Anne White │ University College London School of Slavonic and East European Studies, United Kingdom

Anne White is Professor of Polish Studies and Social and Political Science at University College London School of Slavonic and East European Studies. She is a social anthropologist, whose research focuses on migration to and from small cities and towns in Poland. She is also interested in migration theory, particularly how migration contributes to wider processes of social change. She has published seven books and numerous scholarly articles. Her most recent research monograph, Polish Cities of Migration, was published as an open access pdf by UCL Press in 2024; her current project investigates two small towns and rural areas in southern Poland.

Talita Greyling │ University of Johannesburg, South Africa

Talita Greyling is a happiness economist and professor at the University of Johannesburg and is recognised internationally for her groundbreaking contributions to well-being economics. She leverages Big Data and Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) methodologies to develop real-time well-being measures. Her pioneering research has earned numerous national and international awards. Talita is the author of books, book chapters, and articles in high-impact journals, establishing her as Africa's leading well-being economist (Scopus). She participates in numerous international collaborations and projects.  She is the associate editor of the Journal of Happiness Studies and Applied Research in Quality of Life, the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies (ISQOLS) vice-president, and a member of the World Well-Being Panel. She has delivered keynote addresses and webinars globally, is a TEDx speaker and is known as the "voice of happiness" by South African media.

Roman Hoffmann │ International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria

Roman Hoffmann leads the Migration and Sustainable Development Research Group at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria. In his research, he studies the relationship between climate change and population dynamics and resulting implications for sustainable development. He has published widely cited studies on the impacts of climate change on human livelihoods and their role in shaping migration and immobility worldwide. He is a member of various expert groups and scientific committees, including the Population-Environment Research Network (PERN), the IUSSP Panel on Population Dynamics under Global Conflict and Climate Change, the Peace Research Community Europe, and the expert group on population projections of the German Federal Statistical Office. He is also a member of the editorial boards of the journals Climatic Change, Population and Environment, and the Climate Mobility Section of Frontiers in Climate. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Vienna, Austria, and degrees in sociology and economics from the University of Munich, Germany.

Saamah Abdallah │ Hot or Cool Institute, Germany

Saamah Abdallah is Programme Lead for Sustainable Wellbeing at the Hot or Cool Institute, a public-interest think tank based in Berlin. The mission is to challenge the status quo, help society reimagine what is possible and enable systemic change towards resilient societies that thrive within ecological limits. Saamah has worked for 19 years at the interface between sustainability and wellbeing, on the one hand exploring how the pursuit of one can lead to benefits for the other, and on the other hand developing indicators that consider both.  He is the co-creator of the Happy Planet Index, one of the best-known alternatives to GDP, and received the award for Emerging Leader in the field of Community Indicators in 2016. In recent years Saamah has focussed on ensuring citizens have a greater say in defining alternative visions of progress.

Drini Imami | Faculty of Economics and Agribusiness, Agricultural University of Tirana, Albania

Drini Imami earned the PhD in Agri-Food Economics and Policy from University of Bologna in 2011. Drini is currently a lecturer (Professor) at Faculty of Economics and Agribusiness, Agricultural University of Tirana. Over the past 20 years, Drini has worked as a consultant for more than a dozen international development organizations/agencies including WB, IFC, EBRD, FAO, GIZ, etc. He has conducted research in several leading European research institutions and has contributed to more than 100 scientific journal articles. His research focuses on behavioral, political and institutional economics.