Özge Zihnioğlu is a lecturer in politics at the University of Liverpool. She researches and publishes extensively on Turkish civil society, European Union civil society support, and Turkey-EU relations. Her research is awarded funding from Turkey’s Scientific and Technological Research Council (TÜBİTAK), British Academy, British Council and Mercator Foundation. Zihnioğlu is the author of European Union Civil Society Policy and Turkey: A Bridge Too Far? (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) and EU-Turkey Relations: Civil Society and Depoliticization (Routledge, 2020). Her articles are published in international journals as Journal of Common Market Studies, Third World Quarterly, Turkish Studies and Voluntas, among others. Her latest research looks at conservative/nationalist non-state actors as well as the pandemic’s long-term impact on the nature of civil society. Zihnioğlu is a member of Carnegie Endowment’s Civic Research Network which examines changing patterns of civic activism across the world and analyses the implications for a new generation of civil society assistance. Zihnioğlu received the Young Scientists Award from the Science Academy (2015) the International Relations Council (2018) in Turkey and is an Executive Board member of Young Academy working group at the Science Academy, Turkey.