About

I'm Tomás van Gorp. I'm interested in the months after a plan is signed, when someone has to make it work.

Behind that is a curiosity about how systems behave: how rules, money, people and places interact, and why a good plan so often changes shape on its way into practice. I have followed that question through Amsterdam's zoo, a science film festival, an embassy in Tokyo, a consulate in Istanbul, a concert hall and a mental health centre that works across cultures. Now I follow it through a PhD.

My doctoral research at the University of Lisbon looks at planetary health frameworks after governments adopt them, and at why so many stall before they change how anything works. I compare cases in Wales, Brazil and China. I'm also part of a European COST Action on nature-based solutions and health, and of Open Research Amsterdam's urban ecology workspace.

Alongside the research I work with organisations as an independent consultant. I support boards with governance, planning and reporting. I design and run programmes, from the First European Planetary Health Congress to a nine-day festival for over 30,000 visitors. And I do applied research and evaluation, often by bringing together people who rarely sit at the same table: scientists, policymakers, artists and the public. Right now I'm open to both consulting projects and research collaborations.

I studied arts and economics at HKU University of the Arts Utrecht, and later arts, culture and society at Erasmus University Rotterdam. I live in Portugal and work in Dutch and English, and my Portuguese is getting better.