Dr Strain is employed by the European Regions Network for the Application of Communications Technology (ERNACT). ERNACT is a network of European regional and city public authorities, and Atlantic Canada, that cooperate by pooling activities, resources and skills for the socio-economic benefit of their regions. She is experienced in crossborder, transnational and interregional project management, with specific expertise in sustainable development, energy and digital technologies, low-carbon transitions and transnational knowledge transfer. She has worked with more than 100 EU and accession state regions across a portfolio of projects and currently leads several EU-funded energy projects. Caitriona has a PhD from Queens University Belfast which examined the low-carbon energy transition in Ireland with a specific focus on policy coherence and community acceptance within the development of onshore wind energy. Her current interests are energy governance, the improvement of low-carbon policy instruments, and the mobilisation of local actors as catalysts for socio-technical systems transitions.