Dr. Annukka Lipponen works as Chief Specialist on Water Resources Management at the Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, focusing on international cooperation, notably the EU and international water policy, bilateral cooperation, and promotion of water expertise.  She has extensive experience from transboundary water cooperation: For 12 years (2003-2021), she was responsible for work on monitoring and assessment and coordinated intersectoral (nexus) dialogues in the secretariat of the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes in the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. From 2003 to 2009, Dr. Lipponen promoted water sciences and capacity building worldwide as programme specialist in UNESCO, at headquarters (secretariat of the International Hydrological Programme) and in Central Asia. In the early career, she was the researcher responsible for the study of groundwater in fractured rocks at the Finnish Environment Institute.  She was granted a Ph. D. by the University of Helsinki (2006).