Valentina Palermo (Ph.D. in Evaluation and Mitigation of Urban and Territorial Risks) works at the European Commission Joint Research Centre (Ispra, Italy) dealing with research on urban policies within the framework of the Global Covenant of Mayors initiative. Her research interests include sustainable urban planning, energy efficiency and energy access, climate change mitigation and adaptation. She is author of articles on scientific journals and conference proceedings, as well as scientific reports on the above-mentioned topics.

Dr. Valerio Panzica La Manna is Program Manager at imec, the Netherlands. He is leading multi-disciplinary teams of researchers and engineers advancing the research in sensor technology, wireless sensor networks, and algorithms, to enable fine-grained, precise, and cost-effective air quality monitoring in smart cities and buildings. He is managing a portfolio of projects with industry and public institutions with different deployments, in Smart City, Smart Home, and Smart Buildings, in the Netherlands and in Belgium, where the new technology can be tested, demonstrated, and applied in real life. Before joining imec, he worked at the MIT Media Lab, USA, Politecnico di Milano, Italy, and IBM R&D Labs, Israel. He holds a Ph.D. in Software Engineering and a MSc in Computer Science and Engineering from Politecnico di Milano, Italy, and a MSc in Computer Science from the University of Illinois, Chicago, USA.

Dr Parker specialises in building energy modelling and the urban environment, with ongoing research in the fields of domestic retrofit, low-energy dwellings, urban heat islands, air quality and the impact of urban green space. He manages externally funded research projects, collaborates with industrial partners and supports undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral students.

Phoenix Storm Paz is a historian and social scientist who completed undergraduate studies at Cornell University in 2012, majoring in Spanish and History with minors in Latin American Studies, Latino Studies and American Indian Studies. In 2013, she read for her Master of Science in Migration Studies at the University of Oxford, earning honors on her dissertation. Most recently, Phoenix earned a master's degree in Peace and Conflict Studies at the Universidad de Medellin, graduating in June 2021. She is currently applying for her PhD in Colombian history. At the Ecocity 2022 Conference, Phoenix is presenting on behalf of the Peace and Conflict Studies – Right to the City Research Group. The project is a collaboration between Universidad de Medellin and Universidad de San Buenaventura and uses a multidisciplinary approach combining the theoretical models of sustainability and habitability to define and measure Ecological Urbanism in informal settlements founded by people forcibly displaced by violence. Primary research was conducted La Primavera, an informal settlement founded by internally displaced people in the late 1970s, located in the Corregimiento El Hatillo of Barbosa, Antioquia in northwestern Colombia. The case study highlights the ambiguities of the development agenda in Colombia by showing how development projects designed for the economic betterment and environmental conservation of the region negatively impact the quality of life for the most vulnerable inhabitants and expose them to greater environmental, economic, and social risk. Phoenix is deeply grateful to her collaborators Dr. Paula Andrea Valencia and Diana Valencia for inviting her to participate in the project.

David Peck researches and teaches in the field of critical materials and circular design. He is a manager of the tri-partite university partnership Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Centre for Sustainability (CfS). The CfS has a focus on resources, circular and cities. He is responsible for the funding opportunities in the centre. David is the university leader for the Ellen MacArthur Foundation pioneer university programme and is the representative for all the university faculties. He has also been a senior mentor for the Schmidt-MacArthur fellowship programme. He is manager for TU Delft in the KIC EIT Raw Materials, the 7 year+ EU programme on raw materials: sustainable exploration, extraction, processing, recycling, remanufacturing and substitution with a core focus on closing loops.

Assistant Professor since 2017 at the University of Bologna, Department of Industrial Engineering, works in the field of industrial mechanical plants, with a particular focus on multi-phase flow engineering, renewable energies, waste treatment, safety and health at work.

Edmée Perritaz was born in Fribourg Switzerland and has graduated from the University of Applied Sciences Zürich (ZHAW) in Natural Resource Sciences in February 2021. With her colleague Brenda Durrer, she wrote her bachelor's thesis on the integration of biodiversity in the design of the building envelope under the supervision of Dr Chiara Catalano. The newly created concept was awarded the highest grade and several articles have already been written about it. At the fourth Ecocity conference in Rotterdam, she will now present their accomplishments.

Beatrice is a Postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute for Economy and the Environment (University of St.Gallen). The focus of her work is investments in residential solar energy and community acceptance of local renewable energy systems. Since 2021, she is part of the EU Horizon 2020 E-LAND project and she is working on creating a tool for facilitating community acceptance of local renewable energy sources and decarbonized local energy systems. Beatrice is also part of the research team developing the 2021 edition of the Consumer Barometer of Renewable Energy (www.kuba.iwoe.unisg.ch) and an Executive Education lecturer within the University of St.Gallen CAS in Renewable Energy Management. Prior to joining the Institute for Economy and the Environment, she worked for 5 years as an energy consultant and editor, specializing in energy market regulation and in the design for the European Union single energy market. From 2012 to 2017 Beatrice collaborated as Visiting Research Fellow with the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. Beatrice holds a MSc in economics from the University of Milan-Bicocca (Italy) and completed a one-year exchange at the University of Glasgow (UK).

Jennifer Rae PIERCE is Co-Founder and Head of Partnerships and Research of the Urban Biodiversity Hub (UBHub). She is a political ecologist with a planning and design background, holding graduate degrees in Environmental Science and Policy from CEU and also in Community and Regional Planning from Cornell University. She is now earning her PhD from UBC on urban biodiversity engagement. Her research focuses on how municipal governments around the world navigate their relationship with nature and people, including measurement and monitoring, justice, engagement, and framing of biodiversity conservation and sustainable lifestyles. She has recently been the technical lead on the development of the Urban Nature Index, as part of the consulting team for IUCN. Her other work includes technical expert consultancy on urban biodiversity for the Indonesia GEF-Sustainable Cities Impact Project with the World Bank Group, development of an online interface for the Urban Biodiversity Inventories framework for the USDN and research with the British Columbia Institute of Technology to calculate ecological footprints for several North American Cities.

Marjolein Pijpers-van Esch is an assistant professor of Environmental Technology and Design at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment of the Delft University of Technology and academic lead Climate Change Adaptation of the TU Delft Climate Action Program. She specialises in the role of urban design in the urban microclimate on the scale levels of the street and neighbourhood. Focus of her research and teaching are design measures for climate adaptation, the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect and heat stress as well as the influence of the urban climate on the energy use of buildings. The adoption and application of (scientific) knowledge on these topics in practice is of key importance and therefore Marjolein is closely involved in projects with societal partners and providing education for practitioners.

Prof. Dr. Rocío Pineda-Martos is an active participant of the Working Group 4 - Urban Farming of the COST Action CA17133 Circular City, and member of its extended Core Team – with interest on the framework of nature-based solutions (NBS) units and interventions related with the sectors of urban farming (food and biomass production; remediation, treatment and recovery) and the built environment (vertical greening systems and green roofs; (public) green space). She is an Assistant Professor of Agricultural Engineering and Environmental Science and part of the NatUrIB research group on Urban Greening and Biosystems Engineering at the University of Seville (US), School of Agricultural Engineering (ETSIA), Spain. Currently, she participates in the project URSUS-DM on new developments in data mining for its use in urban sustainability. Professional member of the Nature-Based Solutions Observatory in Spain, her main scientific research interests and expertise are in line with innovative urban NBS implementation to facilitate the circular economy system and to cope with major challenges in cities; together with her background in digitalization which supports the concept of introduction of new technologies and developments within a city for its sustainability assessment. Dr. Pineda-Martos has experience in training of personnel on businesses, in projects and companies supported by EU’s funding instruments – e.g., the LIFE programme. She also maintains collaborative networks with public and municipal institutions in the cities of Seville and Córdoba, Spain.

I am profoundly committed to making the energy transition become a reality through the development of my professional and academic activities. By combining expertise in engineering and social sciences, I strive to be at the forefront of socio-technical innovation and promote systemic interventions in the energy field, guided by a personal vision of strengthening democratic values, promoting the sharing economy, reducing energy poverty and injustice, protecting the natural environment, and advancing achievements in the sustainable energy realm. My PhD research on Sustainable Energy Systems at the University of Coimbra focused on revealing the less tangible sociological aspects of peer-to-peer energy sharing models. As Senior Innovation Developer at Cleanwatts Digital, I am responsible for the conceptualisation and management of multimillion R&D projects on End-User Engagement, Social Value Creation, Energy Citizenship, Renewable Energy Communities, Local Energy Markets, User-Centric Energy Services, etc. I am also the Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer of the EffiSummer startup, which aims to unlock new added value from CO2 emissions reduction measures.

Olusola Popoola specializes in coastal and marine management. His trans-disciplinary research integrates the built/marine environment and the rest of nature to address research, policy and management issues. He obtained his Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning at the Federal University of Technology Akure (2001) and University of Ibadan (2005), Nigeria respectively. His PhD degree is in Marine Studies (2012) at the University of Plymouth, United Kingdom. He has a professional certification in Environmental Management and Assessment from the University of Bath, United Kingdom in affiliation with the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment, United Kingdom (2013). He possesses several certifications in Geographic Information Systems and Remote Sensing obtained from ESRI, Redlands California, USA as well as certifications in ‘The Blue Economy’ from The James Michel Blue Economy Research Institute, University of Seychelles. He is a Senior Lecturer at the Federal University of Technology Akure Nigeria and the Associate Director at the Centre for Space Research and Applications (CESRA), Nigeria. He is a Resource Person for the African Institute for Geospatial Information Science and Technology (AFRIGIST) Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife Nigeria and at the African Regional Center for Space Science and Technology Education – English (ARCSSTE-E), Nigeria.

Graduated in Agronomic Engineering from the University of Guayaquil (UDG), Master in Climate Change from the Polytechnic College of Litoral (ESPOL), Faculty of Naval Engineering, Biological Sciences, Oceanic and Natural Resources (2017) , and PhD candidate in Meteorology at the Federal University of Santa María (UFSM), Center for Natural and Exact Sciences (CCNE) since 2018. He served as a researcher at the National Institute of Agricultural Research (2009-2011). Since October 2011 to 2018, he has been a technician and responsible for Phytosanitary surveillance-Ministry of Agriculture of Ecuador. He served as scientific advisor to the Vice Ministry of Agriculture (2017-2018). He works in the field of Agronomy, with an emphasis on Agrometeorology, with the following main lines of research: operational agrometeorology, Agro-climatology and agricultural planning, agrometeorology and plant disease, geographic information systems and statistical analysis.