Humanitarian Action Fellowship

Dr. Giulia Celentano is a Senior Scientific Assistant at the Chair of Sustainable Construction at ETH Zurich, where she leads impact-oriented research projects in humanitarian and development contexts across the Global South. Her work primarily focuses on post-disaster and post-conflict settings, displacement camps, and informal settlements. Her fellowship consists of a six-months placement at the International Committee of the Red Cross in Beirut. There, she will support the ICRC and local staff in building capacity to strengthen health infrastructure resilience in conflict-like settings.

Bridging academic, transdisciplinary research on sustainability and resilience in construction with the operational needs of humanitarian actors, her work is shaped by close collaborations with partners such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), and United Nations agencies (UN-Habitat, UNHCR). These collaborations have resulted in the development of digital advisory tools for decision-makers, sustainability assessments, and direct advisory services. With a strong regional focus on Lebanon since 2022, her applied research covered the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, and Central America, grounded in extensive fieldwork and primary data collection.