Dr. Kira Vinke works at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research as the project lead of EPICC (East Africa Peru India Climate Capacities), an interdisciplinary project on the co-production of knowledge about regional climate and hydrological systems and their interactions with agricultural livelihoods, human migration and security. Dr. Vinke is the co-chair of the Advisory Board to the Federal German Government on Civilian Crisis Prevention and Peacebuilding.
Previously, she was an analyst for the German Advisory Council on Global Change to the Federal Government (WBGU) at PIK. As a consultant she has worked for the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) on the nexus between climate change and migration into cities in Southern Bangladesh and on climate migration policies in the Caribbean and the Pacific. 2016 and 2017 Ms. Vinke was an external consultant for the Asian Development Bank and developed the flagship report "A Region at Risk - The Human Dimensions of Climate Change in Asia and the Pacific."
Ms. Vinke completed her doctoral dissertation at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin on the subject of climate change and migration. Her studies were funded by the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes and she completed part of her field research on a voyage with the Okeanos Foundation to outer island communities in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. For her excellent dissertation, she received the "Potsdamer Nachwuchswissenschaftler-Preis", a prize for young scientists by the city of Potsdam.