Phoebe Koundouri is Professor in Economics and Director of ReSEES Laboratory at the School of Economics of the Athens University of Economics and Business, part-time Research Professor at the Department of Technology, Management and Economics at the Technical University of Denmark – DTU, and Director of the Sustainable Development Unit (SDU) at ATHENA Information Technology Research Centre. She holds a M Phil and a PhD in Economics from the University of Cambridge, and has held academic positions at the University of Cambridge, University College London, University of Reading, and London School of Economics. She is recognized as a pioneer in innovative, human-centric, interdisciplinary systems for the sustainable interaction between nature, society, and the economy. She has published 15 books and more than 600 scientific papers, co-edited a number of prestigious academic journals, organized numerous international scientific conferences, supervised more than 30 PhD students, and gave keynote speeches and public lectures across the world. In 2019, she was elected President of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE) and she is now chairing the World Council of Environmental and Natural Resource Economists Associations (WCERE). She is the director of the Alliance of Excellence for Research and Innovation on Aeiphoria (AE4RIA), linking the research and innovation work of 5 research centers, 5 innovations accelerators and numerous science-policy networks, with more than 200 researchers and 100 large interdisciplinary competitively funded projects involved (with applications in more than 120 countries). She is chair of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) Global Climate Hub and co-chair of SDSN Europe, with 2000 universities involved. Likewise, she is elected member of Academia European (European Academy of Science), the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, the World Academy of Art and Science, and member of the InterAcademy Partnership Board. Furthermore, she is commissioner for the Lancet Commission on COVID-19 Recovery and invited member of the Program on Fraternal Economy of Integral and Sustainable Development of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. In 2022, she received the prestigious European Research Council Synergy Grant and in 2023, she was awarded the Academy of Athens Excellence in Science Award, awarded every four years. She is member of the Nominating Committee for the Prize in Economics Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, the Royal Swedish Academy of Science.

Marie-Thérèse Laguerre-Ndiaye is the Partnerships and Projects Director at the Veolia Foundation, where she leads strategic collaborations that drive social and environmental impact. She brings nearly 20 years of experience as an institutional and marketing director across several Veolia Group subsidiaries.
She is currently pursuing a PhD in Management Sciences, exploring the link between corporate purpose and employee engagement.
Veolia is a global leader in optimized resource management, delivering innovative water, waste, and energy solutions that foster sustainable development for communities and
industries worldwide.

Since 2011, Durk is the Executive Director of Water Europe, a multi-stakeholder association with over 250 members, representing the entire range of actors in the innovative water ecosystem.
Durk brings a 20-year of experience in the European water sector. From 2004 to 2011, he worked as a Deputy Secretary General at EUREAU. Prior to that, he was a Senior Legal Policy Officer for the water department of the provincial government of Friesland, Netherlands.
Durk Krol holds a master’s degree in International Law and a master’s degree Languages and Cultures of Latin America from the University of Leiden (NL), and an MBA from United Business Institutes in Brussels. Additionally, he followed an Executive Development Programme at Vlerick Business School (B), an Executive Master International Association Management at Solvay Brussels School (B), and the Programme on Negotiation Global Online from Harvard Law School.
Durk Krol was born in Rio de Janeiro (Br) and raised in the province of Friesland in the Netherlands. Since 2004, he has been living with his family in Brussels. He is married and a father of three teenage daughters.

Jaqui Goldin is an anthropologist with a strong academic and extensive empirical background. She is dedicated to participatory research with a keen interest in advancing socio-ecological learning through art-based methods. She works extensively on human development and well-being and the inter-connections between humans and their environment. Her passion for citizen science is about narrowing the divide between science and society with the aim of achieving a more just society and for this she places a strong emphasis on the human right to know and on the emancipatory potential of science to transform society. Jaqui Goldin is an Associate Professor Extra-Ordinary in the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the University of the Western Cape a position that is held under the UNESCO Chair for Groundwater and Society, a Visiting Professor at Utrecht University International Development Studies and the Director of Ecolink, Environmental Education and Training Centre.
Ecolink is one of the oldest surviving NGO’s, founded in 1976 by the pioneer conservatist Dr Sue Hart. Ecolink’s mission is to respond to the needs of individuals, households and communities with integrity and efficiency and to foster respect, pride, dignity, self-esteem and responsibility for the natural and social environment

Diamonds on the Soles of our Feet (DSF) is Ecolink’s flagship project. It was founded in the Limpopo in 2019 and has now gone global with strong roots in the Narok County, Kenya. Prompted by the need to implement small-scale, context-sensitive, non-dominant, learning, we are determined to resist the universalising tendencies of mainstream science, and to open space for humility, wonder, and slow scholarship. Community participation replaces the heroic individual scientist or heroic institution (university, research body), often arising from environmental fragility and the need to address real-life threats and opportunities on the ground. Through a comprehensive water literacy programme DSF engages with science through their Learning with Heart (LWH) model. Learning happens when there is joy, curiosity, creativity. LWH is about developing a passion for science that is meaningful to communities in their very particular local contexts.

Founder/President, Pan African Vision for the Environment (PAVE), Nigeria. A human development and public policy specialist with B.Sc in Applied Chemistry (University of Uyo, Nigeria), and Post Graduate Studies Diploma in Water Management, with Specialisation in Water Services Management (UNESCO-IHE, Netherlands), with over 20 years sector experience in human ecology and sustainable development issues, spanning NGO management, government, civil society, private sector and International development agencies relations. Other areas of expertise include fund raising, policy analysis, participatory research, advocacy, capacity building, project development and implementation, monitoring and evaluation, consultancy / public sector advisory, grassroots mobilisation, coalition building and stakeholder engagement.
The Pan African Vision for the Environment (PAVE) is a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) accredited Lagos based, non- profit, non-political, non-governmental organisation established with the aim of promoting sustainable development through research, documentation, policy dialogues, workshops, advocacy and consultancy services.
PAVE deals with development issues in their environmental and socio-economic aspects with emphasis on the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets regarding water and sanitation and other related human settlement issues including Agricultural Value Chain promotion, Gender, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), Climate change and Clean Energy promotion, Waste Management including E-Waste, Chemical Management, Blue Economy, Ocean Citizen Awareness and Literacy and Stakeholder Engagement. PAVE is registered (IT/NO: 26029) with the Corporate Affairs Commission in Nigeria.