Nikola Berger

Head of Creative and Communication

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Nikola Berger is Head of Creative & Communication at the Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production (CSCP), where she leads the organisation’s design, communication and IT team. With a background spanning design, strategic communication, sustainability and technology, she helps organisations tackle complex challenges and turn ideas into practical solutions.

Nikola is fascinated by how people understand and engage with complex ideas. Whether designing an exhibition, developing a digital tool, facilitating a workshop or shaping a communication strategy, she focuses on creating experiences that make information accessible and meaningful — and help turn knowledge into action. She explores emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence and open-source software, with curiosity and a critical perspective, always asking how they can genuinely benefit people and organisations.

Areas of expertise

Nikola combines strategic thinking with hands-on expertise in creative leadership, design management and digital innovation. Her work draws on human-centred design, Design Thinking, co-creation and participatory innovation to support organisational development and sustainability transitions.

Her expertise includes:

• Stakeholder engagement and multi-actor collaboration
• Workshop design and facilitation
• Branding, visual identity, storytelling and interactive media
• Proposal strategy and concept development for European research and innovation projects
• User experience (UX) and interaction design
• Open-source technologies and digital sovereignty
• Digital transformation and user-centred IT
• Strategic sustainability communication
• Organisational knowledge management

Current work

She has been the creative lead for numerous Horizon Europe, Horizon 2020, LIFE, Interreg, Erasmus+, and national sustainability and innovation projects. At CSCP, she is leading also the organisation’s transition towards open-source and sovereign technologies, helping establish a digital working environment that is sustainable, user-friendly and privacy-conscious, while reflecting European values of openness, transparency and digital independence that she is starting to apply in projects as well.

Her work spans sustainability transitions, circular economy, climate adaptation, biodiversity, nature based solutions, resilience, digitalisation, citizen participation and responsible innovation. She works with municipalities and regional authorities, European institutions, businesses and SMEs, civil society organisations, research organisations and international project consortia.

Previous experience

Nikola brings more than 25 years of international experience across design, sustainability, communication, digital innovation and organisational development. Before joining CSCP, she worked in Germany and New York with research organisations, universities, cultural institutions, public organisations and private-sector clients, alongside running her own design consultancy.

Her experience includes developing user interfaces, websites and interactive applications, designing exhibitions and visual identities, and creating communication and digital solutions for organisations working across sustainability, fashion, online marketing, science, education and urban development.

Education

• B.Sc. in Earth System Sciences and Environmental Justice (Political Science & Geography), City University of New York (CUNY), USA
• Integrated Design Studies, Köln International School of Design (KISD), Germany

I am always trying to get to the bottom of what is actually needed – it’s not as obvious as it often seems – let’s explore what your project needs!