Renate is a PhD Candidate at CWTS. She uses a Science and Technology Studies’ lens to study public-private (research) partnerships in the deep sea mining context. Her main research interests are on science-society interfaces and transdisciplinary research related to the ocean, particularly those contexts that are contentious.

More information about Renate Reitsma

Renate Reitsma is a PhD Candidate at the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) of Leiden University in the Netherlands. She has been part of the FluidKnowledge project since 2023, focusing on Deep Sea Mining as a case study to study public-private partnerships. She studies how within these partnerships, marine scientists navigate the politically charged context of deep sea mining. To complement her research she is part of the WTMC (STS) Graduate Program. 

In addition to her research, Renate connects with the ocean field through her engagement with the Advisory Committee on the Protection of the Sea (ACOPS), where she is a research volunteer on Deep Sea Mining, since 2023. Furthermore, she is part of the Dutch National Ocean Decade Committee to help mobilize the Dutch ocean science network towards the United Nations Oceans Decade mission: “the science we need for the ocean we want.” In particular, by creating meaningful connections between the Dutch natural science field and the (marine) social science field.

Renate has an interdisciplinary background holding a master’s degree in Sustainable Development from Utrecht University which she completed in 2022. Her masters degree explored how the London Dumping Convention and London Protocol anticipated a future-proof governance framework for a quick-fix geoengineering technology called ocean fertilization. She was able to present this thesis at the annual conference of the Earth System Governance Project in Toronto in October 2022. She finished an applied bachelor’s degree in Wildlife Management from Van Hall Larenstein in 2018, where she studied the recovery of estuaries in the Netherlands and in the Dutch Caribbean for her thesis research.