Cristina is an independent research consultant who specialises in public policies for adolescent and youth development, youth participation, and the human rights of young people. With more than 15 years of experience in research, policy, and advocacy, she has worked with organisations such as UNICEF, UNICEF Innocenti, UNDP, the Council of Europe, the European Commission and Youth Policy Labs, where she was the research co-ordinator. She was the project lead for Youth Policy Fact Sheets, profiling 193 countries and the current state of youth policies, and the project and research lead for "Age Matters!", a multi-year, multi-country study on minimum age legislation. "Age Matters!" was selected as one of the top 10 projects for the Best of UNICEF Research Award 2019. She is also a member of the Pool of European Youth Researchers Advisory Group. Originally from Canada, Cristina is based in Berlin, Germany.

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Ewa Krzaklewska is a sociologist and works as an assistant professor at the Institute of Sociology of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. She has been involved in diverse research and policy projects on youth, youth work and youth policy, youth mobility, migration and gender equality. She is involved in policy making at both local and European levels, in particular in relation to youth policy and gender equality. She cooperates as an expert with different international institutions - with the European Commission and the Council of Europe, as well as at the local level, i.e. supporting youth policy development in the city of Krakow. She was an expert in diverse groups e.g. High Level Expert Forum on Mobility, European Commission (2008), Youth Work Quality Systems Expert Group, European Commission (2014-2015) or Ad hoc High-level Task Force on Youth Work, Council of Europe (2018-2019). In 2022, she supported the  development of the Youth Strategy of Ukraine. She is a member of the Pool of the European Youth Reseachers since 2011 and member of the Advisory Group since 2020. She is always happy to be engaged in diverse youth projects and critical discussion on youth policy and generational change.

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Maria-Carmen is a professor of sociology at Babeş-Bolyai University in Romania, where she has coordinated three research projects on young people and work. She was a member of the European Commission Expert Group on Quality Investment in Education and Training and one of the two researchers contracted to support the EU Youth Dialogue as part of the German and Portuguese EU Council Presidency (2020-2021). She regularly serves as an evaluator for several EU programmes (Horizon 2020, Marie Curie, Erasmus+, European Solidarity Corps, EIT HEI Initiative, European Science Foundation, COST, the New European Bauhaus Prizes etc.). She specialises in complex qualitative research design and analysis. Author of ‘Precarity and Vocational Education and Training: Craftsmanship and Employability in Romania', Palgrave (2019). MA with Merit in gender studies (Central European University, 2002); MSc in evidence-based docial interventions (Oxford University, 2007).

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Sladjana is a senior European and UN Youth and Development expert with 15+ years of professional experience in managing and conducting research; country-specific/comparative policy analyses, and Europe-wide studies to inform knowledge and rights-based approaches to adolescent/youth policy and youth work development in Europe and Central Asia. She passionately advocates for innovative and human-centered approaches to preserve children’s rights, reform policies and develop services to empower adolescents and youth in cooperation with European institutions, governments, UNICEF (ECARO), UNDP, ILO, and social partners.

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Dunja is the head of the Centre for Youth and Gender Studies at the Institute for Social Research in Zagreb. She holds a PhD in sociology and is specialised in youth research in the areas of social inclusion, youth well-being, digitalisation, migration and gender. Dunja is in the Pool of the European Youth Researchers (PEYR) Advisory Group since 2020, and she was a PEYR member in 2010-2020. She is a member of the Expert group on the economic and societal impact of research and innovation at the European Commission, and a member of the Horizon Europe Programme Committee (Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society). Dunja is also the head of the committee for evaluation of programmes and projects in the field of prevention of unacceptable behaviour of children and youth at the Zagreb City Council.

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Started as a youth worker (on behavioural problems and mental handicap), a decade as youth officer of the city Mechelen (Belgium), ten years as director of VVJ (Flemish forum local youth officers/local authorities), four years as advisor of the King Baudouin Foundation, five years as director of the cabinet of the Flemish minister of culture and youth and five years as advisor of the Flemish Government. A professor (>20y) for social and cultural workers, 10 years as professor on youth (work) policy at the Free University of Brussels. Conducted a lot of surveys on youth, culture, sports and governmental policies. Studied youth care work (ortho-pedagogy), master in leisure sciences and a PhD in social sciences (Radboud/Nl) on local (youth) officers. Involved in a lot of international projects, since 2021 member of the PEYR Advisory Group. Works as a specialised consultant on the crossroad of governments and youth, culture and sports, board member of several civil society organisations.

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Howard has combined a career in youth research together with long-term engagement in youth work and youth policy at national, European and global levels.  His doctoral research in the 1970s was on young offenders, who he went on to study throughout their lives (The Milltown Boys trilogy).  He went on to research a spectrum of issues confronting or experienced by young people, including schooling, vocational training and unemployment, enterprise and entrepreneurship, youth work, special needs, labour market recruitment strategies, criminal justice, homelessness and substance misuse.  His most influential research, arguably, was his 1994 study of ‘status zer0’ youth, later depicted as young people who are ‘NEET’.  He has authored, co-authored, edited or co-edited over 50 books and around 800 articles.  Between 1997 and 2016 he co-ordinated the Council of Europe international reviews of national youth policy.  He co-edited the seven volumes on the History of Youth Work in Europe. 

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