Bios

Anne Gerdes

Anne Gerdes is a professor of Information Science at the Department of Design, Media and Educational Sciences at the University of Southern Denmark where she also leads the Center for AI Ethics. She researches and teaches in the intersection of applied ethics and computer science. Her research focuses on IT ethics, AI ethics in healthcare, data ethics, AI Ethics by Design, robo-ethics, and privacy

Cecilie Brøkner

Cecilie Brøkner is the CEO of Innovation Fund Denmark – a public fund that invests in entrepreneurs, researchers, and businesses that create value for Denmark and develop new solutions to society’s challenges. Cecilie holds a degree in Political Science from Aarhus University and an MBA from Copenhagen Business School. She has held several senior management positions in various ministries – including the Ministry of

Economic Affairs and the Interior – and has experience from both the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry, Business and Financial Affairs. She has also lived and worked in Tanzania and Bangladesh under the auspices of the European Commission and the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

Charlotta Sparre

Charlotta Sparre is the deputy director of Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) since September 2024. She has over 35 years of experience from international diplomacy, including serving as the director of the Swedish Dialogue Institute for the Middle East and North Africa, Director of the Swedish Diplomatic Training Programme, Swedish Ambassador to Egypt and to Jordan and the Permanent Representation to the EU. Her work has mainly focused on issues related to the MENA region and European affairs.

Connie Hedegaard

Professional Board member (a.o. Danfoss, BBVA, the Villum Foundation and Chair of OECD’s Round Table for Sustainable Development), Former EU Commissioner for Climate Action and former Danish Minister for Environment and Climate&Energy.

Deividas Petrulevičius

Deividas Petrulevičius is a National Contact Point (NCP) for Horizon Europe in Lithuania, focusing on digital technologies and industry. He works at the Research Council of Lithuania, where he helps researchers and innovators access EU funding and build international partnerships. He is particularly interested in bringing together Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) and STEM fields, exploring human–technology interaction in industry, digital innovation, and beyond, and seeks interdisciplinary approaches that connect technological progress with human values and societal needs.

Eric Arnould

Eric Arnould is a professor emeritus of Marketing at the Aalto University of Business School. His areas of expertise are consumer culture, cultural marketing strategy, services marketing and marketing and development, which he has taught in, on faculty at four European universities and several in the US.

Erich Prem

Erich Prem is a research strategist, AI expert, and philosopher. He received his Dr. phil. from the University of Vienna and his Dr. tech. from TU Vienna. His research interests include AI, innovation, and ethics. He currently works on ethical and epistemological questions of AI. Erich was a researcher at the Austrian Research Institute of AI and a guest researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He coordinates the European Digital Humanism Initiative EUDHIT. He is president of the Austrian Digital Humanism Association and CEO of the strategic RTDI consultancy eutema GmbH.

Frank Siebern-Thomas

Frank Siebern-Thomas is Head of Unit of the “Fair Green and Digital Transitions, Research” unit in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, in charge of policy development and analysis related to the employment and social dimensions of the green and digital transitions (e.g. Council Recommendation on ensuring a fair transition towards climate-neutrality; European Fair Transition Observatory) and links with the European research & innovation programme Horizon Europe.


He has worked in different departments of the European Commission, including on employment and social analysis and research, economic policy coordination, competitiveness, internal market and industrial policy, social dialogue, sustainable development and international relations. Before joining the European Commission, he worked in reinsurance. He holds diploma in applied mathematics and economics from the University of Hamburg and from UCLouvain and a Ph.D. in economics from the European University Institute, Florence.

Gabi Lombardo

Gabi Lombardo (PhD LSE), is Director of the European Alliance for SSH one of the largest advocacy and science policy organizations in Europe. High-level experience in strategic and ‘foresight’ planning working in international organisations like London School of Economics, European Research Council and Science Europe. She’s an evaluator for the EU, World Bank, and COST. Gabi received the Young Academy of Europe Prize in 2018.

Jakob Stoustrup

Jakob Stoustrup is a Danish researcher employed at Aalborg University, where he serves as professor of control theory at the Department of Electronic Systems. He is responsible for coordinating the Energy Mission at Aalborg University with 500+ researchers. His main research contributions have been to advanced control theory and its applications, in particular within power and energy systems

Josée Johnston

Josée Johnston is Professor of Sociology and Graduate Chair of the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto. Her research explores the cultural politics of food, sustainability, and ethical consumption. She is co-author of Happy Meat: The Sadness and Joy of a Paradoxical Idea (Stanford University Press, 2025), which investigates how consumers and producers navigate tensions between pleasure, ethics, and sustainability in contemporary food systems.

Louise Drogoul

Louise Drogoul is Senior Advisor for Innovation and Sustainability at CESAER, the association of leading universities of science and technology in Europe. She works at the intersection of research, innovation, and higher education policy, advancing human-centric approaches to sustainability, interdisciplinarity, and responsible innovation. With master’s degrees in European and Asian Studies, she brings a global and cross-cultural perspective to shaping how universities contribute to Europe’s green and digital transitions and to embedding human values at the heart of science and technology.

Malwina Gębalska

Malwina Gębalska is coordinator of the European Partnership on Social Transformations and Resilience (STR) and Head of the STR Coordination Office at the National Science Centre, Poland. She is involved in the ERA-LEARN CSA project, where she leads tasks aimed at supporting the participation of Widening countries in European Partnerships. She holds a PhD in linguistics from Jagiellonian University.

Maria Pilar Aguar Fernandez

Ms. Pilar Aguar Fernandez, a pharmacist and food scientist with expertise in toxicology and public health, joined the European Commission in 2001. She has held senior roles in DG Health & Food Safety, DG Research & Innovation, and the Joint Research Centre, leading work on food safety, health research, and innovation, and in 2025 became Director of the Directorate People – Health and Society at DG Research & Innovation.

Mario Scharfbillig

Mario Scharfbillig uses behavioural insights to improve evidence-informed policymaking and democratic processes in the EU. He is working at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, leading the Enlightenment 2.0 research programme. The programme seeks to provide the interdisciplinary scientific underpinning to improve this evolution of the political decision-making process in an increasingly polarised, complex and uncertain present. He is also a member of several advisory groups, including for Horizon projects, ALLEA, Club of Venice, EGU and ISC. He received his PhD in economics from the University of Mainz, where he specialized in research on behavioural economics, public policy and corporate governance. For his work on advising policymakers, he was named among the "50+1 Influential Researchers Whose Work Could Help Shape 21st Century Politicians" by Apolitical.

Mona Kanwal Sheikh

Mona Kanwal Sheikh is senior researcher and head of Global Security and Worldviews at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS). She has developed Worldview Analysis as an approach to deal with competing perceptions of history, order, justice and authority in International Relations.

Per Michael Johansen

Professor Per Michael Johansen, Rector at Aalborg University, Denmark, since 2014. Professor Per Michael Johansen holds both a PhD and a DSc in physical optics and has pioneered fundamental scientific discoveries in the field of non-linear optics. Some of Prof. Johansen’s previous positions include serving as Dean and Professor at the Faculty of Engineering at University of Southern Denmark from 2007-2014; CEO at Svendborg International Maritime Academy (SIMAC) from 2005-2006; Full professor from 2000-2004 and Head of Programme of the Research programme Optical Materials from 1996-2000 as well as Senior Scientist in the Department of Optics and Fluid Dynamics – all at Risoe National Laboratories. Prof. Johansen has also served on many Boards and Committees over the past years.

Shengnan Han

Shengnan Han is a professor of Computer and Systems Sciences (specializing in information systems) at Stockholm University, Sweden. Her main research interests are technology adoption and impacts, where she encompasses a holistic approach, spanning from individual behaviors to organizational performance and societal transformations. Likewise, her research is also characterized by cross-disciplinary collaboration with researchers from healthcare, industry management, data science, law, and human geography.

Sergio Salvatore

Professor of Dynamic Psychology at the University of Salento (Lecce, Italy), he investigates the sensemaking processes underpinning psychosocial and socio-cultural dynamics. His research focuses on modelling and interpreting social fields and on designing psychologically informed interventions within interpersonal, community, organizational, and institutional contexts. Psychologist, psychotherapist, and consultant for institutions and organizations in community development and psychosocial intervention design. Author of over 330 publications President of the Italian Association of Psychology (AIP, 2024–).Co-Editor of the Springer Book Series Culture in Policy Making: The Symbolic Universes of Social Action.

Verena Fuchsberger

Verena Fuchsberger is an associate professor at the Center for Human-Computer Interaction at the University of Salzburg. In her research, Verena focuses on the agency of human and non-human actors in human-computer-interaction and interaction design, i.e., the relations and associations between individuals (users, but also non-users, designers), materials and digital-physical artefacts. In particular, she is interested in the hybrid materiality of interactions as it occurs in different domains, contexts, and situations.

Vinciane Gaillard

Vinciane is Director for Research and Innovation at EUA, leading the implementation of the Association’s Agendas for R&I, Innovation, and Open Science. These agendas take a comprehensive approach to the R&I continuum, covering basic research, applied research, and innovation. Developed by universities for universities, they are implemented with the support of the EUA R&I unit. A strong advocate for the role of university R&I in shaping the European Research Area, Vinciane works towards a well-designed and sustainable R&I system, supported by a favourable regulatory environment and sufficient and sustainable funding. Before joining EUA in 2019, Vinciane spent over 15 years as a researcher and research manager in cognitive psychology and neuroscience. She holds a PhD in Psychology from the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium.

Mihalis Kritikos

Mihalis Kritikos is the new Secretary of the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies (EGE) and Policy Analyst at the Ethics and Integrity Sector of the European Commission (DG-Research and Innovation) working on the ethical development of emerging technologies with a special emphasis on AI Ethics and Value Alignment. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Brussels School of Governance (VUB) on digital ethics and rights, digital transition, AI Governance and Values and responsible innovation and author of 2 books in the field of disruptive technologies (Ethical AI Surveillance in the Workplace, Emerald, 2023 and EU Policy-Making on GMOs: The False Promise of Proceduralism, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018) Before that, he worked at the Scientific Foresight Service of the European Parliament (STOA/EPRS) as a legal/ethics advisor on Science and Technology issues. He has also 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.