Gretel Cuevas Verdin
University of Cambridge
Cambridge, United Kingdom
Member ID 5330
Member since Mar 31, 2026
Status Active
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About

Gretel specializes in energy reform, focusing her research on the sustainable extraction and processing of critical minerals that are essential for the current technological energy transition.

Details

Gretel is a policy expert specialising in international development, particularly in energy policy, climate change mitigation, and natural resource governance. She has held leadership positions and collaborated with embassies and international organisations in the U.S., U.K., and Mexico. As a 2020 Watson Fellow, she conducted research projects across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. She currently works as a Research Assistant and Policy Analyst at the University of Cambridge Engineering Department, where she has led research on value addition in mineral-rich countries for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and the Climate Compatible Growth (CCG) programme, and conducted consulting project on critical minerals in the ASEAN region and Africa.

She has direct field experience in Malawi, where she designed and contributed to multi-stakeholder workshops on critical mineral governance, bringing together policymakers, civil society, and private sector actors. Her work has focused on institutional analysis, actor mapping, and risk–opportunity assessment to identify governance gaps and support evidence-based reform in the mining sector.

Gretel earned her B.A. in Political Science and Government from Bryn Mawr College, and her MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge.

Research Interests

Development
Economics
Extractive Industries
Sustainability
Energy Transition
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