During the Spring semester of 2020, Maria Ricksten joined Technopolis Group as a part-time student employee, while carrying out her Master thesis research on EU-cohesion policy and sustainable EU-regional development. She investigated how frameworks within the public administration literature are used for the implementation of EU policy by Member States.

With the support from Technopolitans, Maria conducted a case study on the Swedish implementation of the European Social Fund (ESF), with a focus on gender mainstreaming efforts. Her colleagues provided her with academic feedback on methodology and data collection, as well as a useful network of potential interviewees.

After successfully defending her Master thesis at Lund university, Maria joined Technopolis Group as full-time analyst.

The network and knowledge I gained from writing my thesis on EU cohesion policy with the support of Technopolis Group is very useful in the projects I work with every day at the office.

Maria Ricksten, analyst at Technopolis Group Stockholm

Maria’s full master thesis is available here.