Professor de Fraiture is an irrigation & civil engineer as well as an economist. She joined IHE Delft in 2012 as professor of Land and Water Development, leading the group on Water and Agriculture. She served as Vice Rector Academic & Student Affairs (2018-2022), leading the efforts of developing new MSc Programmes on Water and Sustainable Development. Her research focuses on agricultural water management and food security, small scale and farmer-led irrigation development, irrigation management and performance assessment, ecosystem services and water pricing. She contributed to developing and applying the global water and food model applied for assessing global scenarios on water, food and environment as part of the Comprehensive Assessment on Water Management in Agriculture.