Nilgün Arısan Eralp was born in 1961. She holds a B.S. degree in Economics from Middle East Technical University, M.A. degree in Economic Development from Leicester University and M.Sc. degree in European Studies from London School of Economics.

Eralp worked as an advisor from 1987 to 1996 in several senior public authorities including Ministry of State in charge of  EU Affairs and Deputy Prime Ministry, and Prime Ministry of Turkey. From 1990 to 1992, Eralp worked as an expert in State Planning Organization, Directorate General for EU Affairs. In 1996 Eralp coordinated the 'Information Network Project for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises on Customs Union' jointly financed by the Economic Development Foundation (İKV) and the European Commission. Between 1997 and 2000, Eralp  functioned as the Head of Department of Policies and Harmonization in the Directorate General for the EU Affairs at State Planning Organization. After leaving this  position ,  Eralp served as the Director of National Programme in the  Secretariat General for the European Union Affairs (EUSG) until 2009. Throughout this period Eralp has been a Member of Academic Board in European Research Centre, Ankara University on behalf of the EUSG. Eralp has lectured in several universities on EU and Turkish and EU relations and has several publications on the same topic.

Nilgün Arısan Eralp has been working at TEPAV since 2009 as the Director of the European Union Institute.