Dr Sanna Aaltonen is a Senior Researcher at the Finnish Youth Research Society and an Adjunct Professor of Sociology at the University of Helsinki. She is a sociologist by discipline and her expertise covers youth transitions, inter-generational relations, young people and marginality, gender and social class analysis and qualitative methodologies. She has published in Young, Journal of Youth Studies, Sociology and Sociological Research Online among other journals and a report The relationship between youth and the welfare services (http://www.nordicwelfare.org/PageFiles/33168/relationship-webb.pdf) based on a project led by her was published in 2016 by the Nordic Welfare Centre. Her current research focuses on promotion of wellbeing among young adults not in education or employment and she works as a work package leader in a consortium project entitled Inclusive Promotion of Health and Wellbeing (PROMEQ) funded by the Strategic Research Council (SRC) of the Academy of Finland. She is the vice coordinator of the Youth and Generation Research Network of the European Sociological Association.

sanna.aaltonen@youthresearch.fi

Cristina Bacalso is the Research Coordinator for Youth Policy Labs, the leading global think-tank specifically focusing on youth hosted by the Berlin-based NGO Demokratie & Dialog e.V. Her role involves research and analysis work on survey development, key informant interviews, focus groups with children and young people, providing strategic and policy advice, and drafting reports on children and adolescence for technical assistance projects to international NGOs, UN agencies, and national governments. She is the project lead for Youth Policy Fact Sheets, profiling 193 countries and the current state of youth policies, youth rights, public institutions, civil society engagement, demographics, economic and legal contexts, using a combination of original primary research and secondary worldwide datasets. Cristina is a co-author of the Commonwealth's 2016 Youth Development Index, and is a member of the UNICEF expert group on adolescent participation.

Cristina has a wide background in policy, with nearly twelve years of experience in research and analysis in governmental and non-governmental sectors internationally, including with the governments of Canada, United States, and a UN-backed international tribunal, and has worked with youth in various civil society organisations, primarily as a youth leader and volunteer. Cristina has a BA Political Science, MA Development Studies and MA Public Policy, and has studied in Canada, and the Netherlands and Hungary, as an European Commission Erasmus Mundus Fellow.

cristina@youthpolicy.org

Ondrej Barta is a freelance youth researcher whose assignments on both national and international level span from volunteering, through youth projects within the EU programmes, to youth participation. He also conducts evaluation on both national and international levels, focusing mostly on the macro level (youth policy), and on the micro level (single project evaluation). He has been long engaged within the RAY Research Network, and appears regularly on various research conferences where he tackles youth-related research findings.

ondra.barta@gmail.com

David Cairns is a post-doctoral researcher based at the Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology, ISCTE-University Institute of Lisbon, Portugal. His main research interests are in the fields of youth, mobility and participation, including current projects exploring social inclusion in the Erasmus+ programme, highly qualified intra-European circulation and the impact of Brexit on European society. The author of over 100 publications, his most recent work is a book entitled, The Consequences of Mobility (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), co-authored with Valentina Cuzzocrea, Dan Briggs and Luísa Veloso.

Dr Nuala Connolly is an experienced academic, lecturer and researcher in the fields of child, youth and family research. Nuala obtained her PhD in 2011 from UCD Ireland, focusing on the sociology of the Internet and technology. Nuala is currently employed as a Senior Researcher with the Learning and Development Service of Barnardos, Ireland’s leading children’s charity. Nuala is responsible for internal service evaluation and the coordination of external research nationally. Nuala has also been employed as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre, National University of Ireland, Galway; and as a Lecturer in Social Research Methods and Researcher in the Centre for Youth Research and Development, Maynooth University.

Nuala has a wide range of experience in multi-method and multi-themed child, youth and family research, including longitudinal evaluation and field-based action research, informing policy and practice in the field of youth. This experience includes qualitative, quantitative and quasi-experimental methodologies, in addition to policy analysis, report-writing and peer-reviewed publication. Nuala has co-edited a book as part of the Youth Knowledge series of the Youth Partnership. Nuala was a member of the editing team preparing the Declaration of the 2nd European Youth Work Convention, and the drafting group preparing a Recommendation for the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on youth work.

nuala.connolly@barnardos.ie

Aliona Cristei -  researcher at the Institute of Public Policy from the Republic of Moldova, lecturer at the State University of Moldova, social analyst with strong experience in social and public policy analysis, evaluation and development of research methodologies in education, youth, social protection, public administration etc.

Aliona holds MSc in Sociology, at this moment she is PhD student at the State University of Moldova.  Areas of research interest and expertise: Civic and youth participation, Democratic governance; Social inclusion; Student mobility; Migration; Education policy evaluation and the Quality of higher education; Gender; Youth Cooperation.

aliona_cristei@ipp.md

Assoc. Prof. Tomaž Deželan, PhD (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia)

Associate Professor of Political Science, Vice-Dean for Quality Assurance and Development and Jean Monnet Chair at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana. His research interests include citizenship, youth, political participation and representation, parliamentary cohesion, gender and political communication. He coordinates several EU and national research projects on youth, citizenship education and political participation, is a research partner of the Slovenian Erasmus + Youth in Action National Agency, and regularly performs evaluations of youth and citizenship policies, programmes and projects at national and international levels. He also acts as policy advisor for youth political participation of the Organization for the Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), European Youth Forum (EYF) and the International IDEA. He actively acts as higher education accreditation consultant. His bibliography includes more than 40 peer reviewed articles in international journals, more than 30 chapters in edited volumes and authored or co-authored more than 10 scientific monographs.

tomaz.dezelan@fdv.uni-lj.si; @tomazdezelan; tomazdezelan

Irina Drexler, PhD, has a BA in English Language and Literature and Japanese Language and Literature, an MA in British Cultural Studies and a PhD in linguistics, with a focus on pragmatics, rhetoric and (critical) discourse analysis, in 2013 having been awarded an academic scholarship as visiting PhD candidate at the University of Vienna.

During her studies she was actively involved in educational projects for youth, quality assurance and policy writing activities at local and national level in the academic and NGO environment. Through her work within the Faculty Council, University Senate, University Administrative Bureau, University Senate Bureau and other decisional fora she gained more than 8 years’ experience in academic management and in drafting concise recommendations, regulations amendments and policy papers.

Observing the trend of resorting to digital tools for humanities research, she is one of the founding members (http://digihubb.centre.ubbcluj.ro/team/drexler.php) of the first digital humanities research centre in Romania (Transylvania Digital Humanities Research Centre – DigiHUBB), within Babeş-Bolyai University. She has also been involved in the coordination of a linguistics book, helped the editorial team of two academic journals and has been working as a sworn translator.

Keen on combining her academic background with her research work and civic engagements, she has been involved in national and international project-based activities organized in the framework of the No Hate Speech Movement (http://www.coe.int/en/web/no-hate-campaign) initiated by the Council of Europe. She is currently the national campaign coordinator of the No Hate Speech Movement in Romania.

Having in view the role of youth in preventing and combating violent extremism and radicalisation, and the importance of (critical) discourse analysis and rhetoric, she became interested in tackling hate speech through counter and alternative narratives. Working on and with social media platforms, she also became interested in Internet Governance. Thus, in 2016 she was asked to join the organizing team of workshop 1 on media and content for the EuroDIG event in Brussels, hosted by EURid in cooperation with the European Commission and the Council of Europe, while in 2017, together with the European coordinator of the No Hate Speech Movement, she is co-managing the process of organizing Plenary 2 on Internet in the post-truth era, for the same event, held in Tallinn.

irina.drexler@patrir.ro  @IrinaDrexler

Dr. Tahir Faradov: "I hold MA in Psychology from the Faculty of Psychology of Moscow State University (1979) and PhD in Sociology and Social Psychology from the Institute of Philosophy and Law of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (1987).

Since 1980 I have been working as sociologist at various research institutions. Now I work as Director and Senior Research Fellow at the International Center for Social and Marketing Research (ICSMR) in Baku, Azerbaijan.

I was research consultant and coordinator in a large number of sociological research projects, commissioned by many national (Ministry of Education of Azerbaijan Republic, Azerbaijan State Committee for Family, Women and Children’s Affairs, The Center for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Khazar University, Baku Family Planning Center, etc.) and international (UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA, UNESCO, United Nation Volunteers (UNV), Asian Development Bank (ADB), The World Bank Group, etc.) organisations.

In 2004 I was Country Evaluator for Evaluation Mission for the “European Commission/Council of Europe Joint Programme to promote and strengthen democratic stability and prevent conflict in the South Caucasus” regarding its implementation in Azerbaijan.

I participated as Principal Investigator in several international research projects with a comparative perspective (“World Values Survey (WVS) in Azerbaijan”, “European Values Study (EVS) in Azerbaijan”). Currently I am Coordinator and Researcher for Azerbaijan within the project “Opportunities and Barriers at the Transition from Education to Work. A Comparative Youth Study in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Tajikistan”, coordinated by the Department of Sociology, University of Bamberg, Germany (2015-2018).

I took part in a considerable number of sociological surveys on youth issues, including such topics, as “Civic and Political Participation among Young Women in the Rural Areas of Azerbaijan”,  “Interethnic Tolerance among Young People in Azerbaijan”, “Civic Identity and Citizenship of Youth in Contemporary Azerbaijan”, “Political Culture and Moral Orientations of Contemporary Azerbaijani Youth”, “Youth Attitudes Towards the Quality of Education in Universities of Azerbaijan”, “Perception of HIV/AIDS Issues among Young Women in the Rural Areas of Azerbaijan”.

I have co-ordinated two EU-funded projects (“Leadership School for Young Women in the Rural Areas of Azerbaijan”, European Commission, European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR), Country-based support scheme in Azerbaijan, 2009-2010; “HIV/AIDS Prevention Among Young Women in the Rural Areas of Azerbaijan: Socio-Cultural Approach to Education, Awareness Raising and Empowerment”, European Commission, Development Cooperation Instrument (DCI): Investing in People - Good health for all, 2012-2014) and one CE-funded project (“School of Tolerance: Education of Youth for Interethnic Respect, Confidence and Mutual Understanding”, Confidence-Building Measures (CBM) Programme, Council of Europe/Conseil de l'Europe, 2005-2006).

I am a Member of the Board of the Azerbaijan Sociologists’ Association.

TFaradov@gmail.com

Since 2013 Marina is the head of Youth Studies Institute in Armenia. As a director of the Institute Marina managed several youth studies: The issues of youth employment in Armenia, Mapping of the youth NGOs, and Research on youth work and youth worker, Evaluation of the youth state policy strategy, youth employment and creative industries in Armenia. Marina has extensive record in working with the UN Agencies (UNDP, UNICEF) in Armenia; youth organisations and International donors (Open Society Foundations Armenia, Save the Children International, DVV International Armenia).

Marina was involved in EUROSTUDENT V 2012–2015, Social and Economic Conditions of Student Life in Europe as a research team member (http://www.eurostudent.eu/download_files/documents/EVSynopsisofIndicators.pdf). EUROSTUDENT V Synopsis of Indicators – represents a comprehensive comparative analysis of study conditions and role of the social and economic characteristics of students in European higher education.

Now Marina is involved in National Human Development Report (UNDP) developing as youth policy expert. The National Human Development Report 2018 will focus on Armenia’s Youth.

Marina Galstyan majored in Sociology, graduated from Yerevan State University (BA and MA diplomas). Currently Marina is a PhD student in Sociology at Yerevan State University. Marina has solid experience in qualitative and quantitative research. She is engaged in practical and scientific studies for over 8 years.

She authored over 30 research articles, reports, book chapters, and policy reports on youth policy, youth employment, inclusive education, civic education, child rights and higher education.

galstyanmarina@gmail.com

Julia Galustian is a professional sociologist, has a PhD in Sociology. Sphere of scientific interests are current issues of youth, the situation of young people in the labour market, health promotion, gender issues. For several years, she is a contributing author of the annual State report to President of Ukraine and Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on the situation of youth in Ukraine. Julia is a coach of the youth programs. She combines the scientific activities in the field of youth research with teaching. She teaches a course on sociology of youth too. In Ukraine Julia Galustian is one of the first researchers in the field of youth, especially in the study of problems of vulnerable groups among youth. Within 2 years (2005-2007), she was a member of the working group of the Council of Europe on issues of social inclusion. Julia has more than 60 scientific papers in the field of studies of youth and gender issues.

Yu_galustian@mail.ru

Dr. Alena Ignatovitch, PhD, Associate Professor of the Youth Policy and Sociocultural Communications Chair (National Institute for Higher Education, Minsk); Member of Association of Professors Of Slavonic Countries (APSC); Member of the Council Board of the Association of Youth Workers (the Republic of Belarus);  Member of the Editorial Board of “Social Behavior Research and Practice Open Journal” (USA).

I consider my work in the youth field as a combination of research, practice and legislation. I have expertise in drafting local legal acts and analytical reports (e.g. Annual National Report "On the situation of youth in the Republic of Belarus"; Strategies of the State Youth Policy in the Republic of Belarus (2015–2020); Educational Standards of the Republic of Belarus in the specialty of retraining of executives and specialists with higher education, etc.).

 I authored more than 70 academic, legislative and methodological publications reflecting my research interests: fostering youth employment; developing social inclusion of various minor youth groups; promoting evidence-based youth policy; realizing continuity and integrity of education; creating educational multicultural environment.

a_bambucha@mail.ru

Ewa Krzaklewska is a sociologist and a researcher. She is affiliated to the Sociology Institute at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland, where she teaches courses concerning methodology of the social research and data analysis. Her doctoral thesis focuses on the on the topic of entrance to adulthood in Poland. She has many academic publications, on topics such as entrance to adulthood, international mobility, youth issues and migration.
Ewa took part in several research projects, mostly concerning educational and youth issues (such as ESNSurvey). Other studies she participated in concerned e.g. Bologna Process, social economy, or reconciliation of work and family life, ‘Gender and Economic Choice' (for the World Bank). In 2008 she was a member of the High Level Expert Forum on Mobility for the European Commission.

ewa.krzaklewska@uj.edu.pl

Sofia Laine is a university researcher at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She is an adjunct professor in Youth Studies at the University of Tampere, Finland. Her multidisciplinary research has focused on young people, political engagements and democracy in multiple European and global settings. Her ongoing research focuses on the volunteering among the refugees. This project goes hand-in-hand with her membership in the “Young refugees and youth work” expert group at the Youth Partnership. She is one of the three editors of the anthology that explores young refugees and youth work around the Europe (will be published by the end of the year 2017). During the years 2012-2017 she was part of two research projects that examined youth political engagement in North Africa: YoPo [http://blogs.helsinki.fi/yopo-africa/] and the SAHWA Project [www.sahwa.eu] – this is the background for her active engagement in the Euro-Med Youth Partnership.

sofia.laine@youthresearch.fi

Stefanos Mastrotheodoros studied Psychology (BSc) and Clinical Psychology (MSc) at the University of Athens, Greece. In 2015 he obtained a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the same university. His doctoral dissertation was based on a short-term longitudinal study on the interplay between the development of personal identity, romantic relationships, and psychological well-being during adolescence. During his post-graduate studies, he also took part in the design and coordination of three large scale studies (two of which were longitudinal) on immigrant youth adaptation in Greece. His main research interests revolve around adolescent development and adaptation. From 2010 until 2015 he worked clinically with adolescents and young adults. Currently he works as a Ph.D. researcher (doing a second Ph.D.) in Utrecht University, the Netherlands, studying the development and the determinants of parenting. During his studies, he has gained strong statistical skills in analysing longitudinal data, using statistical packages such as Mplus, AMOS, and R.

smastrotheodoros@gmail.com

Maurizio Merico is Associate professor at the University of Salerno (Italy) where he currently teaches “Sociology of cultural processes” and “Sociology of Education”. He holds a PhD in sociology (2001) and received a Fulbright grant (2005). He is Editor in chief of the “International Bulletin on Youth Research” (ISA-RC34 “Sociology of Youth”) and Deputy Chairman of “GENESIS - Generation and Educational Science Institute” (Austria). His research focuses on theoretical approaches in youth studies, life trajectories, youth cultures, education and youth work. He has been involved – as participant and coordinator – in researches and projects at local, national and European level. He has extensively published on youth, youth cultures, youth policies and education. Among his publications: European Youth Studies. Integrating research, policy and practice, edited with L. Chisholm and S. Kovacheva (2011), and Youth Work, Non-Formal Education and Youth Participation, edited with D. Morciano and F. Scardigno (2015).

merico@unisa.it