Nikola Schmidt works as an senior researcher and is head of the Centre for Governance of Emerging Technologies. He studied Sociology at the Charles University Prague (BA), and International Relations and Security at the Metropolitan University Prague (MA), he received his PhD from Charles University in 2016 where he works as a researcher as well. He participated in a European Space Agency and NASA-funded planetary defence team project organized by the International Space University in 2015. The subject of his professional interests varies between International Relations theory Science and Technology Studies with focus on space, cyber and the general relation between technology, politics and global governance. He is currently leading a multidisciplinary project with participation from astronomers, space engineers, international lawyers, and political scientists. The objective is to devise a strategy for planetary defence and asteroid mining policy as key topics of a cosmopolitan responsible state. He edited or authored a number of recent works, including the Springer volume Planetary Defense: Global Collaboration for Defending Earth From Asteroids and Comets as well as articles in Acta Astronautica, Space Policy, New Space or Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Prior to re-entering academia, he founded and led two software development companies and worked on a nongovernmental organization-driven food facility project in Afghanistan.

Elisabeth Alber leads the research group ‘Participation and Innovations’ at the Eurac Research Institute for Comparative Federalism in South Tyrol, Italy. She also co-leads the Eurac Research Federal Scholar in Residence Programme, and she is lecturer at the University of Innsbruck in Austria. She holds a PhD from the University of Innsbruck, and degrees in International Relations, Comparative Constitutional Law and European Studies from the universities of Torino and Turku. As visiting scholar, she has worked in Germany, the US, Spain, Australia, Overseas France, Northern Macedonia and India. As consultant, she has worked in Moldova, Ukraine and Myanmar. Her latest publications include Federalism and Ethnic Relations (2022), an edited volume on direct and deliberative democracy in European multilevel systems (2021), Language realities and policies in Italy(2022), and Federalism and constitutionalism: a relation based oninterdependency (2023). Elisabeth holds external associate positions at the Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance at the University of Canberra and the Centre for Multilevel Federalism of the Institute of Social Sciences in New Delhi, and she is part of the Scientific Committee of the Vienna-based KDZ-Centre for public administration research and the Bolzano/Bozen-based Alexander Langer Foundation. Her working languages are English, German and Italian. She also understand French and Spanish. 

Dr Marco Siddi is Montalcini Assistant Professor at the University of Cagliari (Italy) and Senior Research Fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs in Helsinki. He focuses primarily on EU-Russia relations, EU energy and climate policy, and the politics of memory and identity. Previously, he was a Marie Curie and DAAD fellow at the Institute of European Politics (IEP) in Berlin, the University of Edinburgh, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the University of Cologne. His recent publications include the monograph European Identities and Foreign Policy Discourses on Russia: From the Ukraine to the Syrian Crisis (Routledge, 2020) and several articles in academic journals, including the Journal of European Public Policy, Politics and Governance, Geopolitics, The International Spectator, German Politics and International Politics. He is a member of the Younger Generation Leaders Network on Euro-Atlantic Security, a platform established after the Ukraine crisis to promote dialogue between Russia and the West. He is also Adjunct Professor at the universities of Helsinki and Tampere, where he teaches courses on EU-Russia relations and EU energy and climate policy.

Laura Maaß, BA, MA is a Doctoral Researcher at Leibniz Science Campus Digital Public Health Bremen and Member of the Steering Committee at the European Public Health Association (EUPHA)- Section Digital Health. Her research is focused on developing an index to measure the maturity of digital public health systems nationally with the aim to use digital public health tools for healthcare and health promotion purposes.

Adnan Ćerimagić (Bosnia and Herzegovina) is ESI’s Senior Analyst for the Western Balkans and is researching EU policy towards the region. Before joining ESI in August 2013, Adnan has worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Sarajevo and Brussels. He also did a traineeship in the Secretariat of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee and worked for the European Training and Research Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (ETC) in Graz. He studied law at the University of Graz and EU international relations and diplomacy at the College of Europe in Bruges. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the International Institute for Peace in Vienna and the International Advisory Board of the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy. Adnan is based in Berlin.

Prof Jeffrey V. Lazarus (PhD, MIH, MA) is the head of the Health Systems Research Group and co-director of the Viral and Bacterial Infections Programme at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) and Associate Professor at the University of Barcelona at ISGlobal and Associate Professor at the University of Barcelona as well as a senior scholar at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy. 

His decade-long career as a health systems, HIV and viral hepatitis expert at WHO’s Regional Office for Europe was followed by three years at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. He is the past Vice-Chair of the EASL International Liver Foundation, Board Chair of AFEW International and he was the first director of Health Systems Global. He currently serves as co-chair of the HIV Outcomes Beyond Viral Suppression coalition, a member of the board of directors of the SHARE Global Health Foundation and as a member of the EASL Public Health and Policy Committee and the Global NASH Council.

He is the author of more than 300 publications, including the Global COVID-19 Consensus Statement (Nature 2022) and multiple studies on COVID-19 vaccines hesitancy including in Nature Medicine and Nature Communications and has been advising governments, NGOs and WHO, as well as frequently appearing in the media to address pressing issues about the pandemic.

As Principal Investigator (PI) of the HCV Free Baleares, EU-COMSAVAC, COVID-VAC and the NAFLD public health and global policy studies he has had continued competitive funding for over a decade, since leaving WHO. He is a co-author of The Lancet COVID-19 Commission, the Lancet GastroHep Commission on viral hepatitis and the EASL-Lancet European Liver Commission and led The Lancet HIV series on HIV Beyond Viral Suppression. He is on the editorial board of HIV Medicine, the International Journal of Drug Policy and the Journal of Hepatology.

He earlier served as Professor at LUHS Medical Academy, Lithuania, and as Affiliated Professor at the WHO Collaborating Centre on HIV and Viral Hepatitis at Rigshospitalet, the University of Copenhagen, and at the University of Porto, Portugal.

Tijo Salverda is an anthropologist who has extensively studied inequality, power, elites, and corporate actors. After holding the position of Professor of Anthropology at the University of Vienna (2019-2022), he is now dedicating his experiences to shaping a fairer and ecologically friendlier world. More info can be found on his website at www.tijosalverda.nl  
 

Martin Polaschek was born in Bruck an der Mur, Austria, in 1965. After studying law, he was appointed associate university professor at the Institute of Austrian legal history and European legal development at the University of Graz. Polaschek’s research focussed on the areas of post-war justice, university law, and communal research. From 2003, he was Vice Rector for Studies and Teaching, and from October 2019 until December 2021, he served as the Rector of the University of Graz. Furthermore, Polaschek was the spokesman for the Austrian vice rectos for teaching. 

On December 6, 2021, Polaschek was appointed Federal Minister for Education, Science, and Research. 

Daniel Reinhardt graduated from the Diplomatic Academy in 2015. His background is economics and political science. He has been working in the solar energy sector for more than five years for the Austrian company Swimsol, where he is responsible for project & business development as well as project financing. Daniel shares a passion for sustainability. Before his current position, he was working as a Project and Communications Manager for the think tank Club of Rome. Daniel will share his perspective on how solar energy and other forms of renewables can contribute to energy security, which technological advancements are on the way, what the constraints of common renewable energy sources are and how to potentially overcome them in the future.