Berti Suman, A. (2019). "Between freedom and regulation: investigating community standards for enhancing scientific robustness of Citizen Science". In Reins, L. (Ed.) Regulating new technologies in uncertain times. Heidelberg, Dordrecht, New York: T.M.C. Asser Press, Springer-Verlag, pp. 31-46.

Iaione C., de Nictolis E., and Berti Suman A. (2019) "The Internet of Humans (IoH): Human Rights and Co-Governance to achieve Tech Justice in the city". Law and Ethics of Human Rights.

Berti Suman A. and Pierce R. (2018) "Challenges for Citizen Science and the EU Open Science Agenda under the GDPR", European Data Protection Law Review, Volume 4, Issue 3. DOI:10.21552/edpl/2018/3/7.

Berti Suman A. (2018) "The smart transition: an opportunity for a sensor-based public-health risk governance?". International Review of Law, Computers & Technology, Volume 32, Issue 2-3. DOI:10.1080/13600869.2018.1463961.

Berti Suman A. (2018) "Challenging risk governance patterns through citizen sensing: the Schiphol Airport case", International Review of Law, Computers & Technology, Volume 32, Issue 1. DOI: 10.1080/13600869.2018.1429186.

Berti Suman, A. (2018). The Human Right to Water in Latin America. Challenges to Implementation and Contribution to the Concept. Brill Research Perspectives in International Water Law 3(2): 1- 94. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill. DOI: 10.1163/23529369-12340010.

More on:

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8973-8436 

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=3091823 

https://tilburguniversity.academia.edu/AnnaBertiSuman 

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anna_Berti_Suman 

https://labgov.city/author/annabertisuman/ 

https://mobile.twitter.com/Abesuman 

Scientific Supervisor: Sven Schade

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