Nico’s research as Visiting Scientist at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative focuses on early warning signs of humanitarian crises. This is closely linked to his work as head of programme for the UN’s global humanitarian fund, CERF. At CERF, Nico has worked on providing humanitarian financing as early as possible, including for early action and anticipatory action which relies on predicting shocks before they occur. Previously, he worked on evaluations of humanitarian programmes, on coordinating development programmes in Palestine, humanitarian funds in Somalia, the Central African Republic and Yemen, and for the UN’s refugee agency in the Central African Republic and Geneva. Nico holds a Master’s degree in political science from the University of North Texas, and a Master’s and PhD both in politics and public administration from the University of Konstanz. He has published a book and, together with his co-authors, articles on risk assessment for human rights violations, genocide and civil war, democratization in newly independent countries, mediation and peacekeeping, and ethnic civil wars, in the Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Peace Research, International Interactions, Conflict Management and Peace Science and other journals. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife and their three sons.