Marie Van Espen
PhD student
Department of agricultural economics
Agro-food marketing and consumer behavior
Ghent University
Coupure Links 653
9000 Ghent, Belgium
Bio
Marie Van Espen is a Belgian PhD researcher at the Department of Agricultural Economics at Ghent University, where she joined in October 2022. She holds an MSc in Bioscience Engineering – Agricultural Sciences (KU Leuven) and an MSc in Globalisation and Development (Institute of Development Policy, University of Antwerp), reflecting her interdisciplinary interest in the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of agri-food systems.
Before obtaining an FWO doctoral fellowship in November 2023, Marie contributed to the European Horizon 2020 project B-GOOD, where she worked on the analysis and valorisation of European beekeeping data. This experience sparked her broader research interest in how agricultural actors navigate sustainability transitions under conditions of uncertainty and change.
Research
Marie is a PhD Fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), conducting research entitled “Sowing the seeds of adaptation.” Her work examines how climate change is perceived, interpreted, and acted upon across European agri-food systems. Using a mixed-methods research design, she analyses how actors throughout agricultural value chains understand climate risks and adaptation pathways. Her research bridges behavioural and socio-economic perspectives to better understand adaptation decision-making and the social and institutional dynamics shaping agricultural resilience. The project focuses on the apple and pear, potato, and beef cattle sectors across case-study countries Belgium, Ireland, and Italy.
Marie’s broader research interests include climate change adaptation behaviour, agricultural resilience, stakeholder perceptions, and sustainability transitions in agri-food systems.
Keywords
- Climate change adaptation
- Agricultural resilience
- Farmer decision-making
- Mixed-methods research
- Agri-food systems
