Dr. Nadezhda Mikova-Gatilina
Nadezhda Mikova-Gatilina, PhD is a Russian-German Sustainability Strategist, Foresight Expert, and Science Communicator based in Berlin, Germany. She is the Founder and Host of the Future Education Podcast, a Miss Germany Top 30 Female Mover for Women in Sustainability and Technology Foresight, and a former Project Manager and Doctoral Researcher at the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI, with over 15 years of experience in foresight studies, energy policy, and science and technology innovation.
As a consultant, Nadezhda advises research institutes, government agencies, and international organizations on monitoring advanced technological and societal trends across multiple sectors to develop scenarios for future development.
She contributed to the European Commission’s NewTRENDs Horizon 2020 project, a €2 million initiative coordinated by Fraunhofer ISI that modeled how new societal trends such as digitalization, the sharing economy, the circular economy, and prosumaging may influence future European energy demand. The project identified over 240 factors affecting energy consumption and demonstrated, for instance, that the circular economy could reduce steel and cement demand by 38% and 26% respectively by 2050.
Read Low-carbon energy scenarios 2050 in north-west European countries: Towards a more harmonised approach to achieve the EU targets and Energy Efficiency Vision 2050: How will new societal trends influence future energy demand in the European countries?
She authored Science Policy Briefs for the United Nations Multi-stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation, contributing research on the impacts of technological and societal trends on the European sustainable energy transition. Read Understanding Interrelationships between new societal trends to inform policymaking for the energy transition.
In July 2024, Nadezhda founded the Future Education Podcast, which explores the future of international education at the Berlin Cosmopolitan School. Through expert interviews with teachers, parents, and students, the podcast examines how trends such as digitalization, AI, and the sharing economy may influence education and how to inspire the next generation to drive positive change. The podcast has produced 17 episodes covering topics from AI literacy and forest education to sustainability and community development.
In 2025, Nadezhda was selected among the Miss Germany Top 30 by Miss Germany Studios, a platform that champions women who take responsibility, act as role models, and shape a modern and cosmopolitan society. Her mission focuses on supporting women in science, technology, and innovation, particularly encouraging young women and women with a migration background to pursue careers in sustainable energy transition and foresight.
Before her work at Fraunhofer ISI, Nadezhda was a Research Fellow at the International Foresight Center of the Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge (ISSEK) at HSE University in Moscow, where she worked from 2011 to 2018. At ISSEK, she contributed to the Global Technology Trends Monitoring project, coauthoring the publication Global Technology Trends (HSE, 2017). She developed systematic methodologies for technology trend monitoring that combine bibliometric analysis, text mining, and expert assessments. Read Global Technology Trends Monitoring: Theoretical Frameworks and Best Practices and A methodology for technology trend monitoring: the case of semantic technologies.
She also participated in foresight projects for Russia’s aviation industry and contributed to the development of the national science and technology strategy. Read Climate Change and Our Future: Anticipating Trends and Challenges Using Media Data, Green energy prospects: Trends and challenges, and Recent Trends in Technology Mining Approaches: Quantitative Analysis of GTM Conference Proceedings.
Nadezhda earned her Doctor of Philosophy in Foresight and Energy Policy from Utrecht University in 2023, with her dissertation titled How technological and new societal trends may influence the European sustainable energy transition: analysis of policies, methodologies and impacts, completed in collaboration with Fraunhofer ISI and supported by a DAAD Scholarship from 2019 to 2023.
She also earned a Master’s degree in Environmental Governance from Utrecht University in 2023. She earned her Master’s degree in Sustainable Development from Leipzig University in 2017, with her thesis titled Low-carbon scenarios in north-west European countries: towards a more harmonized approach to achieve the EU targets.
In 2015, she completed an Executive Education program in Strategic Foresight and Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy at The University of Manchester. She earned her Postgraduate qualification in Foresight and Science, Technology and Innovation Policy from the Higher School of Economics in 2012, and her Bachelor’s degree in World Economics, with honors, from Ulyanovsk State University in 2008.
During her studies at Ulyanovsk, Nadezhda received the Scholarship of the President of Russia from 2007 to 2008 and the Rector’s Acknowledgment for Outstanding Research and Organizational Activity in 2008. She was also the winner of the contest at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration and the winner of the “Best Economist of the City” contest, both in 2007. She served as Chairman of the Student Scientific Council on the Problems of World Economy and Management from 2006 to 2008.
Nadezhda lives in Berlin with her family and is the mother of three children. She speaks English, German, and Russian. In addition to her academic and professional work, she is a musician who has released several singles. Listen to her Future Education Podcast.
Visit her LinkedIn profile, ResearchGate profile, Miss Germany page, and Linktree profile. Follow her on Instagram.