Iryna M. Sotnyk

Dr., Prof. Iryna Sotnyk has been working as a Professor in the Department of Economics, Entrepreneurship and Business-Administration at Sumy State University since June 2011. In 1999, she graduated with honours from Sumy State University with a specialist degree in Business Economics and began her postgraduate studies. In 2002, ahead of schedule, she defended her PhD thesis, “Ecological and Economic Foundations of Energy Conservation Management,” and obtained the academic degree of Candidate of Economic Sciences (Ph.D. in Economics) in speciality 08.00.06 – Economics of Nature Use and Environmental Protection.

From 2002 to 2008, Iryna Sotnyk worked as an Assistant, Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor in the Department of Economics. In 2008, she began her advanced doctoral studies at Sumy State University. In 2010, ahead of schedule, she defended her Higher Doctorate thesis, “Formation of the Ecological and Economic Mechanism for Resource-Saving Management,” and obtained the academic degree of Doctor of Economic Sciences (Dr. Sc. (Econ.)) in speciality 08.00.06 – Economics of Nature Use and Environmental Protection.

In 2004, she was awarded the academic title of Associate Professor of the Department of Economics, and in 2012, she received the title of Professor of the Department of Economics and Business Administration.

Prof. Sotnyk is a laureate of the Prize of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine for youth contributions to state development (nomination: “For Scientific Achievements,” 2004). She has also been awarded scholarships from the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine (2011–2012), the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (2012–2013), the Fulbright Visiting Scholar Programme (2019–2020), and the Latvian State Research Scholarship Programme (2021).

She has Cambridge First Certificate in English, Level B2.

Research activities

Iryna Sotnyk is an author of more than 300 scientific and 40 educational publications. Among her works, she has authored over five monographs and more than 20 chapters in collective monographs, including: «Power supply for educational institutions: efficiency and alternatives» (2020), «Social Inequality as a Global Challenge» (2021), «The International Community and Ukraine in the Processes of Economic and Civilizational Progress: Current Economic-Technological, Resource, Institutional, Security and Socio-Humanitarian Problems» (2024), «Social solidarity economy practice: implementing the EU experience for sustainable development» (2024). She has also written 20 textbooks and tutorials approved by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine on business economics, entrepreneurship, energy economics, environmental and economic aspects of energy and resource conservation, sustainable development, and the social and solidarity economy. In addition to monographs, textbooks, tutorials, and articles published in Ukrainian scientific journals, Prof. Sotnyk has authored works in peer-reviewed international journals. She has published more than 40 papers in international journals indexed in the Scopus and Web of Science databases.

Iryna Sotnyk is a leader and a contributor to numerous research projects, including international ones. Under her supervision, five state-funded fundamental research projects have been carried out, including four grants of the President of Ukraine (2006, 2008, 2012, and 2016), and one applied research project supported by the National Research Foundation of Ukraine (2020-2021). As a contributor, Prof. Sotnyk has participated in more than 25 state-funded fundamental projects of the Department of Economics, Entrepreneurship and Business Administration at Sumy State University, in particular, “Fundamental grounds for Ukraine’s transition to a digital economy based on the implementation of Industries 3.0; 4.0; 5.0” (No. 0124U000576), “Fundamentals of the phase transition to the additive economy: from disruptive technologies to institutional sociologisation of decisions” (No. 0121U109557), “System model of efficiency management and forecasting of electricity use” (No. 0118U003583), “Development of fundamental principles of reproduction mechanism of the social and economic development during the Third industrial revolution” (No. 0118U003578), “Innovation management of energy efficient and resource saving technologies in Ukraine” (No. 0118U003571), and others.

Among the international projects in which Iryna Sotnyk has participated, there are fundamental projects “Development of methodological foundations of transforming education for ensuring sustainable development” (No. 0107U009205) and “Institutional mechanisms for integrated management of the transition to sustainable regional development in Ukraine and Belarus” (No. 0113U002790). They were performed in collaboration with the scientists of Belarusian State Technological University and Belarusian State Economic University (Minsk, Belarus). In cooperation with the researchers from Kaunas Technological University (Kaunas, Lithuania), the fundamental project “Development of institutional and economic basis for sustainable development and green economy at regional level” (No. 0116U007179) was jointly implemented. In 2022-2025, Prof. Sotnyk was a leader of the Jean Monet Module project “Social Solidarity Economy: implementing EU experience for Sustainable Development” (SSExpEU-101047518-GAP-101047518) funded by the European Commission. In 2022-2025, she was a co-executor of the research project “Developing renewable energy during the post-war recovery in Ukraine,” funded by the University of Geneva’s Uni4Ukraine grant and the Department F.-A. Forel for Environmental and Aquatic Sciences (Geneva, Switzerland). In 2025–2026, she is conducting the research project “Build back greener: can the destruction of electricity infrastructure trigger Ukraine’s energy transition?” (CRSK-1_228658), funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

International Training & Editorial Activities

Iryna Sotnyk had international training in research and government institutions of Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Israel, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

She is a Consulting Editor of the International Scientific Journal “Mechanism of Economic Regulation” (Sumy, Ukraine) and serves on the editorial boards of Ukrainian peer-reviewed journals “Achievements of the economy: prospects and innovations” and “SocioEconomic Challenges (SEC)”. Also, she served as a Guest Editor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed journals “The International Journal of Energy Issues” (Inderscience Publishers, Switzerland, 2019-2020, 2022-2024) and “The International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development” (Inderscience Publishers, Switzerland, 2020-2021).

Conference Participation

Iryna Sotnyk actively participates in scientific and practical conferences across Ukraine, Bulgaria, Poland, Estonia, Moldova, Lithuania, Turkey, Switzerland, Italy, the USA, and the United Kingdom. Notable conferences include: the Second International Conference on Sustainable Futures: Environmental, Technological, Social and Economic Matters (Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, 2021), the 7th AIEE Energy Symposium Current and Future Challenges to Energy Security (Milan, Italy, 2022), International scientific and practical conference “Economics for Ecology” (Sumy, Ukraine, 2023), the 10th session of the Group of Experts on Renewable Energy (2023) and the 20th Session of the Group of Experts on Cleaner Electricity (2024) at the United Nations Organisation (Geneva, Switzerland) and others.

Student mentorship and supervision

Prof. Sotnyk is a supervisor of postgraduate students (in 2025 – 3 persons: Tkachuk S.V., Shevchenko E.V., and Koblyanska I.I.). Under her supervising, six Ph.D. theses have been successfully defended:

• – Mazin Yu. O., Ph.D. thesis “Economic basis for innovative resource saving policy management in machine-building” (2005);
• – Starchenko L.V., Ph.D. thesis “Environmental and economic grounding of the life quality for the regional population in the conditions of sustainable development” (2009);
• – Chortok Yu.V., Ph.D. thesis “Ecological and economic mechanism of logistic system management at the trade enterprise” (2010);
• – Kurbatova T. O., Ph.D. thesis “Scientific principles of the organisational and economic mechanism of management for renewable energy development” (2016);
• – Goncharenko O. S., Ph.D. thesis “Ecological and economic substantiation of dematerialization of production and consumption processes” (2019);
• – Zavrazhny K. Yu., Ph.D. thesis “Organisational and economic foundations of management of communication business processes of industrial enterprises” (2020).

Prof. Sotnyk conducts research with full-time and distance learning students at Sumy State University. Their work has resulted in numerous jointly published reports in conference proceedings and articles in scientific journals. Under her supervising, the students have won prizes in the second round of Ukrainian competition of student research works in the field of “Marketing, Labour Resources Management and Labour Economics” (section “Labour Economics”) (2nd place in 2017) and in the field of “Energy” (2nd place in 2021), as well as in Ukrainian student competition of business projects “Business springboard” (3rd place in 2023).

Honours & Awards

• Laureate of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Prize (2004).
• Laureate of scholarships of the Cabinet of Ministers (2011-2012) and the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (2012-2013).
• Fulbright Visiting Scholar Programme Fellow (2019-2020).
• Fellow of the Latvian State Scholarship Programme (2021).
• “Best Teacher Through the Eyes of Students” award, Sumy State University, Sumy, Ukraine (2020-2021, 2022-2023).

Expertise & Membership

• Member of Scientific and Methodical Subcommittee on Specialty 076 “Entrepreneurship, trade and exchange activity”, Higher Education Sector of Scientific and Methodical Council, Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (2016-2024).
• Member of Section 17 “Economics” of the Scientific Council of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (2019-2024).
• Member of Specialized Academic Council on doctoral theses in Economics of Nature Using and Environmental Protection D 55.051.01, Sumy State University (2013-2021).
• Pre-examiner (2011–2022) and opponent (2012–2020) for Ph.D. dissertations.
• Member of Academic Council of Oleg Balatskyi Academic and Scientific Institute of Finance, Economics and Management, Sumy State University (2012-2020).

Reviewer for Scopus-Indexed Journals:

•  «International Journal of Global Environmental Issues»
• «International Journal of Global Energy Issues»
• «Energies»
• «Energy Efficiency»
• «Energy Policy»
• «Energy Economics»

International training