Chris Bockman is a journalist and media coach for European companies and institutions. He is based in Toulouse from where he worked for the BBC for the past two decades. He covered many scientific and environmental subjects. His association with the CNRS began when he hosted its first ever “Nano Car race” in 2017 and he has been involved in the “Make our planet great again” project since its launch.

Karen Maex obtained a PhD in 1987 from KU Leuven. She became a professor of Materials Physics and Nanoelectronics at KU Leuven in 1998. She was the dean of the University of Amsterdam’s Faculty of Science and dean of VU University Amsterdam’s faculties of Sciences and Earth & Life Sciences from 2014 to 2016. Since June 2016, Professor Maex is the Rector Magnificus University of Amsterdam. Since May 2021, she also holds the Presidency of the League of European Research Universities (LERU).

Antoine Petit is the president and CEO of CNRS since 2018. In 2002, he was appointed as deputy director of the French ministry of research directorate, in charge of mathematics, information and communication science. In 2004, he joined CNRS as director of the Information and Communication Sciences and Technologies Department and then as Regional Director for South West of France. In 2006, he was recruited by INRIA where he served as: center of Paris research director, deputy CEO in 2010 and then president and CEO in 2014.

Maria Cristina Russo is Director for Global Approach & International Cooperation in R&I in DG Research and Innovation since 2013.
Prior to that she was Head of Unit in the Secretariat-General of the European Commission holding different positions dealing with inter-institutional relations and policy making, and in the department in charge of consumers’ policies and financial services. She holds a degree in Political Sciences from the Luiss University of Rome and a Research Master Degree in European Studies from the College of Europe in Bruges.

Martin Stratmann completed his doctoral studies at the Max-Planck-Institut für Eisenforschung in Düsseldorf in 1982. In 2000, he became Director of the Department of Interface Chemistry and Surface Engineering at MPI. From 2006 to 2008, he took over the Chair of the Chemistry, Physics and Technology Section of the Max Planck Society, becoming Vice President in 2008. Since 2014, he assumes the office of President of the Max Planck Society.

Athina Karvounaraki is a statistician with studies in Greece and the UK. She has been working for the European Commission for more than 20 years in various positions, always related to statistics, indicators and data analysis. Since 2019, she has been Team Leader in Statistics and Indicators at the Chief Economist Unit of DG Research and Innovation. The Unit, “Common Research and Innovation Strategy and Foresight Service”, supports the production of evidence for the contribution of research and innovation to the Commission’s policies.

Stéphane Blanc is the director of the CNRS’ Ecology and Environment Institute. Through approaches of comparative physiology in extreme environments and health ecology, his research focuses on the impact of environmental factors on human metabolic health. Elected member of the International Academy of Astronautics, he participated in setting up the Future Earth program and co-pilots the Franco-German Committee for the animation of the priority research program “Make Our Planet Great Again” on global change.

Prof. Andreas Goldthau is the research group leader on “The Energy Transition and the Global South” at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies and Professor at the Willy Brandt School of Public Policy, University of Erfurt. Prior to that he served as Professor in International Relations at Royal Holloway College, University of London and as Professor of Public Policy at Central European University, as Marie Curie Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School and had postdoctoral appointments at Johns Hopkins University SAIS and the RAND Corporation.

Ursula Hardenbicker graduated from the University of Saarbrücken in linguistics (French and Spanish). She has been working with the DAAD since 2003, as Senior Programme Manager and Head of section in the field of coordination and development of university partnership programmes and transnational education projects. Her responsibilities include acquisition and implementation of international projects in the Higher Education Area. Since 2020, she has been responsible for the MOPGA programme.

Camille Parmesan is Director of Research at the CNRS Station for Experimental and Theoretical Ecology in Moulis, France. Her research focuses on impacts of climate change on nature, ranging from studies of individual species to global impacts across terrestrial and marine biomes. She has multiple awards, including for the most highly cited research paper in Climate Change.  She is currently a Coordinating Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC/GIEC), with which she has worked for more than 20 years.

Can Onur Avci is a principal investigator at the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC) since February 2021. He received his Ph.D. degree from ETH Zürich in 2015 with an ETH medal for the outstanding doctoral thesis. He has worked at MIT (2016-2018) and ETH Zürich (2018-2021) as a postdoc before joining ICMAB. He is the recipient of an ERC Starting Grant (with the project MAGNEPIC) and the 2021 IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in the field of Magnetism.

Angeles Gómez Borrego is the vice-president for international affairs at Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and Vice-president of Science Europe. Previously she was CSIC representative in Asturias and senior researcher at the Institute for Carbon Science and Technology (INCAR-CSIC) in Oviedo. PhD in Geology, she enjoyed a Marie Curie grant in RWTH Aachen in Germany. Her research has focused on the study of solid fossil fuels utilization within a scenario of green-house gas abatement and peatlands as record for climate change.

Andrey Varlamov is a principal investigator at the Institute of Superconductors, Oxides and Other Innovative Materials and Devices in Rome, Italy

He obtained a PhD in condensed matter physics at the Moscow Institute for Steel and Alloys in 1980. Since 1999 he has been the principal investigator of the Institute of Superconductivity, Innovative Materials, and Devices (CNR-SPIN).  His fields of interests are superconductivity, theory of metals, theory of phase transitions, thermoelectricity, and nanophysics.  His book “Le kaleidoscope de la Physique” was awarded Prix Grand Public Roberval (France, 2015).

Prof Dr. Reinhilde Veugelers is a full professor at KU Leuven (BE), a senior fellow at Bruegel and PIIE. She served on the ERC Scientific Council from 2012-2018. She has authored numerous well cited publications in the area of the economics of science and innovation. Specific recent topics include innovation for climate change, evaluation of research & innovation policy, researchers’ international mobility.

Since April 2019, Apostolia Karamali is Head of Unit “Actors & research careers” in DG Research and Innovation. She was Deputy Head of Unit for space policy and research in the space and defence directorate of DG GROW where she oversees, in particular the programming and implementation of Horizon 2020 space research, access to space, access to risk finance and the development of an innovation policy for space.