Sanchayan Banerjee

Sanchayan Banerjee is an Assistant Professor (Tenure Track) in the Department of Environmental Economics at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam’s Institute of Environmental Studies (IVM). He holds visiting fellowships at the London School of Economics and King’s College London, and a Higher Education Academy fellowship. His research focuses on behavioral public policy, environmental economics, and nudge-based interventions to promote pro-social and pro-environmental behaviors such as climate-friendly diets, reduced food waste, and vaccine uptake. He leads the €5.7M NWO project ALIGN4energy and teaches courses on behavioral economics and causal inference at VU Summer/Winter School.

Education:

• PhD in Environmental Economics (LSE, 2022)
• MSc Environmental Economics & Climate Change (LSE, 2018)
• BA Economics (Jadavpur University, India, 2017)

Research Interests: Co-developed the Nudge+ framework, which integrates reflection into policy design to enhance citizen engagement. His work addresses climate change mitigation, sustainable dietary transitions, and public support for policies like meat taxes. Recent studies include experimental analyses of vaccine policy acceptance and behavioral responses to climate norms.

Awards: Higher Education Academy Fellowship (UK), NWO grant leadership, and over €500k in research funding.

Grants & Projects: Leads the ALIGN4Energy project (€5.7M) and collaborates with stakeholders like Scotland Zero Waste and the Danish Energy Agency. Active in policy advisory roles, including editorial roles for Humanities and Social Sciences Communications and Behavioural Public Policy.

Labs/Teams: Founds the Behavioural Transformations workshop series and chairs the International Behavioural Public Policy Association’s steering committee.