Iryna Solonenko is a DAAD/OSF scholar at the European University Viadrina, Frankfurt/Oder and an associate fellow of the Robert Bosch Center for Central and Eastern Europe at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). Between 2000 and 2012 she worked with the Open Society Foundations in Ukraine as the Director of the European Programme and with the EastWest Institute in Kyiv as a project manager.

Solonenko holds degrees in International Relations, European Studies, Public Administration and History from the Central European University, Budapest; National Academy of Publc Administration, Kyiv; and  National University ‚Kyiv-Mohyla Academy‘, Kyiv. During 2006-2007 she was a visiting research associate  at the University of Birmingham, UK.

Her research interests include European Neighbourhood Policy and Eastern Partnership, political economy of post-Soviet transformation, including the nexus between the political power and oligarchic control, and civil society development with a focus on Ukraine.