Meet the speakers and contributors

Helena Acheson has led teams in public agencies - Ireland, Germany, Lithuania - focused on Innovation, Competitiveness and Economic Development. This involved the provision of strategic advice on enterprise development issues, specifically in relation to research and innovation ecosystems, internationalization and regional development. Helena has hands-on experience in priority-setting exercises including Foresight processes, benchmarking, technology transfer processes, innovation support programs, cluster initiatives and, evaluations of same.  

Helena has chaired and been an expert rapporteur for various EU policy initiatives inter alia Joint Programming, EU-US S&T Agreement, H2020 Policy Support Facility, Regional Foresight and, also regularly evaluates STI policies, programs e.g., FP7, COST and ITER and, projects (H2020, Horizon Europe). 

Helena is Europe Director at UI Global – an international platform of innovation experts who promote and support international collaborations with partners to build healthy innovation ecosystems and accelerate the growth of ecologically sustainable technology-based businesses. www.ui-global.com  

Helena has strong links with Canada - as member of ARIA, Alberta Research & Innovation Authority (2010 -2021). As Chair, International Evaluation Group(s), completion of evaluations – GOA Research Capacity Program (2019) and Alberta Innovates Programs (2017) (2023). 

Since 2012, Helena has been a Board Member, CONNECT (National Centre for Future Networks & Communications) Ireland https://connectcentre.ie  

The EC initiative targeting the emergence of “European Universities”  is a current focus. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/helena-acheson-82985a31/       

Marco Aperti (he/him) is the Program Manager for UNIC and UNIC for Engaged Research (UNIC4ER) at Erasmus University Rotterdam. Leading strategic initiatives within the alliance of 10 European universities, he focuses on collaborative research to address urban challenges. With a commitment to deep social engagement and a positive mindset, Marco plays a key role in advancing UNIC's mission in and beyond the academic sphere.

Isabella Baer-Eiselt is Executive Director of EU-CONEXUS, European University for Smart Urban Coastal Sustainability. She has been a consultant in European Affairs before and worked for the Ministries of Science in France and Austria for promoting European and international cooperation for Social Sciences and Humanities. She has a Doctorate in Political Philosophy and she was a researcher in European studies at the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Sigríður Beck is a member of the Managment Board of TRAIN EUTOPIA focusing on creating a shared research & innovation agenda for the alliance. At the University of Gothenburg, she directs the Grants & Innovation Office ensuring comprehensive assistance and execution of research and innovation strategies and policies, funding, and quality evaluation. Her background includes the co-development of the university´s international research evaluation (Research Evaluation for Development). Additionally, she leads an annual leadership program for early career researchers, known as the Research Leader Initative, and provides leadership training through EUTOPIA´s Young Leaders Academy.  

Dr. Mattia Bellotti is the Secretary-General of EUTOPIA. In this role, his responsibilities include leading the EUTOPIA Central Office in Brussels, coordinating the activities of EUTOPIA across all projects, and providing advice to the Board of Presidents of EUTOPIA. Previously, Mattia held various roles of increasing responsibility at EIT Digital, one of the Knowledge and Innovation Communities of the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT). In his last role as Innovation and Education Lead, he was coordinating the operations of the EIT Digital Entrepreneurial Academy and participation of EIT Digital in relevant programmes from the European Union, such as Horizon Europe and Digital Europe Programme. Mattia holds a PhD in Engineering Science from KU Leuven (Belgium) and Master’s degree from Politecnico di Milano (Italy). 

Luisa Bernstorff is the Coordination Officer for the Arqus Research and Innovation Project. She has been working in project management in higher education since 2013 and in the Arqus Alliance since 2021. 

After finishing a PhD in Classical Archaeology and some years as a postdoctoral researcher and freelancer, Nicole Birkle worked as an EU Liaison Officer at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz from 2014 to 2022. With a special focus on the Social Sciences and Humanities, she supported researchers in preparing proposals for EU funding, also providing information on underlying political goals and strategies.  Since 2021, Nicole has been managing coordinator of the FIT FORTHEM project funded by the Horizon 2020, and at end of 2022, she was appointed as one of two General Secretaries of the FORTHEM Alliance, one of the first European University Networks established in 2019 funded by Erasmus+. Her special focus within FORTHEM lies a newly established Research, Innovation, and Transfer Mission, on FORTHEM Labs and Co-Creation Mission, and also on the support of early career academics by managing the FORTHEM Academy for Early-Stage Researchers. Another particular concern of her is the promotion of professionalization in research management. In this field, she has been involved in the Professional Development and Recognition Committee of the European Association of Research Managers and Administrators (EARMA). Nicole is a highly committed European and world citizen. 

Veerle Bruggeman is head of the national funds unit at the Research Coordination Office of KU Leuven. Her team supports KU Leuven researchers on all aspects of national funding programs. Moreover, as staff member of the Research coordination office, she advises on internal policy priorities and has broad expertise on research policies of national funders. Veerle is expert in the infrastructure programs of the Research Foundation – Flanders and has a broad overview on infrastructure and core facilities at KU Leuven. In this role, she has been involved in the Una.Resin project as member of the team working on Research infrastructures and resources.  

Veerle holds a master and PhD in bio-engineering KU Leuven (animal physiology). She has been a postdoctoral researcher at KU Leuven for almost 10 years before her work at the central KU Leuven department for research. 

Carole Brunet is a tenured associate professor in Economics, who has been vice-president in charge of responsible, social and sustainable innovation since 2019. She is also founder and head of studies of two master programs, one of which is dedicated to the innovative, social and solidarity economy, and the other to ecological, economic and social transitions. Her research considers multifaceted labor mobilities in extensive ways, from quantitative measures and spatial or employment related concepts, towards qualitative views encompassing education and training, or gender inequalities. She is interested in bridging (back) economics with social sciences and humanities, with a special focus in social and solidarity economic and the care ethics. She coordinates a scientific program held in MSH Paris Nord, which aims at putting together social economy and social innovations research and design, studies of new labor practices and institutions, and contributions to local development. She is the 2019 laureate of the French Association of Social Economics. 

Beatrix Busse is Professor of English Linguistics and Vice-Rector for Teaching and Studies at the University of Cologne. As Chief Development Officer for the European University for Well-Being (EUniWell), she leads a European University alliance that unites eleven universities across Europe. She is also Vice Chair of the Executive Board of the Coimbra Group.  

Beatrix Busse studied English and History at the universities of Osnabrück and Keele (GB). She received her doctorate in English linguistics from the University of Münster in 2004 and obtained her Habilitation at the University of Bern (CH) in 2010. In 2011, she was appointed as full professor for English linguistics at Heidelberg University, where she was also Vice-Rector for Studies and Teaching for six years. 

Beatrix Busse’s research interests include Corpus Linguistics, the History of the English Language, (Historical) Sociopragmatics, Transfer Linguistics, and Language in Urban Space. She leads several research projects on Corpus Linguistics, Speech, Writing, and Thought Presentation in the History of English, and Discursive Place-making in Brooklyn, New York. She is a British Academy Visiting Fellow, Co-Founder of the Heidelberg School of Education, an editor of the International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, and a member of the Advances in Stylistics editorial board. 

Eric Cassan is a full professor of physics at Paris-Saclay university, specialising in optics and photonics. He is the coordinator of the H2020 SwafS EUGLOHRIA project of the European EUGLOH Alliance, a first-generation alliance (2019) comprising 9 universities in 8 European countries.

Project Manager at Erasmus University Rotterdam, specializing in facilitating inter-university collaborations and communication within the UNIC4ER consortium. I eagerly look forward to participating in the Science with and for Society in European Universities Alliances - Cross-Alliances Forum 2023. 

As part of the UNIC4ER team, I have contributed to designing and implementing the transformative UNIC for the Engaged Seed Fund. This fund has played a crucial role in catalyzing innovation in collaborative projects aimed at addressing societal challenges in post-industrial cities. 

Dedicated to fostering engaged research, I contribute to the UNIC for Engaged Research (UNIC4ER) Mission, shaping a common framework for collaborative initiatives with a trans-disciplinary approach. As a team, UNIC4ER has successfully bridged academia with citizens, civil society, and authorities to create innovative solutions for contemporary societal challenges collaboratively. 

Being a team member in the UNIC consortium, I am committed to contributing to the broader European Research and Innovation landscape while aligning initiatives with UNIC's mission. I am excited to share my insights and learn from fellow participants at the Cross-Alliances Forum. 

I look forward to discussing R&I excellence, sustainability, and collaborative innovation at the forum. I am excited about contributing my insights and learning from fellow participants. 

Saranne Comel acts as European and International Operations Director for the initiative of Excellence Université Côte d’Azur. In this context, she also contributes actively to the deployment of the European University Ulysseus as Deputy coordinator for UniCA. In parallel, Saranne supports the academic community (University, CNRS, OCA, etc.) in the development of their projects including Horizon Europe, as well as the institution through structing projects and privileged partnerships at an international level. Prior to this, he worked as an Academic and Scientific Officer (acting Attachée) and Campus France Director for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and as a Senior Consultant specialised in Higher Education and Research. She holds a master’s in international Affairs from Sciences Po Paris.

Fernando Cornet is professor in Theoretical Physics at the University of Granada. His research is devoted to phenomenological aspects of High Energy Physics, field in which he has published a number of papers. Before working in Granada he worked at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, where he did his doctoral studies, the Deutsches Elektronen Synchroton, in Hamburg (Germany) and Max Planck Institute for physics in Munich (Germany). At the University of Granada, he has been Director for Research Institutes and Centers and UGR Research Fund since July 2015 to July 2019 and Vice-Rector for Academic and Research Staff from July 2019 to July 2023. He has participated in many European research projects in High Energy Physics and also in the Physics Group of the project Tuning Educational Structures in Europe devoted to the implementation of the Bologna process. He has been co-coordinator of the Physics group of the project CALOHEE financed by the EU and devoted to study the feasibility of establishing a common European framework for the assessment of the competences acquired by the students after completing their bachelor and master programmed. Finally, he has been a member of the work package devoted to study the reform of the research assessment of the ARQUS university alliance.

Manuel José Damásio is an Associate Professor and the Dean of the School of Communication and Arts at Lusófona University, in Lisbon. He is the chair of GEECT – the European association of film and media schools and a member of the board of CILECT Executive Committee (International association of film and media schools). He is the coordinator of FilmEU – The European University of Film and Media Arts.  

Fabrizio D’Avenia (1970) is Full Professor of History of Christianity and Churches at the University of Palermo (Department of Cultures and Societies) and Coordinator of the Master’s Degree “Religions and Cultures”. He is PI for the project ITSERR – Italian Strengthening of the ESFRI RI RESILIENCE (European Research Infrastructure for Religious Studies), funded by Next Generation EU, and scientific coordinator for the H2020 SwafS project FIT FORTHEM – Fostering Institutional Transformation of R&I Policies in European Universities, in the framework of which he is leader of WP4 – Connect, access, and share R&I resources. 

His research interests focus on ecclesiastical jurisdictions and careers, Tridentine reforms, Spanish conversos, and the Order of Malta. He has published 3 monographs, 45 book chapters and journal articles, and has edited 3 volumes. Since 2013 he is member of the External Advisory Board of the “Laboratorio de Estudios Judeoconversos” (LEJ) of the Universidad de Córdoba (Spain). In 2018 he was visiting professor at the Université Paris-Sorbonne and Directeur d’Etudes Associés of the “Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme” (Paris). His latest book is Giannettino Doria. Cardinale della Corona Spagnola (1573–1642), Rome: Viella, 2021. 

Elena Del Giorgio is policy officer at the Research Division of the University of Milan where she supports 4EU+, LERU and other international networks related activities. Since 2022, she is also policy officer at the General Secretariat of the 4EU+ European University Alliance (based in Heidelberg – DE) where she serves as expert in European research and higher education policies. She was previously research fellow in the framework of different European projects in the field of equal opportunities and gender and science at the University Complutense (Madrid) and University of Milan. Elena holds a PhD in Political and Social Sciences from the European University Institute (Fiesole – IT) and a Degree in Political Science from the University of Bologna (IT). 

Dr Vinicius Mariano de Carvalho joined King’s in 2014 and before he was Associate Professor for Brazilian Studies at Aarhus University (2008-2014), Denmark, where he was also Director of the Latin American Centre (2012-2014).  Vinicius was a Lieutenant in the Brazilian Army (2007-2008), serving in the Military Technical Corps. At King’s, Vinicius is Vice Dean (International) for the Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy, and between 2020 and 2022, he was director of King’s Brazil Institute. At the War Studies Department, he is the Convener of the MA in Strategic Communications and teaches UG modules on Latin America issues. Vinicius is the Circle U. Academic Chair Programme Coordinator. He has played an active role contributing to the field of Brazilian studies, founding and editing Brasiliana – Journal for Brazilian Studies and as Editor of the Anthem Brazilian Studies Series.

Dr. Dirk De Craemer is employed at the Central Administration, Ghent University, Belgium, as head of the Research Co-ordination Office. He obtained a Master degree in Zoology at Ghent University (1984) and a PhD in Biological Sciences at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (1994).  

As from 2002, he heads the Research Co-ordination Office. The main goal of this office is to encourage and assist Ghent University researchers in their efforts to obtain regional, national, European and/or international funding for their research plans (calls for proposals, selection procedures, partner search, contract and financial management, …) and to offer support with regard to their professional development (PhD training program, career management for several types of junior researchers, …). Dirk coordinates the Ghent University research-related activities of the ENLIGHT alliance. 

Fede Dewulf is employed at the Central Administration, Ghent University, Belgium, as EU Project manager within the Research Co-ordination Office. He obtained a Master in Latin American Studies (Leiden University, 2007).

He has vast experience in project management in (university) development cooperation and higher education projects. Within the EUN ENLIGHT he is the Ghent University project manager for the ENLIGHT RISE research pillar. He has been the coordinator and organiser of the pilot focus group initiative.

David Dreyer Lassen is Prorector for Research at University of Copenhagen, Denmark, as well as Professor of Economics. His Primary fields of research are social data science, political economics and public economics. Past appointments include Deputy Director, DNRF Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality (2017-2020) and Center director, Copenhagen Center for Social Data Science (SODAS) (2016-2020). Consultancy and advisory activities for Government and Business include Nordic Council of Ministers, World Bank, IMF and Danish Economic Councils. 

Joakim Esbjörnsson graduated in biomedical research at the University of Lund in 2006, and obtained a PhD in Medical Science in 2010. He then did a two-year postdoctoral research in molecular epidemiology and phylodynamics at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, and a four-year postdoctoral research in immunology and bioinformatics at the University of Oxford, before establishing his own research team focusing on systems virology at the University of Lund in 2016. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in Medical Microbiology and an Associate Professor in Virology at the University of Lund, as well as an Honorary visiting researcher at the University of Oxford. Since 2019, he has been the coordinator of the Lund University Virus Centre. He currently acts as an expert in developing and implementing the Swedish Research Council's strategic research agenda within a 10-year national research programme on viruses and pandemics, coordinates the cooperation initiative Pandemics and alertness at Lund University, and acts as the work package 2 leader of the European university alliance EUGLOH's Research and Innovation Action. 

Janina Fengel completed commercial training and after that graduated from her studies of business administration with a master degree. After many years of experience in management in industry, in 2003 she started at Hochschule Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences as a research associate and obtained her doctoral degree undertaking a cooperative doctorate with Technological University Dublin. When the Graduate School Darmstadt at Hochschule Darmstadt was founded, she took over the management, created a doctoral study programme and supported the initiative towards obtaining doctoral degree awarding powers by universities of applied sciences in the German state of Hesse which resulted for Hochschule Darmstadt in the founding of the doctoral centers “Sustainability Sciences”, “Social Work” and “Applied Informatics”. In 2012, she joined the management team of the university’s Center for Research and Development and supported the creation of research centers and internal research funding schemes. For the initiative of the European University of Technology (EUt+), she brings in her expertise gained in designing, implementing and managing new research oriented structures. Presently she works as Deputy Secretary General for EUt+.

Prof. Ferrer obtained his PhD in Chemistry from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Alicante in 1989. In 1990 he moved to the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) where he was a researcher for 8 years (Depts of Physics and Biology) investigating the role of ion channels in human diseases. In October 1997, he joined the Miguel Hernández University (UMH) as an associate professor, obtaining in 2005 the national accreditation to full professor. In 2005, he was appointed deputy director of the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology (IBMC) at the UMH, and in 2011 its director. Since 2018, he is the director of the Institute in Healthcare Biotechnology (IDiBE) at the UMH. His research is focused on the field of peripheral neuropathies with the aim of understanding the pathophysiological underlying mechanisms of chronic pain. A major goal has been to develop pre-clinical disease models and disease-modifying non-immunosuppressant therapeutics that reduce the disabling neuropathic symptoms and contribute to resolve the pathological state to physiology. He has published 160+ papers (80% in Q1), led 23 R&D projects as PI, registered 30+ patent applications (75 licensed and under exploitation), given 100+ conferences, and mentored 26 doctoral theses. In addition, he has been very active in translating his research achievements to the clinics and society. He has fostered the clinical development of 3 drug candidates and promoted the foundation of 5 biotech companies (spin-off). He has been a member of the executive councils of the Spanish societies of biophysics (SBE) and biochemistry and molecular biology (SEBBM), president of the SBE (2014-2018), and currently president-elect of the SEBBM. In the period 2018-2022, he has been the Spanish representative in the IUPAB, and since 2023 in FEBS. In 2020, he became the editor-chief of the SEBBM magazine. He is the coordinator of the Spanish network in ion channels since 2008 (RECI, www.reci-ionchannel.es). In the period 2016-2021, he was the national manager of the R&D area entitled Development of Diagnostic, Prognostic and Therapeutic Tools of the Biomedicine R&D program at the State Agency of Research of the Ministry of Science and Innovation. He has received the Beckman-Coulter Award (SEBBM, 2002); Alberto Sols best work (Sax, 2002), Grünenthal Foundation (2002), Esteve Foundation (2005), Bruker (SBE, 2012), Alberto Sols best research career (2020).

Dr Gabarrell, Professor in the Department of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering of UAB (www.uab.cat), is the Scientific Coordinator of the ECIU University Research Institute for SMART European Regions (https://www.eciu.org/), member of the Board of Trustees at the Rezero , www.Rezero.cat, (Catalan Foundation for Waste Prevention and Responsible Consumption, from its catalan name), and former Director of ICTA-UAB (www.icta.cat) (2018-2022) as well as of the Management Board of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) (2022-2023). He obtained a Master (1989) as well as a PhD degree in Biotechnology (1995). He leads the research group on Industrial Ecology called Sostenipra (www.sostenipra.cat). Dr Gabarrell has also been the Academic Secretary of the UAB Graduate School and first ICTA Director (2003-2006). Previously, he was the UAB coordinator of the Erasmus Mundus Joint European Master programme in Environmental Studies (JEMES)(2007-2010). 29 researchers have successfully finished and defended a PhD/doctorate thesis under his supervision. In addition to several book chapters, he has more than 225 publications in international journals. Total number of citations, >7500 (Scopus); h index =48 (Scopus). Dr Gabarrell is included in the Reuters list of the world’s top climate scientists; to make the list, Reuters created a system to identify and rank 1,000 climate academics according to how influential they are. 

Ignacio Garcés is Professor of Optical Communications and Telecommunications Project Management at the University of Zaragoza. He is currently Responsible for International Research Projects in the Vice-Rectorate for Scientific Policy of the same University and leads the WP4 of the Re-UNITA project related to the design and implementation of a platform for sharing scientific infrastructures within the UNITA Universities. He has a PhD in Physics and has participated in more that 90 research projects and technology transfer contracts with companies, holding 5 patents. He has held different positions at the University of Zaragoza, such as Secretariate Director for Technology Transfer and Director of the Aragon Institute for Engineering Research (I3A), a Research Institute of the University of Zaragoza with more than 500 researchers in 34 research groups. He is also Vice-President of the Spanish Technological Platform Fotonica21. 

Marius Gilbert graduated in Agricultural Sciences at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) in 1995. He was then a visiting researcher for two years at the department of Zoology, University of Oxford and obtained a PhD on the spatial epidemiology of a forest insect pest at ULB in 2001. In 2006, he was awarded a permanent academic position with the Belgian FNRS. In 2016, he founded the Spatial Epidemiology Lab (SpELL) that he now leads as F.R.S.-FNRS research director. During the COVID pandemic, he joined the Expert Group on the Exit Strategy (GEES) that was assembled by the prime minister Sophie Wilmes to advise the government on the lockdown exit strategy. In september 2020 he joined the team of the rector Annemie Schaus as vice-rector of resarch and valorization. 

Giorgia Giovannetti is Vice President for International Relations and professor of International Economics at the University of Florence, and a member of the 'Consiglio di Reggenza' of the Bank of Italy, Florence. She is also a member of the EUniWell board and is involved in the board of the Foundation for Higher Education with Africa. She acted as Scientific Director for the European Report on Development (2008-2010), as Director of the Research Center of the Italian Trade Institute (2005-2007), and advisor for multiple Italian and European institutions. She holds a PhD and an MPhil in Economics from Cambridge University and a BA in statistics from Rome la Sapienza. She has been lecturer and fellow at the Trinity College (Cambridge) and visiting Professor at the Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona), Hoover Institution (Stanford), Torcuato de Tella (Buenos Aires), NYU- Africa House (New York). Her research interests include international trade, development economics, global value chains and European Economy. She has published in top field Journals and has been very active in policy round tables in Italy and Europe.

After graduating in international relations from UC Louvain and political economics from KU Leuven, he has been involved in the higher education and research sector. At the Ministry for higher education and research of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, ha was in charge of the follow-up and implementation of European and international intergovernmental cooperation processes. He then moved to the Academy for research and higher education. As director for international relations, his main role was to support the HEIs in developing their internationalisation, to facilitate new partnerships, to develop capacity-building tools, to defend their interests towards the policy makers and other partners at national, European and international level. In this position, I work with a broad diversity of institutions, with sometimes different or even opposite interests. Since 2021, he is the Secretary General for Circle U. European alliance, with a role of coordination and supervision, in close cooperation with the president, the management board members.

Sergei Guriev joined Sciences Po as a tenured professor of economics in 2013 after running the New Economic School in Moscow in 2004-13. In 2016-19, he was on leave from Sciences Po serving as the Chief Economist of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). In 2022, Sergei Guriev was appointed Provost of Sciences Po.  

Dr. Guriev’s research interests include political economics, development economics, labor mobility, and contract theory. Dr. Guriev has published in international refereed journals including American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of European Economic Association, Economic Journal, Journal of   Economic Perspectives, Journal of Economic Literature, Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Policy and American Political Science Review. He has been a board member of Sberbank, E.ON Russia, Alfa-Strakhovanie Insurance Company, Russia Venture Company, Russian Home Mortgage Lending Agency, Russian Agricultural Bank, and the Dynasty Foundation. In 2006, he was selected a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. In 2009-11, he was included in the top 100 of the President of Russia’s Cadre Reserve. In 2016-17 he has served as the President of the Society for Institutional and Organizational Economics. Since 2017, he has been a member of the Executive Committee of the International Economic Association. He is also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Economic Policy Research, London. He is a Global Member of the Trilateral Commission, Senior Member of the Institut Universitaire de France, Ordinary Member of the Academia Europaea, and an Honorary Foreign Member of the American Economic Association.

Max Heber read British and American Literatures at the Universities of Konstanz and Essex. He has been working in a range of Open Science-related project at the University of Konstanz since March 2021. He has been involved in the Re:ERUA project since January 2022, specialising in joint ERUA Open Science developments and activities. 

Ondřej Hradil is Research Infrastructures Manager at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. He started in this new role in January 2021 and his job entails coordination of research infrastructure activities within the university, development of research infrastructures strategy on the institutional level, support to the established as well as emerging research infrastructures and safeguarding a leading role of Masaryk university on the Czech and European levels in the research infrastructure landscape. Ondrej was the main organiser of International Conference on Research Infrastructures in 2022 held in Brno in October 2022 under the Czech Presidency of the EU, and is member of the ESFRI Implementation Group and permanent expert to the ESFRI Forum. He is engaged in several bottom-up activities promoting core facilities and research infrastructures in general such as Core Technologies for Life Sciences Association or EU-LIFE  core facilities working group.   

Christian Iaione at Luiss University teaches courses on law & policy of innovation & climate change, climate-neutral and smart cities, co-directs two MSc in Strategic Management, Innovation & Sustainability, Law, Digital Innovation and Sustainability, co-directs  LabGov – LABoratory for the GOVernance of the Commons (scientific partnership between Luiss University and Georgetown University) and BILL-Blockchain, artificial Intelligence and digital innovation Law Lab. He is Luiss scientific responsible for EU R&I projects (Open Heritage, EUARENAS, ENGAGE.EU R&I, AWARE) and national grants on energy communities, innovation hubs, houses of emerging technologies. He is also professor of urban law & policy at Reichman University and affiliated fellow of the Urban Law Center at Fordham University. He has authored three books In house publicly-owned companies. Contribution to the principle of self-organization and self-production of local governments (2007 – 2012), The regulation of urban mobility (2008), The Law of Urban Communities (2020). He has co-authored Co-Cities. Innovative Transitions Towards Toward Just and Self-Sustaining Communities (2022) and co-edited Italy of the Commons (2012), The Age of Sharing (2015), The Co-City (2018), Housing for all (2019). He is currently NIAS-KNAW fellow working on open/collaborative science, citizen science, city science with an approach rooted in tech and climate justice, the use of NBS/emerging/clean technologies, public-private-commons partnerships, innovation/sustainable finance.

Sven Idarand has a background in project management, education, and entrepreneurship. Currently serving as a Project Manager at the Estonian Academy of Arts (EKA), Sven was responsible in securing financing for EKA's new main building through the European Structural Fund's project proposal. 
Sven has also been engaged in the Transform4Europe alliance as the institutional coordinator for the Transform4Europe alliance as well as contributing as a project manager for the T4ERI project at EKA. From November 1st, 2023 Sven has been appointed as the Secretary General of the Transform4Europe alliance. 
Part of Sven’s responsibilities at EKA include teaching, where he serves as a guest lecturer on subjects such as entrepreneurship, intellectual property, and creative industries. 
With over two decades of experience, Sven Idarand began his journey at EKA as a project coordinator and has since evolved into a knowledge transfer consultant and project manager, excelling in European Commission and European Structure Fund applications, financial and administrative consultation, and project management and entrepreneurial guidance. 
Outside of his academic commitments, Sven has a flair for entrepreneurship - in the fitness industry, he is the general manager, educator, and franchise owner.  He has also co-developed the first comprehensive education program for personal trainers in Estonia. 

Christian Inard is Professor at La Rochelle University (France) since 1998. He got his PhD entitled “Thermal coupling between heating systems and dwellings” in 1988 and his Accreditation for Supervision of Researches in 1996. His research activities are focused on design of low energy buildings, indoor thermal comfort and indoor air quality, HVAC systems modelling and control, and urban microclimate modelling and experiment. He is author or co-author of more than 150 international papers and communications and he supervised 30 PhD. From 2011 to 2020, he served as Dean of Faculty of Sciences. Since 2021, he is Vice-Rector for Research and Head of the Institute Smart Urban Coastal Sustainability (SmUCS).

Ásgeir Jónsson is a lecturer at Reykjavik University with a background in academia, journalism, and sports coaching. Holding an M.Sc. in Food Science and a B.Sc. in Fisheries Science. Ásgeir also leads RU´s participation in NeurotechEU's, Work Phase 3, focusing on innovation and entrepreneurship training.

Career at RU includes roles as Director of Undergraduate Programs and Director of the Marine Bio-Innovation program. Ásgeir actively teaches entrepreneurship, personal development modules, and oversees internships and theses. He has contributed to projects such as developing a new learning outcome system at the Department of Business Administration and served as RU´s Accreditation Manager for EFMD Global

Ásgeir's research focus is on fresh fish transport optimization and packing methods for sea and air transport.

Dr. Anne Jürgens is Project Manager at the 4EU+ Office at Heidelberg University. Her current responsibilities include the leadership of the TRAIN4EU+ project, as well as executive management of the newly established Grant Support Service of the 4EU+ Alliance. Within TRAIN4EU+ she leads the Work Package “Sharing Research Infrastructures” with 6 Universities of the 4EU+ Alliance. Her previous positions included a senior consultant position at the grant support office at Heidelberg University Administration, position as the scientific manager of the Transcultural Studies project as well as positions as senior and junior research associate at the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at Heidelberg University. Her professional experience includes a stage at the European Commission (DG ECFIN) and traineeships the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She holds a PhD in Political Science and a Diploma in Economics. In her PhD thesis she explored the political role of the Russian-speaking population in democratic transformation processes in Estonia and Ukraine.  

Anmar Kamalaldin is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Division of Entrepreneurship and Strategy at Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden). His research explores universities’ role in supporting sustainable entrepreneurship and innovation. He teaches “Strategic Management” and “Business Development and Entrepreneurship” and supervises master’s theses in “Entrepreneurship and Business Design” and “Management and Economics of Innovation”. He did his PhD in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Luleå University of Technology (Sweden), where he won the “Teacher of the Year 2020” award. His doctoral research investigated “Digital Servitization” with a focus on Business-to-Business relationships and innovation ecosystems. He did his MSc in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability at Blekinge Institute of Technology (Sweden), and his master’s thesis focused on sustainability education. Anmar has six years of experience in academia plus five years of experience in banking. 

Dr. Birgitta Kappes, is an esteemed figure in international university network administration. Currently, she oversees the EPICUR-Research project at KIT as project manager and serves as the Research Coordinator at Eucor a regional university alliance, both at DE INTL/KIT. Birgitta's professional journey is marked by an experience in the International Scholars & Welcome Office at KIT, and her tenure as the Area Manager at Carl Benz School of Engineering. Her academic roots are in Geology, with a degree from the University of Bern, and a doctorate in Geochemistry from the University of Karlsruhe (TH). Today, Birgitta's career is predominantly centered around international research-oriented teaching and facilitating the initiation and implementation of joint international research projects, reflecting her shift from geochemistry to a broader role within international networking.  

Sophia Karner is the Senior Policy Officer at Una Europa vzw, the alliance’s central office in Brussels. In her role, Sophia is in charge of strengthening Una Europa’s policy positioning and advocacy work towards EU and international policymakers. Sophia advises on the setting of strategic policy priorities, provides broad external policy expertise to Una Europa management and ensures close links with key European stakeholders. Sophia has been working in Brussels in various policy-related roles linked to regional and university representation offices for the past eight years. Sophia holds a Bachelor’s in Intercultural Communication from the University of Vienna, Austria, and a Master’s in Transnational Communication and Translation from the University of Surrey, UK.  

Dr. Aphra Kerr is a Professor in Sociology at Maynooth University, Ireland. Her current research focuses on the political economy, governance and ethical and social impacts of AI across media, games and smart technologies. She is a funded PI and science lead within the Transparent Digital Governance strand at the Science Foundation Ireland funded ADAPT Centre for Digital Content Technology, a multi-institutional and multidisciplinary national research centre (2021-2026). She is also PI on two targeted projects with Dublin City Council and Smart Dublin (D8 and Digital Twin) (2022-2024) and on the Creative Europe funded AlgoWatch project (2023-2025). Her books include Global Games: Production, Circulation and Policy in the Networked Age, Routledge, 2017, and she was associate editor of The International Encyclopedia of Digital Communication and Society, Wiley-Blackwell, 2015. In 2021 she was elected to Film, Media and Visual Studies class of the Academy of Europe and in 2016 she received a Distinguished Scholar award from the international Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA). She has held visiting fellowships to the University of Edinburgh (UK, 2019) and University of Pennsylvania (US, 2011) and has a PhD in Communication Studies (DCU, 2000). See Maynooth University work website.

Ladislav Krištoufek is a Vice-Rector for Research at Charles University, a member of the Czech governmental R&D&I Council, and a professor of economics. He is the only Czech social scientist listed among the Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers 2022, mostly due to his research on cryptoassets, decentralized finance, and interdisciplinary economics and finance. During his tenure, Charles University signed the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment as the first Czech university and joined CoARA; their visions are now being translated into the complex university internal research assessment system. In the R&D&I Council, he is a rapporteur for the national research priorities, research excellence, and the Czech Science Foundation.

Dr Mihalis Kritikos is a Policy Analyst at the Ethics and Integrity Sector of the European Commission (DG-RTD) working on the ethical development of emerging technologies with a special emphasis on AI Ethics. Before that, he worked at the Scientific Foresight Service of the European Parliament as a legal/ethics advisor on Science and Technology issues (STOA/EPRS) authoring more than 50 publications in the domain of new and emerging technologies and contributing to the drafting of more than 15 European Parliament reports/resolutions in the fields of artificial intelligence, robots, distributed ledger technologies and blockchains, precision farming, gene editing and disruptive innovation. He has worked as a Senior Associate in the EU Regulatory and Environment Affairs Department of White and Case, as a Lecturer at several UK Universities and as a Lecturer/Project Leader at the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA). He also taught EU Law and Institutions for several years at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) where he obtained a PhD in Technology Law (London School of Economics-LSE) that earned him the UACES Prize for the Best Thesis in European Studies in Europe.

Rasa Krole is Communication Manager at EU-CONEXUS Research for Society (SwafS) - Horizon 2020 Project, Senior Communication Specialist at Klaipeda University, Lithuania, and she has expertise in Printing Houses, Layout, Exhibitions Development, Online Marketing. She is passionate about bridging academia and society through effective communication. Combining skills in layout design with a strategic approach to online marketing.  

Edita Lenkauskaite is a project manager of the EU-CONEXUS Research for Society (SwafS) project which is funded by Horizon2020 programme. She is a member of the Coordination Committee at the European University for Smart Urban Coastal Sustainability.  

Edita is also a PhD candidate in social science at Klaipeda University, Lithuania which is a full member of the EU-CONEXUS alliance. Her top interests are: 

• governance and ruling of European Universities Alliances and HEI associations all over the world;  

• the processes and quality of decision-making; 

• management and impact on different stakeholders (EU, Alliances, Universities, researchers, etc.).

Rafaella Lenoir Improta, PhD. RIS4CIVIS Module 6 (Embedding Citizen and Society) Coordinator and RIS4CIVIS Project Manager at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM). Responsible for Open Science at UAM and Associate Lecturer in Social Psychology. Main topics of interest: Open Science, Citizen Science, Science Communication, and Environmental Psychology.

Sébastien Le Picard is Full Professor of Physics at the University of Rennes. His research activities are mainly focused on the formation of molecules in astrophysical environments where stars and planets form. Sébastien Le Picard has been involved in a large number of scientific collaborations in Europe, Japan and USA. He is currently the coordinator for the EDUC alliance of the EDUC-SHARE H2020-Swafs funded project. 

Franco-Scottish, Elizabeth Macintyre trained in Internal Medicine and Hematology in England, did her PhD in Paris, and her Post-Doctoral studies at Harvard, USA. As Assistant then Full Hematology Professor at Université Paris Cité since 1992/1997, respectively, she headed Diagnostic Hematology at Necker–Enfants Malades Hospital from 1999-2018, where she also co-directs the INSERM « Normal and Pathological Lymphoid Differentiation » Team at the INEM Institute. Her research interests are immature T cell leukemia/lymphoma and molecular/precision diagnostics in lymphoid cancers, including from the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) angle. She was President of the European Hematology Association from 2021-23 and in January 2024 will become president of the Biomedical Alliance in Europe, where she leads the task force on regulatory aspects of diagnostics. She was briefly Vice-President for International relations in 2021, then academic coordinator of the R&I SwafS part of the Circle U. European University Alliance, where she also contributes to innovative and internationalized teaching strategies in the health sector.

Elisa Maes coordinates the Research Information and Data Office at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. She focuses on Artificial Intelligence, Open Science and Research Data Management policies. Within the EUTOPIA TRAIN project, she is responsible for the work package on mainstreaming Open Science practices. Elisa has a PhD in Psychology and conducted research on Cognition in rats and humans and on the effects of oxytocin on eye contact and brain activity.  

Prof. Frederic Marias completed his M.Sc degree in 1995 at the University of Pau and Pays de l’Adour in the department of Chemical Engineering (Ecole Nationale Supérieure en Génie des Technologies Industrielles). He began his PhD Thesis in 1996 on the topic of the modelling of Fluidized bed Incineration Process. He obtained his PhD by the end of 1999 in energetic and transfer. Then, he joined the Imperial College of Science Technology and Medicine in London at the Centre for Process System Engineering  where he worked on the coupling between CFD and CAPE tools, applied to crystallization and incineration in rotary kilns. He is presently Full Professor in Chemical Engineering at the University of Pau and Pays de l’Adour. Current field of research includes modelling of reactors devoted to waste and biomass thermal treatment, as well as their mathematical dynamic optimization. Up to now, he is the author of 60 publications and 60 communications. He is also the coordinator of Research Activities in European alliance UNITA (UNITA WP4 and Re-UNITA SwafS). 

Eva Martin has been the Head of Research Services at UPF since 2006, the unit in charge of supporting UPF researchers applying to calls for projects at both the national and EU level. She is highly experienced in managing transnational, multidisciplinary research and training projects and teams involving both the public and private sectors. She is also a member of different national R&I networks and evaluator of the European Commission from 2015 and other national Agencies, and is actively involved in the EUTOPIA EUA.

Currently full professor at the University of Cadiz (UCA) and member of the Universitary Marine Research Institute (INMAR). Laura Martin is involved in research and academic management, and doing science in the fields of marine contamination and climate change. At the present, I coordinate H2020 reSEArch EU project (Science with and for Society), in the framework of the SEA EU Alliance. 

I am currently Coordinator of the PhD Program “Management and Conservation of the Sea” of the University of Cadiz. I have actively participated in different AUIP Agreements between the University of Cadiz and the University of Mexico-UNAM, University of Ecuador-Eloy Alfaro, the University of Colombia- del Valle and -Magdalena (Colombia). Member of the Advisory Board and Joint Doctoral School of SEA-EU-DOC project, which aims to broaden employment opportunities of doctorate holders and to create a Joint PhD School between the University of Cadiz, Brest, Split, Malta, Gdänsk and Kiel.  

Zeineb Mazouz is CIVICA & CIVICA Research Coordinator at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence, Italy. She is a member of both projects’ Managing Teams and attend the Permanent Design Team (PDT) formed by CIVICA universities’ Deans of Research. The EUI is responsible for and leading the implementation of all activities related to doctoral and postdoctoral researchers while also actively taking parts to the other CIVICA work packages. Prior to joining the EUI, her professional experience in the field of Higher Education serving under different capacities in various countries, led her to travel and work at the highest levels with governmental and international institutions, networks, universities, regional accreditation agencies, and the private sector in 30+ countries, bringing her a wide understanding of the different educational system in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Zeineb Mazouz speaks six languages which allows her to easily evolve in international environment and global multidisciplinary collaboration projects.

Eva Mendez is Associate professor at Library and Information Science Department of the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. She holds a PhD in Library and Information where she has focusses her research. From 2018-2020 she was the Chair of the EC Open Science Policy Platform and is a member of the CoARA Steering Board. Within the YUFE alliance, her work focusses on promoting of Open Science

Saulė Milčiuvienė is an associate professor at the Faculty of Law and senior researcher at the Institute of Digital Resources and Interdisciplinary Research at Vytautas Magnus University. She has been a member of the Senate of Vytautas Magnus University since 2015. She is also the leader of the Vytautas Magnus University led WP "Science4all" in the project "Transform4Europe: research and innovation", as well as the leader of the Vytautas Magnus University led project "Promoting Citizen Involvement in the Science Campaigns of Vytautas Magnus University by Creating a Supportive Ecosystem for the Use of Citizen-Collected Data in Research". Saulė Milčiuvienė holds a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, a Bachelor's degree in Law, a Master's degree in Law, and a PhD degree in Law (dissertation on the topic of "Legal Regulation of Prices in the Electricity Market"). Saulė Milčiuvienė has been doing research in the field of energy law for more than 20 years and her new research interest is related to digitalisation. Saulė Milčiuvienė has published more than 40 papers and successfully participated in the implementation of the Horizon 2020 project "Solar PV on the Distribution Grid: Smart Integrated Solutions of Distributed Generation based on Solar PV, Energy Storage and Active Demand Management (iDistributedPV)”.

Dr Siobhán Moane is Project Manager of the RUN-EU PLUS project (Horizon 2020 GA 101035816) of the Regional University Network European University (RUN-EU) at Technological University of the Shannon: Midlands Midwest. Siobhán is also a member of the RUN-EU project management committee where she represents RUN-EU PLUS. She is involved in the development of RUN-EU collaborative programmes, the European Innovation Hubs, and the RUN Discovery Programme. 

Siobhán holds a PhD in Analytical Chemistry from Dublin City University and has undertaken research placements at the University of Oviedo, Spain and the University of Kansas, USA. She is a Principal Investigator of the TUS LIFE Health & Biosciences Research Institute and its research centres including Shannon Applied Biotechnology Centre and the CELLS Research Group. She supervises PhD and MSc students and delivers collaborative research projects for industry funded through contract research as well as Enterprise Ireland’s Innovation Partnership and Innovation Voucher schemes. She was a PI of the LIT co-ordinated EU Framework 7 BAMMBO research project in addition to managing the CELLS plant-based EU funded research projects EDEN-ISS and the CELLS Marie Curie programme. Siobhán is a Senior Female Leader in the Aurora Women’s Leadership Development programme providing mentoring support to female managers. 

Katarzyna Molek-Kozakowska, Ph.D. (Habil.), is Associate Professor and Head of the Department of English, Institute of Linguistics, University of Opole, Poland and Senior Research Fellow at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Lithuania. With a background in English Studies, she specializes in discourse analysis, public communication and media studies. She serves as an editor of Res Rhetorica, a journal of Polish Rhetoric Society, a board member and reviewer for many international journals and conferences, and a supervisor of several PhD projects in linguistics. In the FORTHEM Alliance she has been involved in multiple joint projects on language diversity, critical literacy and civic engagements through citizen science, particularly  in the FORTHEM Lab Multilingualism in School and Higher Education. She is coordinating the communication and dissemination activities for the FIT FORTHEM Swafs project and is involved in facilitating institutional transformation at her faculty. Since 2022 she has represented University of Opole as a FORTHEM Lab and Co-creation Mission Board Member. 

Gareth O'Neill is a specialist in European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), Open Science, Research Careers, and University Alliances. He is an ambassador for Plan S under cOAlition S, coordinating the EOSC Observatory in EOSC Future, developing indicators and metrics for Open Science in OPUS, and developing a research career framework in SECURE. He is involved in TORCH as a Quality Committee member and has lately authored the Progress of University Alliances Projects report for the European Commission.

Dr. Pádraig Murphy is Associate Professor in Communications at Dublin City University and Associate Dean for External Engagement at DCU Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences.  

Dr Murphy's research interests include science communication, science and technology studies (STS), Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) and public participation in and media representations of science and technology. He runs a postgraduate training programme for all PhD disciplines on Engaged Research. Dr. Murphy has been involved with multiple EC-funded and Irish-funded projects on RRI and stakeholder/public engagement for several future, emerging and disruptive technologies. He is currently DCU lead on the SMART-ER project, facilitating cocreated, challenge-based research for the European Consortium of Innovative Universities (ECIU). 

Fionn O'Sullivan is a Principal Consultant at Tetra Tech International Development with over fifteen years’ experience evaluating public programmes in the UK, Europe and other countries, including those promoting research and innovation capacity at regional and national levels. He led DG RTD’s evaluation of Horizon 2020 funding for the R&I dimension of the European Universities Alliances and has recently led an evidence review for the UK government on ‘what works’ in supporting international R&I collaborations.

Raul Ramos is Vice-Rector for Internationalisation Policy at the University of Barcelona. Full Professor at the Department of Econometrics, Statistics and Applied Economics of the University of Barcelona, researcher at the Regional Quantitative Analysis Group (AQR-IREA), IZA Research Fellow, GLO Fellow and member of the Euro- Mediterranean Economists Association (EMEA). 

His research interests include labour market analysis from both regional and international perspectives, with a specific focus on globalization, inequality, unemployment and migration. He has published extensively on these topics and participated in different research and knowledge transfer projects (European Commission, European Parliament, OECD, UNESCO, Eurofound, among others). He is currently Co-Director of the Revista de Economía Laboral/Spanish Journal of Labour Economics and Associate Editor of Regional Studies, Regional Science.  More details at http://www.raulramos.cat 

Arnaud Regnauld is Professor of American Literature and Translation Studies. He has been Vice-Rector for Research at the University of Paris 8 since 2016. He is also re:ERUA’s scientific coordinator. He is the scientific editor of several collective works, the most recent ones being The Digital Subject, Dijon: Labex Arts-H2H-Presses du réel, 2017, Subjectivités numériques et posthumain, Presses Universités de Rennes, 2020 and Contemporary American Fiction in the Embrace of the Digital Age, 2022. His most recent research focuses on new forms of textuality in the digital era and their translation as well as on the relationship between art, literature, and philosophy. 

Joachim Reidl has been a university professor of microbiology at the Institute of Molecular Biosciences at the University of Graz since 2007, where he has since become a specialist in bacterial infectiology and the modes of action of antibiotics. In doing so, he leads a research group that focuses on studying the interaction between bacteria and host. Since 2016, Reidl has been a co-referee at the Austrian Science Fund FWF. He has already authored more than 70 scientific publications. Since May 2021, Reidl has been Vice-Rector for Research and Promotion of Young Researchers at the University of Graz.

Vicente Royuela is Full Professor of Applied Economics at the University of Barcelona, Spain, and member of the Regional Quantitative Analysis research group (AQR-IREA). He is an economist and expert in regional science, urban economics and socio-economic development, with an intense emphasis on statistical and econometrics techniques. He has been member of the EOC Committee of the European Regional Science Association between 2010 and 2021 and of the Executive Committee of the Spanish Regional Science Association. Vicente has been Visiting Researcher at the University of Reading (UK) 2005-06, at the University of Urbana Champaign (USA) in 2016, invited by REAL, and at the University of Queensland (Australia) in 2019. He has been involved in European and national (Spanish and Italian) research projects, frequently acts as referee for different academic international journals, and has also acted as evaluator of international research proposals. Furthermore, he has developed consultancy activity for the OECD, the European Commission and the European Parliament. He is the author of dozens of research works, articles and books, and has acted as guest speaker in international conferences and as the invited lecturer of quantitative methods for regional science and urban economics at several universities.

Like most Icelanders, Inga goes by her first (or middle) name, and prefers informal introductions. Look for purple hair and come say hello during the breaks! 

She holds the position Project Manager of Aurora Research and Innovation for Societal Impact (AURORA RI), based at the University of Iceland. Her responsibilities include the coordination and implementation of the project, leadership of Work Package 1 (Project Management) and Work Package 2 (Development of a Shared Support Plan for Research and Innovation), and contributions to EU Policies through ForEU2, with a focus on ERA action 13. In addition to AURORA RI, Inga leads a work package in the newly initiated Aurora 2030 project.  

Passionate about feminism and European politics, Inga sits on the board of the Icelandic Women‘s Budget Group, and teaches an undergraduate course on European Integration at the University of Iceland. She holds an MA in International Economic Policy from Sciences Po, and an MSc in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics. Her past roles include Foreign Policy Researcher for LSE IDEAS, Trade Policy Officer for EFTA, and Consultant for the OECD. 

Isabel Salgueiro works as project manager of EELISA InnoCORE at UPM (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid). She has been working in EU policy-making and EU funding since 2010, including seven years of work experience as policy officer in Brussels. Isabel has worked as policy officer for different organisations in Brussels, with a particular focus on regional policy. Since 2017 she specialized in EU funding, project management and building project proposals, and has been working for Spanish universities on research and innovation management for the last six years.

Carsten Q. Schneider is Pro-Rector for External Relations and full professor at the Department of Political Science. He holds a PhD from the European University Institute (EUI) and has been visiting scholars at Berkeley, Harvard, Pompeu Fabra, among others. 

Schneider is a former elected member (2009-14) of the German Academy of Young Scientists (Die Junge Akademie) and recipient of the 2019 David Collier Mid-Career Award of the American Political Science Association (APSA) section of Qualitative and Multi-Method Research. In 2019, he was also won the Outstanding Teaching Award at Central European University.  

Schneider’s research focuses on new forms of autocratic rule and their strategies of survival. He is also a renown social science research methodologist, working in the field of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and set-theoretic methods. His work has been published, among other outlets, in Comparative Political Studies, Democratization, European Journal of Political Research, Political Analysis, and Sociological Methods and Research. He is author of three books on set-theoretic methods, published with Cambridge University Press,some of which have become standard references in the field.

Ragnhild Solvi Berg is Senior Advisor at HK-DIR/Norwegian Contact Office for Research, Innovation and Education (Norcore) in Brussels. Ragnhild has worked in the field of internationalisation of higher education since 2004. She started her journey at the Norwegian Centre for Internationalisation of Higher Education (SIU, now HK-DIR). From 2010 to 2016 she was seconded to the European Commission as a national expert, working on higher education cooperation outside of Europe. Since 2016, she is representing HK-DIR at the Norcore office in Brussels, and is the co-chair for the IGLO working group for higher education. She holds a Master’s degree in Social Anthropology from the University of Bergen, in addition to degrees in Cultural Studies and Spanish and Latin-American Studies. In 2021, she became a member of the EAIE Publications Committee.

Dana Strauss serves as the Managing Director and Head of Unit for JenaVersum, a regional network with partners from academia, businesses, and municipal entities since 2019. In this role, Dana oversees activities in five key areas: open dialogue on research agenda & initiatives, coordinated transfer/outreach, the orchestrated use of research infrastructure, joint international location marketing, and collaborative strategic regional development. 

Dana Strauss assumed the co-lead for the work package "Science with and for Society" during the pilot phase of the EC2U Erasmus+ project from 2020 to 2023. Presently, Dana takes care of the work package "Innovation Sphere" in the Horizon 2020 SwafS project (RI4C2). 

March Tachelet took up his first post at the European Institutions in 1994, joining the European Court of Auditors in Luxembourg, with 5 years of experience in the private audit sector and a degree in Business Economics. He moved back to his native Belgium in 1998 to join the central finance unit of DG INFSO (now DG CNECT) at the European Commission. He first became a Head of Unit in 2003, responsible for Financial Resources, Internal Control and Strategic Programming at DG Translation. He then joined DG RTD in 2008, where he was later seconded to the newly established Research Executive Agency (REA) as Head of Department for Administration, Finance and Support and then as Head of Department ‘Industrial leadership and societal challenges’. He became Director of REA in April 2017, where he provides strategic direction to a motivated team of managers and staff. 

Marc is married with three children who have now reached young adulthood. 

Timo Taskinen (1965) has been working as Senior advisor at the Research and Innovation Services of University of Jyväskylä (JYU) since 2015. His doctoral research at Oxford University in applied mathematics focused on properties of elastic-plastic materials. After his studies he worked over ten years in software development, mostly with Nokia and other Finnish communications companies and then ten years at Tekes, the funding agency of technology and innovation in Finland.  

Currently he is involved in research administration in JYU, where he develops for instance research infrastructures, open science practices, responsible assessment and research policies at the university and national level. He is project manager at JYU for FIT Forthem - Fostering Institutional Transformation of R&I Policies in European Universities – and leader of Work Package 5, Living Labs for societally embedded co-creation of know-ledge. 

Natalia Tikhonov Sigrist holds a PhD in History and civilization from the University of Geneva / Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. She has recently completed a 3-year fellowship awarded by Swiss National Science Foundation for a research stay at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris). Her research project aimed at linking a wide academic migration phenomenon to the consolidation of modernity, at the turn of the 20th century and in relation to Western Europe, in three politico-cultural spheres with rather different university systems, political regimes and professional structures. She now works for the Catholic University of Louvain as an administrative staff inside the Research Department, and focus on trans-nationality and trans-disciplinary research projects. In this regards, she is in charge of the program for increasing the trans-national and trans-disciplinary research projects inside Circle U. European alliance.

Ludovic Thilly is Vice-Rector of the University of Poitiers since 2012. Coordinator General of the EC2U Alliance since 2020, he has coordinated the preparatory work and submission of the EC2U E+ projects in 2020 and 2023. He is also the Coordinator of the companion EC2U H2020 SwafS project (RI4C2) and Chair of FOREU2 (group of 24 pilot II Alliances).

Ludovic Thilly is the Chair of the Executive Board of the Coimbra Group of Universities since 2017 and Member of several Expert Groups at the European Commission (DG EAC and DG RTD).

Ludovic Thilly is Full Professor of Physics and still active Coordinator of several national and international research projects in the field of nanoscience (mechanical properties of nanoparticles and small objects).

Andrea Tokić, Ph.D., is an associate professor at the Department of Psychology, University of Zadar, Croatia. Her research interests relate to employee well-being and health. As a researcher, she has participated in three research projects dealing with the well-being of different types of workers (healthcare workers and working parents with children with disabilities). She is teacher in the field of scientific methodology and human resource management. She is actively involved in two ongoing projects funded by the European Commission: EU-CONEXUS and Research for Society.

Sarah Thompson serves as the Project Manager for CIVICA Research, based at Sciences Po in Paris, France, the coordinating institution for the alliance. In her role, she oversees the implementation, coordination, and monitoring of the entire project, as well as provides project management support to the CIVICA consortium as a member of the CIVICA Secretariat. She contributes to the coordination of the key managing and governing bodies for the CIVICA Research project: the Research Managing Team (formed of research managers from across the alliance) and the Permanent Design Team (comprising the Deans of Research from all CIVICA institutions). With a double master’s degree in International Affairs from The London School of Economics and Political Science and Sciences Po, Sarah brings a decade of experience in research, policy and data analysis, and project management. Specialising in the social sciences, her academic and professional experiences have spanned multiple countries and academic and international environments, including the United Nations. 

Thrasyvoulos Tsiatsos is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Informatics of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece and Director of the Software and Interactive Technologies (SWITCH) Lab. He is WP2 leader in EPICUR Research project of EPICUR alliance, leading the implementation of the EPICommunity. His research interests include Virtual Learning Environments, Serious Games and Gamification and Open and Distance Education. He has published more than 250 papers in Journals and in well-known refereed conferences. He was coordinator or member of the research team in various R&D national and international projects in the area of Technology Enhanced Learning. Also, he is IEEE member. 

Anouk Tso is currently Director of International Affairs at the University of Amsterdam. In this role, she is responsible for delivering the University’s International Strategy and leading on the university-wide implementation of the lines of action underpinning this strategy. 

Key responsibilities include maintaining and initiating sustainable alliances with partners abroad and coordinating the UvA’s participation in European and global networks, such as LERU and U21, as well as EPICUR European University.   

Prior to joining the University of Amsterdam, Anouk served as Head of the China Desk and Policy Adviser at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences for 8 years. Anouk was trained as a Sinologist at Leiden University where she specialized in Contemporary Chinese Politics and International Relations. 

Javier Valls Prieto is Professor of Criminal Law and Criminology at the University of Granada. He has been working since 2012 on European projects related to the use of artificial intelligence. As part of his academic career, he has spent time at different European universities. Since 2022 he is an expert in research ethics for the European Commission.

Van de Vijver is a research coordinator for FilmEU (EPP-EUR-UNIV-2020, Ref: 101004047) at LUCA School of Arts working in project management of FilmEU_RIT (H2020-IBA-SwafS-Support-2-2020, Ref: 101035820). As a researcher she works on historical and contemporary screen culture, film programming and cinema experience, and her work has been published in edited volumes and international journals. She has been involved as coordinator and researcher in several international projects and networks e.g. ‘European Cinema Audiences’, ‘Cinema Histories’ and the ‘HoMER Network’. She is the editor of ‘Mapping Movie Magazines’ (with D. Biltereyst, 2020), the ‘Handbook of Comparative New Cinema Histories’ (with D. Treveri Gennari & P. Ercole, 2023) and author of ‘Gent Filmstad’ (with G. Dupont & R. Vande Winkel, 2021). She has been a Professor in Cultural Media Studies at Ghent University, and a guest lecturer Film History at KU Leuven, and Visual Culture at VUB. 

Dr Marc Vanholsbeeck is the current head of the coordination department at BELSPO (Belgian Science Policy), in charge of the federal, interfederal and international coordination of research policies. As a former deputy Director General for research and higher education at the Ministry of Wallonia-Brussels Federation he has an extensive experience in science administration and policy making. Marc has developed a particular expertise in Open Science, having been the Chair of the ERAC standing working group on Open Science and innovation between 2019 and 2021, and in SSH (social sciences and humanities) policies, having served as Belgian first delegate to the EU Framework Programme for SSH related matters between 2011 and 2022. He is the author or co-author of several publications that relate to SSH impact, research evaluation and Open Science. Marc Vanholsbeeck is also a lecturer in science communication and research methodologies at the Université libre de Bruxelles.

Tania Van Loon coordinates the Research Funding Europe team at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. She focuses on European research & innovation policies, and on EUTOPIA research initiatives. Tania graduated in chemical sciences from the Université Libre de Bruxelles, has a background in environmental engineering and quality control in production industries. In the last 15 years, she conducted international, European and national research projects in renewable energy and climate change. She worked as Enterprise Europe network advisor and as National Contact Point for the 7th framework programme and Horizon 2020.

Dr. Christian Wagner-Ahlfs (PhD, male) is coordinator for transdisciplinary research at Kiel Marine Science (KMS) and teamleader stakeholder dialogue at the Center for Ocean and Society (CeOS).  

Within the project reSEArch-EU “reinforceSustainablEActions, resilience, cooperation and harmonization across and by the SEA-EU Alliance”, Christian has the work package lead for activities on engaging stakeholders in academic research projects. 

He is trained as a chemist. In his activities over a span of 30 years, he has combined science, civil society, politics and economic issues. Until 2018, he was executive director of a non-governmental organization. In this function, he introduced the concept of equitable licensing to technology transfer in German publicly funded research. He headed interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary projects; therefore, he is familiar with the mode of operation of politics and media as well as university administration and European legislation. Later he became editor-in-chief of a consumer magazine for evidence-based medicine. 

Christian Wagner-Ahlfs is responsible for promoting the cooperation of researchers from Kiel Marine Science with experts from politics, civil society and business. The goal is participatory development of research questions. To support the exchange between science and society, he organizes different event formats and is responsible for developing, implementing and supervising co-design formats in all CeOS projects. 

Siegfried Walch is a professor & a head of the department for Nonprofit-, Social & Health Management and a member of the Center for Social & Health Innovation at MCI - The Entrepreneurial School in Innsbruck. Since 2012 he serves as a board member of the Eu-HEM consortium. Eu-EHM or "The European Master in Health Economics & Management" is a joint master degree program offered by MCI together with the Universities of Bologna, Erasmus Rotterdam and Oslo. He further represents MCI at the European University Ulysseus, launched in 2020.

Louise Wallenberg is Professor of Fashion Studies at the Department of Media Studies at Stockholm University, Sweden. She holds a PhD in Cinema Studies from the same university (2002) and she was the establishing director of the Centre for Fashion Studies at Stockholm University between 2007 and 2013. Her research interests include cinema, fashion, gender, and organizational and working life, and her publications include the anthologies MODE (2009); Nordic Fashion Studies (2011); Fashion, Film, and the 1960s (2017); Fashion and Modernism (2018); Ingmar Bergman at the Crossroad between Theory and Practice (2022); Now about all these women in the Swedish Film Industry (2023) and Fashion Aesthetics and Ethics: Past and Present (2023). Between March 2022 and September 2023, she was a Work Package leader within the RIS4CIVIS project (CIVIS SwafS project), monitoring the final implementation phase of the case studies.

Olga Wessels is the Head of the Brussels’ Office of the European Consortium of Innovative Universities (ECIU), where she contributes to setting the agenda of ECIU and its 14 partner universities at the European level in both education and research policy and programme development. Societal impact, the European Universities’ Initiative, and challenge-based education are some of the key topics for ECIU.  

Wessels also initiated and chairs the FOR-EU network (together with Ludovic Thilly), bringing all alliance coordinators together and having different subgroups in place to connect alliance’s experts on topics such as research and innovation programmes. 

Furthermore, Wessels is a member of the International Advisory Board of NHL Stenden (RUN-EU alliance). Before joining ECIU, Wessels represented the Dutch knowledge field in Brussels at the Netherlands House for Education and Research and she was a board member of the Dutch National Student Union. 

Kathrin Wieck holds a doctorate in Landscape Architecture and most recently worked as coordinator for international transdisciplinary methods in the Office for Science and Society at the Executive Board of Technische Univerität Berlin. She is involved in the development of strategies and methods for transdisciplinary and transformative research in various international alliances, including the ENHANCE Alliance and the ITD Alliance. She taught and researched as a guest professor (2022/23) and a lecturer (2004-2020) at the Department of Landscape Architecture and Open Space Planning at TU Berlin. Kathrin Wieck has led various cooperation projects with the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro and civil society actors in Brazil and is engaged in transdisciplinary research activities with systemic design and assemblage thinking.

Over 30 years of experience in public administration at national, European and multinational levels. Of this, 26 years at the European Commission of which 20 in DG Research & Innovation in various positions: scientific officer for health and environment projects; HR policy officer; international cooperation policy officer (relations with the EFTA and EEA countries and Micro States); a short period in the ITER unit before becoming the first Policy Assistant to Director-General Robert-Jan Smits; Head of Communications; and Head of Common Missions and Partnerships Service. Since April 2022, Head of Department of the Future Society department of the European Research Executive Agency REA where responsible for the management of Cluster 2, Cluster 3, Widening, ERA and Research Infrastructures programmes of Horizon Europe. Prior to DG R&I, DG Environment (environmental integration to sectoral policies); the United Nations HQ (Secretariat of the Commission on Sustainable Development) and Ministry of the Environment of Finland. By training, Master of Social Sciences (International Relations) from University of Helsinki. 

Starting as a research associate in the Faculty of Computer Science at the University of Karlsruhe (TH) in 2000, Michael Zacherle worked at the Research Funding service unit as an application and project manager as well as a change manager from 2008 to 2019. In 2011 and 2012, he was assigned as a personal assistant to the Chief Science Officer 4 in the Executive Committee of KIT, followed by an appointment as an EU consultant in the Helmholtz coordination of KIT. Since 2019/2021 he has been leading the projects EPICUR and EPICUR-Research.
He has been a member of the KIT senate since 2015, where he represents the administrative staff in the KIT Budget Commission as well as the Structure and Strategy Commission and the working group on KIT law.
He worked part-time for 6 years as a constituency assistant for a Member of the European Parliament.