Antoni Abat i Ninet is a Distinguished Researcher at the Institut d’Estudis Europeus (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) and a Talent “Banco de Santander” Fellow. He is from 03/24 – 03/27 Scientific Coordinator and P.I. of the Horizon Europe: “Express 2 Specify and Protect the EU Social Contract” grant agreement No 101132426. Prof. Abat is also a researcher at the Arial University Center for the Research and Study of Genocide.

At Demos Helsinki, Johannes Jauhiainen focuses on participation, interaction, impact, and science-society relations within the CoWup and CO3 research projects. He is passionate about public innovation, new forms of decision-making, democratic development, geopolitics, and the role of cities as pioneers of societal transformation.

Giuseppe Martinico is a Full Professor of Comparative Public Law at the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, where he also serves as co-director of the Sant’Anna Legal Studies programme (www.stals.santannapisa.it). Prior to joining the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies he was García Pelayo Fellow at the Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales (CEPC), Madrid, and Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence. He has also been affiliated with several international research centres (amongst others, the Centre for Judicial Cooperation of the European University Institute, Florence, and the Centre for Studies on Federalism, Turin-Moncalieri).

Giulia Gentile is Lecturer in Law at Essex Law School. Her research focuses on the promotion of human rights in the digital society and EU constitutional law. She is particularly interested in the use of AI in the legal profession and in justice systems. Currently, she is a co-PI for the EU Horizon 2024-2027 collaborative project EXPRESS2.

Berta Caihuelas Navajas holds a PhD in Social Sciences from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher on the European project EXPRESS2 at UC3M, where she studies political and institutional trust in the European Union. Her previous research focuses on political inequalities, particularly electoral participation and differences based on socioeconomic status and gender.

Dr. Beatriz Martinez Romera is associate professor of environmental and climate change law at the University of Copenhagen Faculty of Law. She has a keen interest in the international climate negotiations, and the regulatory processes at the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Maritime Organization, as well as the developments at the EU level. For the last 13 years Dr. Martinez Romera has been teaching and researching on the field of climate, environment and energy transition law.

Gustavo is an engaged researcher, educator, and community organizer in training from the islands of Puerto Rico. He has a transdisciplinary background in socio-environmental sciences, combining political ecology and environmental planning and public policy with decolonial studies of Latin America and the Caribbean. His work focuses on transformative eco-social initiatives and movements, bridging ideas of the commons, self-management, insurgent ecologies, environmental and climate justice, and just transitions.

Anna is a political scientist whose academic love affairs include research on political concepts, societal impacts of emerging technologies, and temporality. Her current research analyses societal transformations from the perspectives of EU digital policy, contemporary social contracts, and inclusivity. Alongside doing research, Anna is also working closely with her colleagues in developing and implementing the Demos Helsinki research agenda as well as our academic research operations. She completed her PhD in 2011 and holds Title of Docent in Political Science at the University of Jyväskylä.

Patrick Sawyer is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centro de Estudos Sociais (CES) at the University of Coimbra in Portugal where he works on the Horizon’s Europe project “COntinuous COnstruction of resilient social COntracts through societal transformations” (CO3). His research interests include the far right, populism, autocratization, and electoral politics, and has a diverse professional background in scientific research, lecturing in higher education, and NGO research and advocacy work. Prior to working at CES, he was a research analyst with the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) where he monitored and reported on far-right movements in the United States and Europe. His academic work has been published by such journals as Electoral Studies, Cross-Cultural Research, Political Studies Review, and the International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society while his reporting outside of academia has been regularly cited by major media outlets, think tanks, and international organizations. He aims to contribute to rigorous research on the dynamics surrounding the emergence of populism and the radical right, the processes of democratic backsliding, and other consequences of illiberalism.