Learn more about The Danish Centre for Environmental Assessment
IAIA CEO Gary Baker recently sat down with Lone Kørnøv from The Danish Centre for Environmental Assessment (DCEA) at Aalborg University, recipient of the 2025 Institutional Award. Watch the video now (and find the full transcript below).
Gary Baker, IAIA CEO: Hello, again. We are here to see the latest in our interview series of award winners for 2025. Today I'm delighted to be joined by Lone Kørnøv who is going to be receiving the Institutional Award on behalf of The Danish Center for Environmental Assessment at Aalborg University. We all know Lone -- she is our incoming president for the coming year. But this award is very much for your "day job," if I can call it that, in terms of your focus at Aalborg. So perhaps we can start, Lone, by just giving a little bit of background on the Center and how it got set up and the focus of it.
Lone Kørnøv, representing award winner DCEA: Thank you so much, Gary. First of all, of course, I'm very honored on behalf of my colleagues in the Center to receive the award. So a great thank you from all of my colleagues. The Center was established officially in 2010, but we continued the work of a research group that was already formed in 2004. When we created the center in 2010, it was with this very clear mission to connect research with practical applications, and that had to do with some changes in the Danish society -- that we aim for becoming a more accessible gateway to the world of research, which sometimes can be relatively closed. So that was the initiation of the Center. We have, through all the years, had a great focus on environmental assessment, impact assessment in general, governance, and definitely a focus on building robust partnerships across public, private, and civil sectors. That has been the purpose since we started -- to become that bridge builder between societal actors and between practice and research.
Gary: Which is an interesting segue if we look at the sort of turmoil that we're currently facing in many areas. How do you see that sort of ability to scale research and collaboration going forward, particularly as we look into international spheres? Do you feel optimistic that is still going to be happening in academia or in practice?
Lone: Optimistic and realistic, I would say, because as you said the turmoil is not just overseas these days. We have an environmental crisis necessitating robust impact assessment, political instability, economic fluctuation, technological disruption. So there are a lot of changes surrounding the practice of impact assessment, both from the research side and from the practice side. I think all these different factors that we could put under the heading of "turmoil" can complicate the execution of impact assessment. I think we all need to strengthen our ability to adapt to these conditions and integrate what I also think is new realities into the IA processes. I think that is so important for us to maintain the relevance of our work and the effectiveness, absolutely.
Gary: How we stay relevant is also that embrace of technology and current practice / future practice, the promise of AI, for example. We have our conference coming up very shortly. You yourself at the university have been very vocal in this embrace of technology. Can you talk a little bit more about that, as to where you see some of those opportunities?
Lone: First of all, I'm very excited for our conference in Bologna, and I think it's so timely that we are touching upon the artificial intelligence within our field because it's such a rapid advancement of the technologies that we see. It transforms various sectors including impact assessment, so I think it's very, very positive. I think we have not -- so far -- really utilized the potential that we see within artificial intelligence, not just to make more efficient processes but also to increase transparency and democracy and to enhance the quality -- not just the quality of the assessments, as such, but really the quality of all... like increase the influence of impact assessment within policy and decision making. So I think there are great potentials that we have just started to explore, and I hope and I truly believe that the conference will be a good occasion for us to share across different disciplines and explore the potentials.
Gary: Yes, it seems to me that there's still this sort of pull, perhaps, between the strategic role that impact assessment can play in terms of improving decision making, whether it's planning or projects, and then this procedural bucket that we get put into of just execution of nuts and bolts, and that is where we get into the legal challenge, the slowing down of processes -- for many people, it's seen as that. It would be nice to think we can do a situation where that strategic element becomes a more important part of how we are perceived.
Lone: Yes, and if we along that journey can also increase the self-perception, in a way, of us as change agents -- that no one is just tasked with conducting assessments -- we are also responsible for steering projects and policies towards sustainable outcomes. So I think we also have a task in relation to our mindset. I very much look forward to exploring also the digitalization and artificial intelligence on that pathway.
Gary: As sort of a final question, what are the priorities now that you're focusing on? Is it that technology realm, or where would you say the key priorities are?
Lone: The key priorities for us in the Center right now, in relation to digitization, is to set up governance structures for us to collect and share data, because data within our domain of impact assessment is so crucial for anything else we want to do. So that is one priority that we have. The other one is to explore AI agents -- multi-agent systems -- to really mirror the task and the workflows that we have within impact assessment that can not just enhance the efficiency but also the quality of the work that we are doing. It can also be a mean for us to stay relevant or even become more relevant for the decision makers. So those are some of the priorities for us as a Center.
Gary: Final question on that -- your advice to someone looking at impact assessment as a profession and coming into it -- what is the key skill you think that people are going to need to be successful and fulfilled within that profession in general?
Lone: That has very much to do with the mindset and how we perceive ourselves and perceive others, because impact assessment as such is not making any difference -- it's a mean for us. It's people who make a difference. It's people who make change -- it's not impact assessment as such. So really to shift the focus a bit -- I would love to see that. To acknowledge that in order to create the change that we are all aiming for, we need different agents. Impact assessment is one of the agents, but it's still undertaken and used or not used by people and institutions. So more a shift towards the mindset, towards self-perception in a way, and collaboration -- because we need to collaborate across disciplines, across research, practice, policy making, and across borders. So collaboration is another focus area for me and for our community as well.
Gary: I think that's a great message to leave on -- that need for collaboration, cross-sectoral inquiry, and the ability to really look far and wide and utilize the technologies that we have. Congratulations again on the award. I very much look forward to seeing you in Bologna and continuing these discussions.
