Salvatore Grimaldi is a Professor of hydrology at the Università degli Studi della Tuscia, Viterbo, Italy, Department for Innovation in Biological, Agro-food and Forest systems (DIBAF) and adjunct faculty at the New York University, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, New York, USA.

He graduated in hydraulic civil engineering at Sapienza Università di Roma, Italy, where, in 2001, he also got a Ph.D. in hydrology for engineering, followed by a post-Doc at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA.

He is the Director of the MecHydroLab ‘Mechanical Engineering for Hydrology and Water Science’, a multidisciplinary laboratory for environmental monitoring.

His research activities focus on statistical hydrology, GIS terrain analysis, surface hydrology, new technologies for hydrological observations, citizen science in hydrology, and nature-based solution for erosion mitigation. He is the author of more than 100 publications with 7000 citations and H-index=44.

He was elected in 2023 as President of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) for the period 2025-2029. He also served as a reviewer for more than 120 Journals (i.e., Nature, Nature Climate Change, Scientific Reports, and Science Advances) and for a variety of research institutions.

He served as COST Scientific Committee member (2021-2023) and as a COST Action Review Panel Member Expert (2015-2019). He was appointed President of COST in July 2023

K. Arzum Erdem Gürsan received Bachelor in Pharmacy (1993) from Ege University, master (1996) and PhD degree (2000) in the Department of Analytical Chemistry at the same university in Izmir, Türkiye. She has been working at the same department as a Full Professor since 2009.

She is the Project investigator of 2 national projects and completed as of 11 national/international joint projects (The Royal Society of Chemistry, TÜBİTAK-The Academy of Science in Czech Republic, TÜBİTAK-British Council supported under the Newton Katip Celebi Funding Programme) from 2002 up to now. She has 8 national patents and more than 210 papers in refereed SCI-exp. journals andconference proceedings,15 book chapters and review papers, 20 invited talks in international meetings. She has received 7500 citations with h-index: 45 according to WoS records in March 2024.

K. Arzum Erdem Gürsan awarded by the Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA) as the one of highly skilled young Turkish scientists under the TÜBA-GEBİP fellowship programme in 2001. She received “Junior Science Award” (2006), and “Science Award” (2015) given by TÜBİTAK. She was elected as the Associate member of TÜBA (2007) and the Principal Member of TÜBA (2016). For the term of 2000-2003, she was elected as the council member in the general assembly meeting of TÜBA, and then re-elected for the term of 2023-2026.

K. Arzum Erdem Gürsan was elected as the fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) in December, 2017. She was elected as the Special Committee member of Association of Academies and Societies of Sciences in Asia (AASSA)- Women In Science and Engineering (WISE) for the period of 2017-2019, 2019-2021 and 2021-2023.

K. Arzum Erdem Gürsan has initiated many national and international collaborative research on development and applications of electrochemical (bio)sensors based on drug, enzyme and nucleic acids. Her recent research is centred on the development of novel transducers and chemical and biological recognition systems by using nanomaterials (graphenes, magnetic nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, metalic nanoparticles, dendrimers, quantum dots, nanowires, etc.) designed for
electrochemical sensing of nucleic acid (DNA, miRNA) hybridization, and also the specific interactions between drug and DNA, or protein and DNA, aptamer-protein and also the development of integrated analytical systems for environmental monitoring, food safety, industry and biomedical monitoring.

Prof. Dr. Alena Kačmárová has been involved in the Humanities, namely Applied Linguistics and Translation Studies. She is a co-founder of the Institute of Translation and Interpreting Studies at the Faculty of Arts, the University of Prešov (Slovakia) and the Director and co-Creator of study programs in Translation and Interpreting Studies (1st, 2nd, and 3rd cycles) at this institution. Between 2019 and 2023 she was Vice-dean for development and international relations (the duties of Erasmus and ECTS coordinator, academic writing and research proposal broker, chair of board for annual KEGA project assessment – internal viva voce, international cooperation coordinator).

Her current research focuses on academic writing studies, academic literacy brokering, research writing, and writing for publication (ORCID iD: 0000-0002-5524-4569). She has published the outputs of research (in reversed chronological order) in academic writing, translator studies, intercultural pragmatics, discourse analysis, morphosyntax, both nationally and internationally (Albania, Czech Republic, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, Montenegro, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, USA).

She participated in COST Action 15221 WeReLaTe: Advancing effective institutional models towards cohesive teaching, learning, research and writing development (2018 – 2020). Within this Action, she organized a meeting, also co-edited and peer reviewed its final publication output. She has been involved in the implementation of national research scheme projects (KEGA, VEGA) since 1999 as a research team member, deputy principal investigator, and principal investigator.

She has been evaluating national research scheme KEGA/VEGA project proposals. She has been continuously, on a long-term basis, peer-reviewing for SCOPUS, WoS, and Current Contents Humanities journals, both national and international.

Professor Ella Been is Head of the academic promotion committee and Associate Professor at the Faculty of Health Professions of the Ono Academic College in Israel. She is also Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of Tel Aviv University and Board member, with an advisor role for kinesiology and biomechanics of exercises at the TropX, a startup, a company developing wearable technology for sport and rehabilitation.

Prof. Been has experiences as evaluator for M.R.C. Medical Research Council, UK, the Leakey Foundation, the FWF Austrian Science Fund, the Israeli Scientific Foundation, the national institute for psychobiology in Israel. Also, she is ad hoc reviewer for scientific journals such as PNAS, European spine journal, Scientific reports, Journal of Anatomy, PLoS ONE, Journal of Human Evolution, Journal of Biological Anthropology, Theoretical Biology and Medical Modeling.

Barbara Klajnert-Maculewicz is a full professor at the University of Lodz (Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection). From 2014 to 2020, she served as an external scientific member at the Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung Dresden e.V., Germany. She completed her Ph.D. in biophysics in 2002 from the University of Lodz and pursued postdoctoral studies at McMaster University, Ontario, Canada (2004-2005).

She is a co-author of 2 books and 162 articles published in international journals (e.g., Progress in Polymer Science, Chemical Society Reviews, Nano Research, Biomacromolecules, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology Biology Medicine, Journal of Controlled Release).

From 2009 to 2012, she served as the Management Committee Chair of the COST Action TD0802 ‘Dendrimers in Biomedical Applications’. Later, she coordinated the COST Action CA17140 ‘Cancer Nanomedicine – From Bench to Bedside’ for two years. She has also coordinated several scientific projects (e.g., TEAM supported by the Foundation for Polish Science, two OPUS, and two HARMONIA grants funded by the National Science Centre Poland). She was awarded the L’Oréal Fellowship for Women in Science (2008) and the Gold Cross of Merit for scientific and didactic achievements (2011). She served as a member of the Scientific Policy Committee – an advisory body of the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education (2016- 2020).

Currently, she is a member of the Council of the National Science Centre, a government agency supporting basic research in Poland. Her research interests are focused on nanomedicine, especially the biological properties and biomedical applications of different nanosystems.

I am since 2009 professor of sociology at the University of Gothenburg and before that professor at Umeå University. During the period August 2015 – October 2021 I was employed as Secretary General for research infrastructures at the Swedish Research Council. Since November 2021 I again work full time at the university.

I have mainly done research on people’s living conditions, health and working life, gradually expanded the area to include children’s living conditions in low- and middle-income countries and, which is a completely different track, how socio-economic conditions and genetic conditions together affect the risk of individuals developing dementia. Regardless of what the research is about, I have always been interested in methodology, that is, compiling data and applying methods that best answer a given question. A recent example of this is the combination of large-scale survey data on living conditions in developing countries with satellite data on environmental changes. By doing so, the hope is to provide research-based knowledge that help policy makers to simultaneously address central SDGs related to the eradication of poverty and preservation of the environment.

Since 2001, in addition to my research, I have held various positions at the Swedish Research Council. First as a member and vice-chairman of the Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences. Later as a member and vice chairman of the Council for Research Infrastructures (RFI). From August 2015 to October 2021, I was employed as Secretary General for research infrastructures at the Swedish Research Council (the maximum term for this position is six years). The assignment as Secretary General entails a scientific responsibility that span all academic subject areas – from astrophysics to tools for linguistic research. It also includes close contacts with other research funders, higher education institutions, the research community and not least the political system. As many infrastructures are international, contacts and cooperation with a large number of foreign and international organizations are also required, as well as representing Sweden in various contexts.

He graduated in Biological Sciences at the University of Bari, Italy, and obtained a Doctorate in Crop Productivity at the University of Basilicata, Italy. From 2000 to 2001, he was a Researcher at the National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA), Italy. As Postdoctoral Training, in 2002, he worked at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Heraklion, Greece, within a Marie Curie Fellowship. He trained as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Basilicata, where he also worked as Assistant Professor in Agricultural Chemistry. In 2015, he was awarded a Fulbright Research Scholar grant to spend at the University of California, Davis. In 2017, he received a fellowship award from the OECD Co-operative Research Programme at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. In 2019, he was a visiting professor at Kindai University, Nara, Japan, within a JSPS Research Scholar Grant. In 2021, he benefited from a DAAD Research Stay at the University of Bremen, Germany. In 2022, he was awarded a Visiting Faculty Program Fellowship at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel. In 2023, he was a visiting professor at the University of California, Davis. Since 2022, he has been a member of the EGU’s Biodiversity Task Force. He has been National Geographic Explorer since 2023. Currently, he is Associate Professor of Agricultural Chemistry at the University of Basilicata. He is actively working on the following topics: a) response of plants to abiotic stresses; b) response of plants and fungi to soil pollutants; c) soil quality and fertility in sustainable agro-ecosystems. He is the author of over 150 papers published in peer-reviewed journals and books, editor of peer-reviewed scientific journals, and coordinator of numerous international and national research projects. He has experience on evaluation procedures of national, European and international research programs. He participated in the Management Committee of several COST Actions.

• 2021- current 12 Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture – Vice-rector on science and innovative development
• 2017-2021 Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture – Vice-director of scientific research institute for binders and materials
• 2010-2017 Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture – Senior researcher
• 1998-2008 Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture – Junior researcher

A total of 31 Publications in Scopus and WoS Core collection databases

Other expert experience and personal achievements includes: Evaluator of national funding programmes: Expert of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (expertize of the budget founded S&R projects for the Young scientists); Expert in Czech Science foundation (evaluation of the project application); Member of Rilem Committy of Standartization ( Technical Committee 247-DTA); and Full Member of the Academy of Construction of Ukraine.

Dr. Sopio Uchaneishvili is a senior researcher and deputy director at the Ivane Beritashvili Center of Experimental Biomedicine in Tbilisi, Georgia. She is also a university professor, teaching science management, biostatistics, and biomedical research. With a Ph.D. in Cell Biology, Dr. Sopio’s scientific research is focused on Biophysics and Molecular Biology. She is a member of the editorial board for the scientific journal “Radiobiology and Radiation Safety” and has been involved in Radiobiological Research.

Dr. Sopio has extensive experience in science management and education. She previously held positions as Deputy Director of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biophysics and later Deputy Director of the Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia. From 2011 to 2017, she served as an accreditation expert for higher education programs at the Georgian National Center for Educational Quality Enhancement.

Dr. Sopio has also been actively involved in national and international initiatives related to research and education. In 2021, she was nominated as the National Contact Point in Georgia for Horizon Europe, specifically for Research Infrastructures. She was also the official representative of Georgia nominated to the HORIZON EUROPE Research Infrastructure Programme Committee from 2021 to 2022. Additionally, she serves as a member of the advisory board at the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia, where she is working on the “Clusterization model.” Dr. Sopio also participated in the elaboration of the ‘Unified Education and Science’ 2022-2030 strategic document, which was led by the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia from 2021 to 2022.

Dr. Marilena Vlachou is an Associate Professor (since 2021 at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA).

She obtained her BSc degree in Pharmacy in 1988, from NKUA and a BA degree in Pedagogy (Didactics), from the Teachers College, Athens, Greece (1985). She then pursued postgraduate studies at NKUA, obtaining her PhD in Pharmaceutical Technology in 1992. During her PhD studies she also worked in the “A. Syggros” Hospital – Photobiology Department (Athens, Greece), as a Research Associate (1988-1992), and as a Visiting Research Scientist in the School of Pharmacy of the University of Rhode Island, U.S.A. (1989-1990), specializing in the field of drug release and microencapsulation.

Upon completion of her PhD studies she enrolled the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, as a Lecturer (1994-2001), then as an Assistant Professor (2001-2020) and from 2021 as an Associate Professor.

The fields of S&T, she has been involved with are Physical Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Technology, and in particular the formulation and in vitro modified release studies of bioactive substances from polymeric matrices and topical formulations, studies on the physicochemical characteristics of cyclodextrins – stereoelectronic interactions with the chronobiotic hormone melatonin, the development and evaluation of multi-layered release systems, the modified release studies on novel cytotoxic pyrrolinoquinoline derivatives from solid pharmaceutical formulations, the physicochemical properties of new excipients of marine origin (Ulvans) and their application in the preparation of solid pharmaceutical formulations, and the development of nanoparticulate substrates as active substance carriers: drug release studies

Dr. Vlachou has published more than 75 research articles in international peer-reviewed journals, and has presented her research work in more than 80 Scientific International Conferences/Symposiums either as a participant or as an invited speaker. She is the authoress of 7 book chapters and has served as an Academic Editor (upon invitation) for the compilation/production of 7 books.

Dr. Vlachou has participated/supervised 14 funded research projects and has assessed 10 EU financially supported research programmes.

Bénédicte Charrier is an expert in the development of marine macroalgae. She holds a permanent academic position of research director at CNRS, and since 2004 is group leader of the team “Morphogenesis of Macroalgae” at the Station Biologique, Roscoff, France. In 2015, she chaired the COST Action FA1406 for advancing the biological, societal and economic development of seaweeds in Europe. In 2019, she coordinated the “algal” module of the ERASMUS⁺ e-learning project “Digital Marine”. In 2022, she was awarded an ERC-Advanced grant for the proposal ALTER e-GROW aimed to study the formation of tri-dimensional tissue in brown algae.

Before being appointed at CNRS in 2000, she studied epigenetics in Tobacco and Arabidopsis plants at the University of Leeds, U-K. In 1996, she obtained a PhD in Molecular and cellular plant biology at University Orsay (Paris-Saclay) about the role of secondary metabolites in plant nitrogen-fixing symbiosis. She was awarded the prize of the French Society of Plant Biology in 2000.

She has published 49 articles in academic journals, 8 book chapters and edited 3 books, one of which is a white paper on the regulation of macro-algae aquaculture in Europe presented to the European parliament in 2019.

She has been an editor of books and academic journals. She has been a reviewer for many international academic journals and has been appointed as an expert for several European national funding agencies. She has been a member of the scientific advisory committees of aquaculture projects for the COST country Norway.

Prof Martin Reinhart is director of the Robert K. Merton Center for Science Studies at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and professor for science studies at the School of Library and Information Science. He received his doctorate from the University of Basel specializing in the sociology of science. His research interests center around issues of (e)valuation in science, the relationship between science and society, and the transfer of scientific knowledge. Current research projects address the diversity of peer review practices in science, replication initiatives as a social movement, and the translation of biomedical knowledge.

His contributions to the COST Scientific Committee draw from his background in science studies and research evaluation, which is predicated on combining research on evaluation procedures with active participation and inclusion of stakeholders. As such, he has advised science policy and funding organizations and is currently serving as a Steering Committee member for the first alliance of universities under the German Excellence Strategy, the Berlin University Alliance.

Prof. Frédéric Pichelin is head of the institute for materials and wood technology and Professor for adhesives technology and bio-based materials at the Bern University of applied sciences. Prof Pichelin is graduated from the French school of engineering ENSTIB. In 1999 he obtained a PhD in wood technology at the university of Hamburg in Germany. After 5 years in the private industry, he moved to Switzerland and developed a research institute dedicated to materials and wood technologies.

Between 2002 and 2014, Prof. Pichelin has served as Swiss member of the COST Domain committee FPS, Forestry, their products and Services.

His research focuses on 3 topics:

1. the extraction and valorization of natural polyphenols from wood and wood bark as adhesive to produce bio-based products.
2. the modification of wood and the development of wood-based products
3. the development of bonding technologies for a circular use of wood.

He has conducted several national and international projects in these fields and one of these projects has also led to the development of a spin-off.

He received several international awards in the field of innovation and material technology. Since 2019 he is fellow of the International Academy of Wood Science. Prof. Pichelin is co-author of 64 scientific publications and 8 patent applications.

Prof Pichelin has a long experience in the field of research management and research assessment. He is expert at the Swiss Innovation Agency and member of the research commission of the Bern University of applied sciences. He has also served as expert in several evaluation panels in Switzerland and at the international level. As a former member of the COST Domain committed FPS, he is very familiar with the COST instrument.

Prof. Dr. Vladimir Drekalović is a professor at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Montenegro. He finished basic studies in philosophy and mathematics (University of Sarajevo and University of Montenegro) at the same time. He completed his master’s and doctoral studies at the University of Belgrade, dealing with problems in the fields of philosophy of science, philosophy of mathematics, logic and theory of knowledge. He has published numerous papers regarding the topics of mathematical knowledge, mathematical explanation, Platonism in mathematics, the enhanced indispensability argument, and the problem of relational identities.

Prof. Drekalović is a member of the Council for Scientific Research of Montenegro (President of the Council 2021-2022), member of the Ethics Committee of Montenegro, expert in the field of quality of higher education, national consultant of the Council of Europe, president of the national working group for the development of the Strategy for Scientific Research (2023-2027).

As a visiting professor, he gave lectures at numerous European universities.

Prof. Karlis Agris Gross conducts science and engineering research on materials that interact with the human body, as well as materials at subzero temperatures.

Activities at Riga Technical University in Latvia are directed at the scientific methods of measurement that enable deeper probing into the study of materials, allowing the design the materials with more functionality. A research history from Australia, Germany, USA, Finland, France and Latvia give interdisciplinary insights into challenges of materials. The collective works have led to the most cited scientist in Latvia.

The application of research has traditionally been focused on biomaterials for orthopaedics, but have also addressed sliding on ice to give more inclusive methods for measuring the resistance to sliding, and more advanced methods for measuring surfaces that slide on ice. Sliding on ice has a common theme with lubication of ice containing foods in the mouth, that opens inroads into the materials science study of ice laden foods, such as ice-cream and gelato. The scope of studies shows the diversity of materials research topics that depend  on the development of new test methods for greater understanding of the behaviour of materials and the optimization of materials surfaces for the best interaction with the human body.

Prof. Gross was awarded the national scientist of Latvia in 2018, actively participates in furthering science as a researcher, assessor, consultant and a guide on science issue for the Latvian government.

Gabriele Kotsis is a full professor in computer science and head of the Department of Telecooperation at the Johannes Kepler University Linz. She is member at large of the ACM, board member of the Austrian Computer Society and President of the ASEA-Uninet Network.

Her scientific contributions include seminal work in the field of workload characterisation for parallel and distributed systems and in performance management of computer systems with a specific focus on mobile and ubiquitous computing environments. She has successfully led several research projects, such as the EU funded networks of Excellence CRUISE and EuroNGI/EuroFGI.

Kotsis is co-author of over 150 scientific publications. Her scientific work has been recognized from thee very beginning of her career, in 1995 she received the prestigious Heinz-Zemanek Award for her dissertation work. In 2014, Kotsis has been recognized as ACM Distinguished Scientist for her scientific contributions.

She has always been dedicated to contributing research management and to the larger scientific community. She was appointed in 2007 and reelected in 2011 as Vice Rector for Research at Johannes Kepler University Linz. At a national level, she is a member of the Austrian Computer Society and was one of the cofounding chairs of the Society’s working group for professors in computer science. From 2003 to 2007 she was president of the Austrian Computer Society. At an international level, she was a founding member of the ACM Europe Council. She has been evaluator of proposals and expert reviewer in FP6, FP7 and H2020 as well as in numerous national funding programmes. She was and is serving as an academic expert and strategic advisor in e.g. the Science and Research Council of the Province of Salzburg (2007-2010), the Upper Austrian Council for Research and Technology (2010-2015) or the Internet Offensive Österreich (since 2017).

Director of the Institute of Microbiology and Biotechnology, Republic of Moldova. 

Dr Svetlana Codreanu is the Director of the Institute of Microbiology and Biotechnology in Chisinau Republic of Moldova, former director of the National Collection of Non-Pathogenic Microorganisms, co-founder of Moldovan Society for Microbiology and FEMS Delegate.

She studied Biology and obtained her PhD degree in Microbiology from the Moldova State University. Her current scientific research focuses on Applied Phycology and Biotechnology.

Official Representative of the Republic of Moldova nominated to the HORIZON 2020 Research Infrastructure Programme Committee (2014-2018) and  national expert to Horizon 2020 Programme Committee Configurations “Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials” and “Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine, maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy” (since 2018).

She is regularly involved as evaluator of scientific projects and research infrastructures, reviewer of scientific journals and abstract selections in conferences and PhD defences.

Dr Codreanu is author and co-author of over 100 scientific publications and 17 patents. She received numerous awards, including the WIPO Award and Gold Medal.

Magdalena Cara is a professor (since 2015) and she is working at Agriculture University of Tirana (since 2006).

Magdalena Cara had studied 5 years at the Chemistry Department and then she graduated in University of Tirana, at Natural Sciences Faculty in 1988. At the same Faculty she finished Scientific Master (2002 – 2004) and PhD studies (2005-2007).

After her graduation she worked as a Chemical Engineer at a Superphosphate Factory, at Chemistry Department at the Ministry of Mineral and Energy Resources in Tirana and then from 1992 she has worked at the Plant Protection Institute in Durrës.

For many years, she was focused on scientific research for pesticides, toxicology and ecotoxicology, harmful impacts on health and environment as well as polluting chemicals of water and whole environment. She has also worked in toxigenic and mycotoxins fungi field as well as their detection with instrumental methods and other plant pathogens including the ELISA, DTBIA, PCR, Reverse – Transcriptase PCR and Real-time LAMP tests.

She has published more than 30 articles in international journals including APS and has participated in more than 50 scientific conferences.

She has published 9 books with ISBN in Albanian language as textbooks and guides in Mycotoxins and Pesticides fields. She has participated and coordinate international and national projects as; TEMPUS, IPA, SEE-ERA.NET, INTERREG, DAAD, ERASMUS PLUS ICM, EUPHRESCO, etc., bilateral with Italy, Slovenia, etc., and the national projects. She is certified as environmental expert since 2005 and has been part of the group that develops expertise in environment field.

Her teaching activity from 2008 is related to Plant Protection Products, Sustainable Use of Pesticides, Ecotoxicology and Pesticide Impact, Mycotoxins, Instrumental Methods in Plant Pathology, Research Methods, etc. She has supervised master and doctoral theses in the field of pesticide’s use and pesticide’s residues, POPs pesticides, mycotoxin detection methods and toxigenic fungus.

Dr Gea Guerriero, Senior Research and Technology Associate at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology.

Dr Guerriero holds a PhD degree in Applied Biology from the University of Naples “Federico II”, Italy and a Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches (HDR) from the University of Limoges, France. She is also habilitated in Italy as Full Professor in Botany. Dr Guerriero is currently Senior Research and Technology Associate at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology and she teaches Plant Physiology as adjunct staff member for the Bachelor in Life Sciences-Biology at the University of Luxembourg. Her scientific activities are centred on the valorisation of plants as sources of renewable raw material and of plant cell cultures as phytofactories for the production of added-value compounds. She is particularly interested in the study of the richness and complexity of plant specialised metabolites and their exploitation for industrial applications. Her research also aims at elucidating the molecular events regulating bast fibres’ formation and using biotechnological strategies for the modification of their physico-chemical properties, with the goal of ameliorating their industrial use. She has co-authored 111 publications with a total of 2556 citations and an h-index=27 (source: Scopus, June 2021). She is evaluator of proposals for four international agencies. Dr Guerriero is Associate Editor of Plant Molecular Biology Reporter and Frontiers in Plant Science (Plant Metabolism and Chemodiversity). She has co-edited special issues for Frontiers in Plant Science, Journal of Biotechnology, Frontiers in Genetics, Journal of Hazardous Materials, International Journal of Molecular Sciences and is reviewer for e.g. Nature Biotechnology, New Phytologist, Plant Cell and Environment, Frontiers in Plant Science.

Prof. Lynda Hardman  (http://www.cwi.nl/~lynda/) is Manager Research & Strategy at Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI, https://www.cwi.nl), the Dutch national research centre for Mathematics and Computer Science. She is full professor, part-time, of Multimedia Discourse Interaction at Utrecht University. Her research interests are in how visualisations can be used to improve the way domain experts interpret and interact with (linked) data.

Prof. Hardman has directed Amsterdam Data Science (http://amsterdamdatascience.nl), a partner organization whose mission is to strengthen the Data Science and AI ecosystem that spans academia, industry and society in the Amsterdam region since 2018.

In this year she also became the European director of LIAMA (http://liama.ia.ac.cn), a research collaboration since 1997 between INRIA (France), CWI and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

She was the president of Informatics Europe 2016-2017 (IE, http://www.informatics-europe.org/), a European association of computer science departments to foster the development of quality research and teaching in computer science within Europe. During her time as board member, she founded the IE working group Women in Informatics Research and Education around 2012. The mission of IE is to foster the development of quality research and teaching in computer science within Europe.

She was named ACM Distinguished Scientist in 2014 and is a Fellow of the British Computer Society.

Dainius Haroldas Pauža was born on July 8, 1962. He graduated from Vilnius University, Faculty of Natural Sciences as master in Zoology. In 1992, he obtained the PhD in Kaunas University of Medicine (currently- The Lithuanian University of Health Sciences).  From 2002, he officiated as a full Professor at the Institute of Anatomy in Kaunas University of Medicine.  In period of 2008-2018, he served as the member and the chairman of the Research Council of Lithuania. Prof. Dainius H. Pauža is the member of the Lithuanian, European and American Societies of Morphologists and Anatomists. His scientific interest and research areas are Autonomic Neuroscience, Cardiac and Vascular Biology, Neuroanatomy and Neurobiology.

Dr Laszlo Hiripi is a Senior Researcher working at NAIK-Agricultural Research Institute (Godollo,Hungary). 

Previously he was the head of the Department of Animal Biotechnology at NAIK-ABI (Godollo, Hungary 2014-2018). From 2005 Laszlo has been a PI in the same institute. As a postdoctoral fellow he worked at the School of Biomedical Sciences-University Ulster (UK). Laszlo graduated in Ecology from Attila Jozsef University Szeged and obtained his Ph.D. from Szent Istvan University Godollo in Animal Husbandry Sciences.

His research focuses on the development and application of modern animal biotechnology using transgenic and genome editing methods. His research group has several collaborative studies to produce precise animal models of human diseases.

Laszlo Hiripi has published more than 50 peer reviewed scientific journal and conference papers with more than 1000 citations. He holds two international and a national patents. He has evaluated research proposals for the Hungarian and Slovakian Research Council. He has also participated in three COST Actions and organized an ECOST training school which was the first European training school for genome editing in 2015.

Prof. Dr Vlatko Ilieski is a university professor with extensive background in education and research in veterinary medicine.  The scientific research work of Prof. Vlatko Ilieski is mainly focused in the field of functional morphology with a special emphasis on the protection and welfare of animals. As the EBVS^® European Veterinary Specialist in Animal Welfare Science, Ethics and Law of the European College for Animal Welfare and Behavioural Medicine, he has great experience in implementation of animal welfare standards. This has been accumulated through participation in a great number of projects, as well as during his international engagements. These include being subcontracted as an individual expert by the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) on Housing Risk welfare assessment, as well as being engaged as a veterinary expert in the veterinary subsector by the European Agency for Reconstruction in the process of harmonization of Veterinary Legislation with the Acquis Communautaire.

His research work was conducted through collaboration in international projects, such as being a member of Consortiums and Workpackage leader in projects supported by the 7^th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development, SEE-ERA-NETs COST, HERAS programs and other programs.

Prof. Ilieski was a Fulbright Scholar under the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs for university lectures and researchers, residing at Livestock Behaviour Research Unit of the USDA-ARS, Purdue University.

Prof. Ilieski has collaborated with various European associations, the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe and the European Association of Establishment for Veterinary Education, providing important input through membership in several working groups. He has been directly involved in the development of welfare course syllables and the implementation of EU Directive 2005/36 and 2013/55 for recognition of professional qualification and the EU Directive 2010/63 for protection of animals for scientific purposes. Furthermore, he has experience in the evaluation process of research projects as an appointed reviewer for various research agencies and member of PhD panels.

His international teaching experience has been realized through TAIEX and CEEPUS programs at different European universities, which includes engagements as a visiting professor.

Dr Orla Murphy is an expert in Digital Humanities, particularly in laser scanning for 3D modeling in Cultural Heritage as well as in Critical Digital Pedagogy.

She is the Head of the Discipline of Digital Humanities at University College Cork (UCC), Ireland where she is the Director and co-Creator of their innovative BA program in Digital Humanities and Information Technology.  She is Irish National Coordinator for the DARIAH ERIC – a Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities.  Since 2017 she is a Board Member of the Digital Repository of Ireland (DRI), and recently co-Chair of the Irish Arts and Culture in Education Research Repository.

Her research focuses on knowledge representation and new acts of reading explored through digital technology.  Originally trained as a medievalist she holds Diplomas in Interdisciplinary Medieval Studies and in Information Systems.  Her MPhil explored Latin and Old English sources for the homilist Aelfric’s Old English Homilies on the Nativity – with a particular focus on liturgical contexts.  Her PhD research in The Foundations of Irish Culture project interrogated 3D laser scanning as an approach to representing damaged early-medieval stone inscriptions on pre 12^th century artefacts as part of an interdisciplinary team.

Named Digital Champion in UCC, she was named as one of the inaugural Fulbright TechImpact scholars in 2015 travelling to research applications of 3D in museum settings in Boston. She was awarded a National Teaching Expert Award by the Irish National Forum for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education 2014.  Her current research is on the embedding of foundational Digital Literacies as critical competences in Higher Education Institutions.

She has participated in COST SCs and MCs representing Ireland, and in other EU projects, and has also acted as a reviewer and evaluator, editor and coeditor locally, nationally, and internationally.

Marios Polycarpou is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Director of the KIOS Research and Innovation Center of Excellence at the University of Cyprus.

He received the B.A degree in Computer Science and the B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, both from Rice University, USA in 1987, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California, in 1989 and 1992 respectively. His teaching and research interests are in intelligent systems and networks, adaptive and learning control systems, computational intelligence, fault diagnosis and critical infrastructure systems. Dr. Polycarpou has published more than 350 articles in refereed journals, edited books and refereed conference proceedings, and co-authored 7 books. He is also the holder of 6 patents.

Prof. Polycarpou is a Fellow of IEEE and IFAC. He was the recipient of the 2016 IEEE Neural Networks Pioneer Awardand the 2014 Best Paper Award for the journal Building and Environment (Elsevier). Prof. Polycarpou served as the President of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (2012-2013), as the President of the European Control Association (2017-2019), and as the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems(2004-2010). He has participated in more than 70 research projects/grants, funded by several agencies and industry in Europe and the United States, including the prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant and the EU Teaming project. Prof. Polycarpou is an elected Founding Member of the Cyprus Academy of Sciences, Letters, and Arts.

Prof. Min Reuchamps is Professor of Political Science at the Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium, and international expert for designing democratic innovations.

He is currently Academic Chair for the Think and Do Tank on the Future of Higher Education of Circle U., an alliance of nine leading European universities. In Belgium and abroad, he is serving on several committees evaluating international and national research projects. Member of the editorial board of the journals Politics of the Low Countries, Fédéralisme Régionalisme, Participations, Mots. Les langages du politique, he is the co-director of the book series “Méthodes participatives appliquées/Participatory applied methods” by Peter Lang and is a frequent reviewer for journals, publishers, foundations and research funding agencies. Besides, he is regularly invited to observe and assess democratic processes as well as to appear in the media and in the public debate. He is the academic convenor of two inter-university advanced executive certificates: in participatory democracy and in foresight.

Graduate from the Université de Liège, Belgium, and from Boston University, USA, his teaching and research interests include federalism and multi-level governance, democracy and its transformations and innovations, participatory and deliberative methods, as well as relations between language(s) and politics and in particular the role of metaphors in political discourse. He has published over twenty books and edited volumes on these topics, and led several European research projects, including the COST Action Constitution-making and deliberative democracy which, with members from over 40 countries, is one of the largest Actions.

Volker Straub is the Director of the John Walton Muscular Dystrophy Research Centre and Deputy Dean of the Translational and Clinical Research Institute at Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. In his role as deputy dean for the largest of the three research institutes at Newcastle University’s faculty of medical sciences, he supports the translation of fundamental disease mechanisms from the laboratory into patients through clinical observational studies and interventional trials.

His own clinical and academic interests focus on translational research in genetic neuromuscular disease. His research Centre delivers care and diagnosis whilst being at the forefront of clinical and basic research directed to therapy delivery for patients with genetic neuromuscular conditions and supported by internationally directed networking, tools and resources. His current research involves the application of muscle imaging, the use of zebrafish and mouse models, next generation sequencing and other –omics technologies for the characterization of genetic neuromuscular disorders. He is an investigator for a number of natural history studies and interventional trials. He is currently the president of the World Muscle Society and an author on >375 peer-reviewed publications.

Volker has been involved in the coordination and work plans of many international research projects and networks. He was the co-founder of the EU FP6 funded network of excellence for genetic neuromuscular diseases, TREAT-NMD (www.treat-nmd.eu), and the chair of the European MYO-MRI COST Action (BM1304) to develop applications of magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy techniques in neuromuscular disease.

Prof. Bodil Marie Stavning Thomsen is an expert in Film and Digital Media Theory.

She is a professor of Culture and Media, Department of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University. She is a research partner of ReNEW: Reimagining Norden in an Evolving World (2018-2023); was a PI of the research project Affects, Interfaces, Events (2015-2021); was a research fellow in the Canadian project Immediations: Art, Media, Event (2013-2020); was senior researcher in The Aesthetics of Interface Culture (2004-07); and PI of Realism, Reality, the Real in Visual Arts (1999-2002).

Her research focuses on the impact of media technologies on audiovisual culture including aesthetics, philosophy, and learning. Her PhD on how the silent film star and melodrama transformed to talkies included perspectives on fashion and film technical issues. This interdisciplinary cross-fertilization continued in research publications and projects on Video Art, Film (especially Von Trier’s films) and Interfaces.

She is author of 3 monographs and author or co-author of more than 130 articles or book chapters and has co-edited 9 books and 2 special issues in journals. She was editor-in-chief (2018-19) and co-editor of Journal of Aesthetics and Culture (2016-18). She received a Fulbright grant in 2005 as professor at University of Washington, Seattle.

She is a board member of the Social Sciences and Humanities at the Swedish Research Council (2018-22); in Novo Nordic committee for art research (2005-2011), and a member of the EURIAS-committee for European IAS-centers (2017). She has acted as a review panel member in National Research Councils and in assessment committees in Norway, Canada, UK, Australia, France, and Sweden.

Pedro Viana is Advisor to the Dean and Vice-Deans at ISEG Lisbon School of Economics and Management from the University of Lisbon and a Foresight and Strategy Consultant at ALVA Research & Consulting, a boutique firm focused on Foresight, Scenarios, Innovation, Strategy and Sustainability. Frequently, he is also Academic Reviewer in evaluation panels for the international accreditation of business schools. Simultaneously, he is working on his PhD in Management thesis, after having concluded the coursework of the programme.

Within the academia, Pedro was Executive Coordinator of Iscte Business School and Invited Professor at Methodist University of Angola, teaching Corporate Finance in the BSc in Business Management and Administration. He was a Member of the Board of Directors (Non-Executive) at Building Global Innovators, a technology accelerator for startups and scaleups born within a partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In the private sector, Pedro was Senior Management Consultant in strategy and finance at Accenture, after working as Business Analyst at Deloitte and Treasury Analyst at Philip Morris International. His career path started in the media as a journalist in the two best-known Portuguese economic newspapers – Jornal de Negócios and Diário Económico (currently Jornal Económico).

Pedro Viana holds a Degree in Economics from Iscte Business School and an Executive Master in Financial Markets and Asset Management from Iscte Executive Education. He concluded an Executive Development Programme in Management Skills and a short programme in Responsible Business at Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics, as well an executive programme in Corporate Governance and another in Scenarios and Strategic Foresight at Nova School of Business and Economics.

Prof. Dr Antonín Vlček is a professor of inorganic chemistry at Queen Mary University of London and a research scientist at the J. Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague. He has received his PhD in 1984 from the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the California Institute of Technology. His main scientific interests lie in the general field of physical-inorganic chemistry, namely photophysics and photochemistry of transition-metal complexes and metalloproteins. His research strives to understand properties and reactivity of electronic excited state using ultrafast time-resolved spectroscopic techniques. Most of his current research activities are oriented toward photoinduced electron transfer and charge separation, especially in relation to photocatalysis and photochemical solar energy harvesting (artificial photosynthesis). He is an author of 150 scientific publications. His research activities involve international collaborations, mostly between Czech Republic, USA, UK, and Switzerland.

Prof. Vlček has been involved in COST since mid-1990s, later as a chair of Actions D14 (Functional Molecular Materials) and D35 (From Molecules to Molecular Devices), management committee member of Action CM1202 (Supramolecular Photocatalytic Water   Splitting) and, from 2006 until 2014, as a member of the CMST Domain Committee where he evaluated chemistry COST Action proposals. He is also involved in the various European initiatives related to conversion of solar energy to chemical fuels, namely the SUNRISE and, currently, SUNERGY consortia, as well as in the European Energy Research Association as a steering committee member of the AMPEA joint programme.

Professor Dinka Čorkalo Biruški, Ph. D. has been full professor in social psychology at the Department of Psychology, University of Zagreb, Croatia since 2010.

Her research interests include intergroup relation in war and peace, specifically processes of social reconstruction in post-war communities. A special area of interest is minority education and its role in social integration and development of multiple identities of minority children. She recently has developed a research program on studying processes of social recovery after coronavirus pandemic. Her teaching is in the area of social psychology, prejudice and discrimination and ethics in research and professional conduct.

She received Ph.D. in psychology from University of Zagreb in 1997, was Fulbright Visiting Scholar at University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a visiting research fellow at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame. She was principal investigator in numerous national and international research projects, and a collaborator in FP6 and FP7 programs.

She has published over 70 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters and (co)authored or (co)edited 11 books and research monographs. She serves as a reviewer for a number of international professional journals and sits on editorial boards of Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology and Journal of Social and Political Psychology. She has served as a reviewer of research projects funded by major agencies including Croatian Science Foundation, European Science Foundation and Israel Science Foundation. She was awarded few major national awards, including National Scientific Award (2005); Ramiro Bujas Award of Croatian Psychological Association (2009) and Fiat Psychologia Award of Croatian Psychological Association for Contribution to Applied Psychology (2012).

Prof. Dr. Mari-Ann Einarsrud is Professor in Inorganic Chemistry (Ceramic materials) at Department of Materials Science and Engineering at NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Her research topics are focused on ceramic, nanostructured, hybrid and inorganic materials for applications as dielectrics, ferroelectrics, thermoelectrics and ionic conductors. Her focus is on development of an environmental-friendly chemistry-based platform for the synthesis of the materials and the use of novel approaches to time-resolved in situ studies of growth mechanisms during the aqueous synthesis.

She is author or co-author of more than 245 papers, 2 book-chapters, 2 patents and has participated with numerous presentations at international scientific conferences. She was selected as one of 100 successful women in ceramics and glass science worldwide profiled in the book by L.D. Madsen published by Wiley (2016).

She is a Member of board for Natural Science and Technology, Research Council of Norway and has previously been a member of board for Materials Science and Process Industry. She has served on review board for ERC Starting Grants and been a review panel member of various National Research Councils. She has played a key role in several “white papers” in chemistry, materials science and nanotechnology from the Research Council of Norway as well as facilitated strategic international collaboration. She has been a member of the executive board of NTNU for two periods. She is elected member of The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters.

Prof. Nihad Fejzic is an animal health and veterinary epidemiology specialist with particular experience in zoonoses, terrestrial and aquatic disease surveillance and control, sanitary and phytosanitary measures and management of veterinary services.

Prof. Fejzic studied veterinary medicine at the University of Sarajevo (1986 – 1991) and has got a PhD in animal health economics from the same University.

He worked as an assistant of minister for agriculture in cantonal government (1996), deputy director of State Veterinary Office under the Ministry of foreign trade end economics relations of BiH (2003 – 2007), director of the Agency for development of higher education and quality assurance of BiH under Council of Minister of BiH (2008-2011) and dean of Veterinary faculty Sarajevo (2012 – 2020). Prof. Fejzic was a national coordinator and international consultant for several FAO, OIA, IAEA, and EU projects focusing on capacity building, animal health, food safety, and professional development.

Currently, besides lecturing at Veterinary faculty Sarajevo, he works as FAO international consultant on epidemiology and surveillance in Asia and Africa and leads Center of interdisciplinary studies of the University of Sarajevo. At the international level, he is President of the Association of Veterinary Faculties in the Mediterranean region (REEV-MED), formed under the umbrella of the International organization for Animal Health (OIE) and alternate member for Europe of Council of International Veterinary Medical Education of AAVMC.

D.Sc.(Tech.) Riitta L. Keiski is holding the positions of Professor in Mass and Heat Transfer (2001-), Docent in Chemical Process Engineering, especially in Heterogeneous Catalysis and Environmental Engineering (1997-), and Dean of the Faculty of Technology (2015-). She was the Vice-Rector in Education of the University of Oulu in 2007-2009. She has been an Acting Professor in Bioprocess Engineering (in 1998-2000) and in Chemical Process Engineering (in 1994). During her early researcher career, she has been holding positions financed by the Academy of Finland (AF) for 10 years.

Prof. Keiski is an expert in chemical and environmental engineering, especially in catalysis, nanomaterials, sustainable production, separation processes, clean technologies, sustainability assessment, and research ethics. Besides, she holds Doctor Honoris Causa title at one national and two international universities, is the Chair of the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity TENK, and a member of the National IPCC Working group.

Prof. Keiski has supervised 30 doctoral theses, has totally over 260 publications (H-index 38, 5448 citations, 242 publications; Scopus 23.5.2021). She has directed tens of research projects (>60) and has acted as an active evaluator of, e.g. status and quality of research, researchers, research institutes, research applications in national and international forums. She has been a member of boards/advisory boards of research institutes and funding organizations, e.g. the Board of the AF, 10 years; Chair of a Research Council of Natural Sciences and Engineering at AF, 6 years), MIKES (Board of MIKES, 6 years), VTT (Scientific Advisory group, 3 years), and Foundations.

Peter Milanov is currently a Professor of Mathematics at the South-West University “Neofit Rilski”, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria and at the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics (IMI) at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia. He is also the head of the Scientific projects Department at the South-West University “Neofit Rilski”. He received his PhD in Mathematics in 1980 from the Belarusian State University, Minsk, Belarus. In 1984 he was a specializing researcher in “Theory of graphs and applications” at the Technical University of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark. In 1987 he was a specializing researcher in “Discrete optimization and operations research” at the University of Bonn, Institute for Econometrics and Operations Research, Bonn, Germany. He was a scientific secretary of the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics (IMI) of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences from 1991 to 1998 and became a vice director of the same institute in 1997.

In the period 2010-2014 he was a Domain Committee Member (a representative from Bulgaria) of the COST-ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) Domain. His current research projects focus on bioinformatics, protein folding, docking, prediction of biological activity and curve fitting.

Prof. Milanov’s areas of expertise include Bioinformatics, Mathematical models of dose-response interactions, Operational research, Applied mathematics, Descrete structures, Statistics and probability and Nonlinear and discrete optimization.

Prof. Milanov is an author and coauthor of numerous publications in highly cited journals. He has received several grants from various funding programs including the Bulgarian National Science Fund, INTERREG Programme “Greece-Bulgaria”and has participated in numerous international scientific projects.

He is a member of the following scientific organizations: the Union of Mathematicians in Bulgaria; the Union of Scientists in Bulgaria; the Bulgarian peptide association and the Bulgarian operational research society.

Prof. Luciano Mule Stagno is the Director of the Institute for Sustainable Energy and Group Leader of the Solar Research Lab at the University of Malta.

He holds a PhD in Physics from the Missouri University of Science and Technology. He returned to his native Malta in 2007 from the US where, after his PhD studies, he spent 12 years working with MEMC Electronic Materials (later SunEdison, now Global Wafers). His last post there was that of Director of Worldwide Labs with responsibility for labs in Asia, Europe and the US. His major expertise is in the characterization, engineering and synthesis of semiconductor and solar materials He has published extensively and holds 10 patents on semiconductor/solar materials.

His current research interests are in photovoltaics systems and materials and other renewable energy technologies that could be applicable to Malta. He recently lead ERDF335 – a 4.2M Euro project to fund the solar research lab and Solaqua an MCST-funded project to study offshore solar energy.

Luciano has a passion for heritage and environmental issues. In fact his first post in Malta was that of CEO of Heritage Malta (2007-2009) and he is currently Vice-president of Din L-Art Helwa (The National Trust of Malta). He is also an executive committee member of UMASA (University of Malta, Academic Staff Association) and has served on the boards of several local companies.

Coordinator of the Technological and Business Incubator INMA-ITA within INMA – National Institute of Research-Development for Machines and Installations designed to Agriculture and Food Industry, Romania

Conelia Muraru-Ionel is Coordinator of the Technological and Business Incubator INMA-ITA within INMA – National Institute of Research-Development for Machines and Installations designed to Agriculture and Food Industry, Romania, cluster manager of IND-AGRO-POL innovative cluster and vice-president of the Romanian Clusters Association – CLUSTERO.

She is graduated on Agricultural Mechanics at the Politehnica University of Bucharest and she is Doctor of Engineering in Agricultural Engineering from Transylvania University of Brasov.

Since 2001 she is involved as evaluator of over 100 national RDI projects.

She has experience on evaluation procedures and national research programs as member of the Advisory Council for Research, Development and Innovation of the Ministry of National Education and Scientific Research (2014 -2015) and as member of “Stimulating Inventions Application – INVENT” Romanian RDI Programme management team (2001 – 2006).

Since 2015 she is senior expert within Enterprise Europe Network – EEN and innovation auditor by using Improve methodology.

Cornelia collaborated as expert of Ministry of Education and Research to the elaboration of the new Romanian Innovation Policy (2019 – 2020) and of the Application Guide of the rules regarding the deductions for the research-development expenses for the calculation of the fiscal result (2016 – 2017). As expert of Ministry of Economy, she collaborated to the elaboration of the New Romanian Industrial Policy (2014 – 2016).

Cornelia is author and co-author of over 100 scientific publications.

Prof. Dr Ragnheidur I. Thorarinsdottir is Rector of the Agricultural University of Iceland. She is Adjunct Professor at the University of Iceland since 2018 and Adjunct Associate Professor 2011-2018.

She was Deputy Director of the National Energy Agency (NEA) in Iceland 2005-2009, Department Manager at NEA 2004-2005, Department Manager at the Icelandic Building Research Institute 1999-2004 and Project Manager at the Icelandic Technological Institute 1994-1999. She has been owner and manager of a few startup companies.

Dr Thorarinsdottir received MBA from the University of Iceland in 2002, PhD from the Technical University of Denmark in 2000 (Chemical Engineering – Material Science and Corrosion) and MSc from the Technical University of Denmark in 1993 (Chemical Engineering – Biochemistry and Nutrition).

The Fields of S&T and research experience cover a broad area, engineering and technology, energy sciences and agricultural sciences with focus on material sciences, corrosion, renewable energy, geothermal resources, circular food production, aquaculture and aquaponics.

Dr Thorarinsdottir has experience from administration, research and innovation, business management and strategic work. She has worked closely with the ministries in Iceland on several occasions, has been board member of companies and institutes and has participated in several EU-funded, Nordic and national research and innovation and network projects and has often been the coordinator of the projects.

She has published several peer-reviewed articles in her fields of work, book chapters, technical reports and conference papers. She has been reviewer of articles for several journals as e.g. the MDPI journals Sustainability, Water, Energies and Agriculture. She has been evaluator of proposals in H2020, COST, Nordic and national funds.