Maria Del Carmen De Vivero De
Maria Del Carmen De Vivero De Porras University of Málaga Associate Professor Maria Del Carmen De Vivero De is an Associate Professor of Commercial Law at the University of Málaga. She holds a Law degree from the same institution and a PhD from the Spanish National University of Distance Education (UNED), where she was awarded the Extraordinary Doctoral Prize. She currently serves as a Non-Governmental Advisor (NGA) to the International Competition Network (ICN) and is a Visiting Professor at University College Dublin (UCD). Her professional career began within the judiciary, where she served as a Substitute Public Prosecutor and later as a Substitute Judge in Málaga and Palma de Mallorca, as well as a Substitute Magistrate at the High Court of Justice of Andalusia. She subsequently joined the legal department of listed banking institution, where she held Senior In-House position of responsibility. In this capacity, she was actively involved in complex merger and restructuring processes within the banking sector, participating in corporate integration committees in transactions between regulated credit institutions, and she was appointed Trustee of a professional sports foundation linked to the financial sector. She was a Sutherland Fellow at University College Dublin, where she completed a research stay. Her academic research focuses on corporate restructuring and insolvency law, financial markets regulation, competition law and corporate governance. In recent years, she has developed a well-established line of research on sustainability regulation and the legal framework of the circular economy within the European Union, with particular attention to ESG requirements, sustainable corporate governance and the interaction between financial regulation and sustainability policies. She is the author of four monographs, fourteen peer-reviewed journal articles, twenty-seven book chapters and one book review, and has co-edited two collective volumes on securities markets and start-ups. She has participated in international, national and regional competitive research projects, as well as teaching innovation initiatives, and has collaborated in knowledge-transfer projects with private entities. Since 2008, she has taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses at several Spanish universities. Since 2024, she has served as Academic Coordinator of the Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and Market Research at the University of Málaga.(http://linkedin.com/in/carmendevivero)
Maria Bouloukaki
Maria Bouloukaki Zelus Manager Of EU projects Maria Bouloukaki holds a Bachelor’s in Environmental Engineering from the University of Patras and a Master’s in Sustainable Environmental Change Management and Circular Economy from the University of Thessaly. Her academic and professional work includes resource and waste management, zero-waste building design, and water–energy–food system studies. At Zelus, she manages EU projects that promote sustainability and circular economy through digital tools.(https://www.linkedin.com/in/maria-bouloukaki/)
Magda Foti
Magda Foti UBITECH Head of EDG Magda Foti is Head of EDG – Energy Digitalisation Research Group at UBITECH, with broad expertise in key research areas like the digitization of energy systems, focusing on decentralized energy markets, renewable energy integration and demand response through machine learning and game theory. She received her M.Sc. in Computer Science and Technology, Communication and Networks in 2012 and her Ph.D. degree in Energy Digitalisation in 2015. She has over 15 years of experience in integrating power systems with advanced digital technologies including AI (Generative AI / LLM), blockchains, optimization tools, contributing significantly to the field through publications and conference presentations. She has further deepened her expertise in smart grids, grid optimization, and the energy transition through her professional journey in academia and the private ICT sector. Furthermore, she has been heavily involved in EU-funded research and innovation projects supported by the European Commission, engaging in multidisciplinary collaborations across a broad spectrum of energy digitalization technologies.(https://www.linkedin.com/in/magda-foti/)
Mara Marzella
Mara Marzella Deep Blue Srl Senior Consultant Mara Marzella (F) holds a Master’s degree in Social planning for sustainability, social innovation and gender equality. Mara joined Deep Blue in 2021 and is now Senior Consultant and Project Manager, working in several project as researcher in the Secure Societies and Energy and Environment domains. She has experience in social studies (applying qualitative and quantitative methods), design of gender and social inclusion strategies, design of stakeholders engagement strategies with innovative methods, social media listening and analysis, training design and delivery, and communication and dissemination, especially for awareness-raising. At DBL, she co-developed a Socio-Economic Impact Assessment Framework to be applied in research projects. Furthermore, she is co-coordinator of the Gender Equality Committee in DBL and responsible for the Gender Equality Plan implementation.. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mara-marzella-686756191/)
Kristijan Brglez
Monteiro Giovana Gomes University of Maribor Researcher Kristijan Brglez is a young researcher and assistant at the University of Maribor, working under the guidance of Prof. dr. Rebeka Kovačič Lukman. He is actively involved in research focused on the circular economy, specifically the circular cities and communities and their interactions within the wider urban and rural areas. Within this spectrum, his main research aims are to conduct analysis and modelling of flows within communities and cities, and subsequently to analyse their impacts. He has expertise in performing such analyses by modelling both within the OpenLca and Sphera (previously GaBi) programs, with current research aimed at understanding food, plastic and metal supply chains and slowly expanding towards a more integrated Water-Energy-Food-Plastic nexus. A secondary research aim is also to understand the underlying factors influencing the development of CE, as well as the generation of environmental and social impacts, through the prism of the system approach and system dynamics. In line with this, his current research focuses on developing frameworks and indicator sets that enable measurement, analysis, and potential solution development, incorporating all three sustainable dimensions (economics, environment, and social) and aligned with the 9R strategies, supported by the inclusion of LCA and S-LCA.(www.linkedin.com/in/kristijan-brglez-04a089294)
Kostas Kalaboukas
Kostas Kalaboukas Gruppo Maggioli-Greek Branch Head Of Department Dr. Kostas Kalaboukas is head of Innovation Management and New Solutions Development at Gruppo Maggioli-Greek Branch. He is expert in digital supply chains and smart cities where he worked for more than 20 years on many research projects. He has wide experience in business analysis, new solutions development, and management of complex software projects and worked in the part for large ICT companies in Greece (SingularLogic, Intrasoft International). He holds a diploma in Production Engineering and Management at the Technical University of Crete, MSc in Total Quality Management at the University of Piraeus and PhD in Production Engineering and Management (Supply Chain Digital Twins)(https://www.linkedin.com/in/kostas-kalaboukas-4044b7a/?originalSubdomain=gr)
Konstantinos Kotis
Konstantinos Kotis University of the Aegean Associate Professor Dr. Konstantinos Kotis is a Tenure Track Associate Professor at the Department of Cultural Technology and Communication of the University of the Aegean. He is a member of the Intelligent Systems Laboratory and leads the Semantic Web and IoT Research Group. He also serves as a Research Associate at the Department of Digital Systems of the University of Piraeus. He holds a BSc in Computation from the University of Manchester (UMIST), UK, and a PhD in Information Management from the University of the Aegean, specializing in knowledge representation and management. His research interests focus on knowledge engineering, semantic data management, Semantic Web technologies, Semantic IoT, and knowledge graph–based conversational and generative AI, including LLM-enabled systems. Dr. Kotis has published more than 150 peer-reviewed papers in leading international journals and conferences, achieving a Google Scholar h-index of 25 with over 3,000 citations. He has served as reviewer and program committee member in numerous high-impact journals and conferences in artificial intelligence, semantic technologies, and data management. He has participated in several national and European research projects, including FP7 and Horizon 2020 initiatives, as well as recent Erasmus and Justice Programme projects. He is an ERCIM “Alain Bensoussan” Marie Curie Fellow and recipient of international best paper awards. His work bridges semantic technologies, AI, and cultural and industrial applications. (http://gr.linkedin.com/in/kotis)
Kevin Nagorny
Kevin Nagorny Institute For Applied Systems Technology Researcher Kevin Nagorny, Ph.D., is a researcher at the Institute for Applied Systems Technology in Bremen, Germany. He holds a B.Eng. in Electrical and Automation Technology (2009) and an M.Eng. in Industrial Informatics (2011), with a focus on technical computer science, flexible automation, and smart manufacturing systems. He earned his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from NOVA University Lisbon (2022), where his research addressed RAMI 4.0-compliant data pipelining to support data acquisition and data understanding in Industrie 4.0 environments. Since 2013, he has contributed as a researcher to more than 11 national and European research and innovation projects in the fields of smart manufacturing, service-oriented architectures, and data-driven industrial systems. His work spans the design and implementation of Industrie 4.0-compliant platforms, integration of heterogeneous data sources, and methods for analysing industrial (big) data to improve transparency and decision-making in manufacturing. He has authored more than 20 peer-reviewed publications in journals and IEEE conferences and previously taught on the digitalisation of industrial cyber-physical systems at the University of Applied Sciences Emden-Leer.(https://de.linkedin.com/in/kevin-nagorny-a9223a74)
J. Jesus Fernandez-Lozano
J. Jesus Fernandez-Lozano University of Málaga Associate Professor J. Jesus Fernandez-Lozano is Associate Professor of SystemsEngineering and Automation at the University of Málaga. He hasover 25 years of experience in robotics and mechatronicsresearch. His research focuses on mechatronic design, wirelesssensor networks, and the integration of robotics with 5G and next-generation communications. He has led major projects in roboticsfor emergency response with partners such as the MilitaryEmergency Unit or Vodafone. Author of over 25 journal papersand 11 patents (7 transferred to industry), he has also organizedflagship events like the European Robotics Forum 2020, andcontributes to European initiatives such as ADRA and One6G onrobotics and future communication systems.(www.linkedin.com/in/jesus-fernandez-lozano)
Janusz Krupanek
Janusz Krupanek Institute For Ecology OfIndustrial Areas Researcher Janusz Krupanek is a senior researcher at Institute for Ecology ofIndustrial Areas with expertise in environmental management. Hehas 30 years of experience in environmental management andpolicy. He conducts scientific research and is involved in providingservices to businesses and public institutions. His experiencecovers environmental policy and its instruments, sustainability,circular economy, environmental impact assessment. He hasparticipated in numerous international projects co-financed by theEuropean Union including research (RT&D Programs) andapplication projects (INTERREG, LIFE), collaborative initiatives(COST) and consulting for business and public administration.(https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Janusz-Krupanek)
