My name is Konstantis Kosmidis, I’m 17 years old and currently living in Greece. As an incoming senior in high school, I’m at a stage where I need to decide which area of study I’ll pursue for my undergraduate degree. In the Greek education system, students must choose a specialisation for the final two years of school, either sciences or linguistics, around which most of their coursework revolves. I chose the linguistics track, so my core subjects include Latin, Ancient Greek, and History.

For my academic journey, my main goal in pursuing an internship was to gain real-world experience and determine whether a particular field could be the right path for me. My time at the Institute for the Public Understanding of Risk (IPUR) did exactly that, and more. The past month has shown me that contributing to work that has a real social impact, and aims to improve lives around the world, is something I want to devote myself to in the future. This realisation became especially clear when I worked on the United Nations Global Risk Report 2024 (UNGRR), a major project developed through collaboration between the UN and IPUR.

Over the course of my internship, I was given the opportunity to work on several projects connected to the UNGRR. These included critically analysing other risk reports and supporting both Dr Olivia Jensen, IPUR’s Deputy Director, and Jared Ng, Manager of Communications, on Risk Radar, IPUR’s podcast that features experts discussing key risks in their respective fields. I was involved in drafting materials, listening closely to expert discussions, and helping shape content that would be clear and engaging to the public.

In addition, I assisted the Institute’s Director, Professor Leonard Lee, in examining social desirability bias in environmental perception data, a topic I found especially engaging. It was fascinating to explore how the way questions are asked can influence responses and ultimately affect the accuracy of research findings.

Working on the social desirability bias project and the Global Risk Report gave me a taste of different research environments and workflows, for which I’m truly grateful. It was also the first time I saw how academic research and policy efforts can inform each other in a meaningful way. However, my biggest takeaway from this internship has been how much my understanding of risk communication and perception has evolved.

Before this experience, I thought of risk reports as simply data collections for others to interpret. Now I understand they are far more than that. They serve as visualisations of how global risks are interconnected and how public perception often diverges from expert analysis, allowing me to appreciate the complexity and importance of this field, which I had previously overlooked.

Outside of work, one of the biggest highlights was getting to know the IPUR team and my fellow interns. The conversations we shared during lunch, the little moments during meetings, and the energy around the office are things I’ll remember. Institutions like IPUR are vital to understanding and navigating the risks our world faces today. I’m deeply grateful to have been given the chance to contribute, even in a small way, to such meaningful work.