Gissur Ó Erlingsson received his PhD in political science in 2005 from the Department of Political Science, Lund University. The dissertation deals with the phenomenon of party entrepreneurs and asks why the number of local parties increased dramatically in Swedish municipalities in 1973-2002. After the dissertation, he worked at Linköping University, Ratio, and Växjö University, before joining the Centre for Local Government Studies (Linköping University in 2009). Today, he is a professor and scientific leader at the Centre. In addition, Erlingsson is a member of the board of ESO, a member of the SNS Board of Trustees, and a deputy member of the Council of Europe's Group of Independent Experts on the European Charter of Local Government.
Some of the questions Gissur Ó Erlingsson tries to answer in his research:
