Georgios Nounesis was the Director & Chairman of the Board of the National Centre for Scientific Research “Demokritos” (www.demokritos.gr), for the period 2017-2021, re-elected for a second term 2021-2025. During his tenure, he is credited with reforms that led to the rapid growth of technology transfer rates to start ups and multinationals and the creation of successful spin-offs. He pioneered the Stavros Niarchos Industrial Fellowship Program and founded AHEDD, (the Attica Hub for the Economy of Data and Devices), now coordinating “Smart Attica” one the four European Digital Innovation Hubs of Greece. Over the last four years “Lefkippos”, the technology park at Demokritos evolved into a most dynamic organization supporting and accelerating innovative deep-tech entrepreneurship. Since 2020 he has been appointed as a Member of the Board of the Hellenic Space Center, (hsc.gov.gr), a term expiring in 2025. In 2022 he was elected as a member of the NATO Advisory Group on Emerging and Disruptive Technologies. Dr Nounesis studied Physics at the University of Athens (BS) and the University of Minnesota (PhD in Experimental Condensed Matter Physics) and attended executive courses at the Harvard Kennedy School. Other than Demokritos, he held research and academic appointments at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and CNRS (Bordeaux).

Dr. Vangelis Karkaletsis is a graduate of the Department of Computer Engineering & Informatics, University of Patras (1989), with an M.Sc. in Artificial Intelligence from Queen Mary & Westfield College, University of London (1990) and a PhD in knowledge representation and information extraction from the Informatics & Telecommunications Department, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (1995). Currently, he is Research Director at NCSR "Demokritos", and head of the Software & Knowledge Engineering Lab (SKEL) at II&T. His research interests are in the areas of content analysis, big data management, knowledge representation, human-machine interaction. Coordinator, scientific and technical manager of many European and national projects. Organized international summer schools, workshops and conferences. Being responsible for the Institute's educational activities for more than 10 years, he initiated the joint PhD scholarship program with several Universities abroad, started the new MSc in Data Science program, and launched the NCSRD educational program for primary and secondary schools. Co-founded one of the first spin-offs at NCSRD, and participate in another one which is about to be launched.

Dr. Dimitris Kletsas holds a B.Sc in Biology from the University of Thessaloniki and a PhD in Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology from the Department of Biology of the University of Athens. He is the Director of the Institute of Biosciences and Applications (IBA) and Head of the Laboratory of Cell Proliferation and Ageing, of the Laboratory of Cell Systems and Bioactive Compounds and of the Animal House of IBA. His research interests include: Mechanisms of ageing and longevity, cellular senescence and age-related pathologies, cancer, intervertebral disc degeneration, wound healing, intracellular signaling pathways, bioactive compounds (synthetic or from natural sources) with anticancer, anti-oxidant/anti-ageing or wound healing action. His work has produced more than 190 papers in international refereed journals, 16 book chapters, more than 11000 citations and 2 patents. He was coordinator or principal investigator of more than 30 research projects, supervised a significant number of Post-doc fellows and Ph.D. students and participates in several postgraduate educational programs. He is currently the President of the Hellenic Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Member of the Committee for Research and Innovation of the Attika Region, Member of the National Committee for the Wellbeing of Laboratory Animals. He served as President of the European Tissue Repair Society, National Expert for the FP6 of EU, and Member of the National Council of Research and Development, Sector of Biosciences.

Dr. Christos Markou is an experimental physicist. His fields of expertise are Astrophysics, Particle Physics, instrumentation, distributed computing and data analysis, signal processing. Dr. Markou studied at Imperial College, University of London, UK, obtaining his B.Sc. (1985) and Ph.D. (1989) degrees in Physics. During his career, he has participated in several high energy particle physics experiments, at CERN, Geneva and DESY, Hamburg, and lately at KM3NeT. Before joining NCSR “D” he has held appointments at Imperial College and CERN. He participates in KM3NeT, the international collaboration preparing the new generation underwater neutrino telescope to be deployed in the Mediterranean Sea. KM3NeT, a distributed research infrastructure to be deployed in 3 sites (France, Italy and Greece) is part of the ESFRI Roadmap. He is the Chairman of the KM3NeT Institution Board (since 2016), member of the Resources Review Board, the publication committee and is the Greek delegate to the KM3NeT ERIC. Dr. Markou is active in establishing a novel acoustic detector for ultra-high energy extragalactic neutrinos. He participates in several committees of NCSR Demokritos, the GSRT CERN advisory committee, and has led numerous research projects both at the National and International level. CM has been active in educational and outreach activities and has supervised 8 Ph.D. theses. He is the author of numerous research papers. A complete list can be found at http://inspirehep.net/search?p=exactauthor%3AC.Markou.1

George Nounesis is the Director & Chairman of the Board of the National Centre for Scientific Research “Demokritos” for a four-year term (2017-2021).  Dr. Nounesis studied Physics at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.  He obtained his PhD at the School of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Minnesota.  He completed a three-year Postdoctoral training at the Chemistry Department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Executive Education Program on “Innovation for Economic Development” at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He is currently the Director of the Biomolecular Physics Laboratory at Demokritos. Prior to returning to Greece he held Research Staff appointments at the Center for Materials Science and Engineering at MIT and at the Francis Bitter National Magnet Laboratory. He has spent sabbatical leaves at the Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal at CNRS and the Chemistry Department of the University of Bordeaux I as an Invited Professor.  His research is mainly focused on structural and thermodynamic studies of nano-structured soft materials as well as biomolecules, primarily proteins.  For his work he has received awards and distinctions from the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, the John S. Latsis Public Benefit Foundation, the Empirikion Foundation, the United States Department of the Navy and the Graduate School of the University of Minnesota.  He serves as an Expert Reviewer of several National and International Research Funding Organizations in the European Commission, the USA (NSF), Poland, Turkey, Belgium and Greece.

Noah Harding Professor of Computer Science Professor of Bioengineering Professor of Computer and Electrical Engineering Professor of Mechanical Engineering Rice University https://www.cs.rice.edu/~kavraki/short_bio.html

Director Institute of Medical Radiation Biology University of Duisburg-Essen https://www.uni-due.de/radiation-biology/iliakis-new.shtml

Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology Uppsala University https://katalog.uu.se/profile/?id=N96-1274

Dean of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and the Zohrab Kaprielian Chair in Engineering https://viterbischool.usc.edu/leadership/yanniscyortsos/

Deputy President Professor, Fellow IEEE KTH https://www.kth.se/profile/mostling/page/full-cv

Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Johns Hopkins https://engineering.jhu.edu/chembe/faculty/michael-tsapatsis/

Takis Vidalis completed his basic legal studies at the University of Athens. In 1995, he received his Ph.D. in constitutional law from the University of Athens (summa cum laude). He is the author (or co-author) of 7 books and more than 40 academic papers on bioethics, biolaw, medical ethics, medical law, constitutional law, philosophy of law, sociology of law and environmental law. He participated in international and national research projects, concerning especially issues of law and advanced technologies. Among them: “Discrimination against people with HIV and AIDS: Good practices in legal advice and litigation concerning employment, insurance, credit, housing, education and health care” E.U. – University College, London, 2000 – 2002. “HERCULES - “Medical Genetics and Biomedical Informatics Infrastructure in support of early diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of children with neurological disorders in Greece” EEA /EU – University of Crete, 2009 – 2010. He presented papers in international and national conferences, workshops, and academic seminars. T. Vidalis was a member of the lawmaking committee for the Greek Act on Transplantations (law 2737/1999), and contributed to the ratification process of the Oviedo Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine (law 2619/1998). He was also a member of the lawmaking committee for the establishment of RECs in universities and research institutes (voted recently by the Parliament), and a member of the lawmaking committee for the mental health law reform. Currently, he is the president of the lawmaking committee working for the rights of patients in dementia. He participated as an independent expert: In ethical reviews of biomedical and biotechnology research projects, under the EU research activities (FP 6, 7, European Research Council), since 2005, In the UNESCO’s Global Ethics Observatory (GEObs) Database on Ethics Related Legislation and Guidelines. In 2001 he was elected a senior scientist and legal advisor of the Hellenic National Bioethics Commission. He has an extensive educational experience for more than 25 years. Currently he teaches a) “Biolaw and Bioethics”, “Biomedicine and Law”, “Biolaw, Biosafety and Environment” and “Patent Law in Biological Applications” at the International Hellenic University (interdisciplinary post graduate program in “Bioeconomy. Law, Regulation and Management”), b) “Biolaw” at the University of Crete (interdisciplinary post graduate program in “Bioethics”), c) “Medical Ethics and Bioethics” at the University of Athens (distance learning /vocational education program). Since 2010 he organizes and coordinates the educational program on Bioethics for Schools of the Hellenic National Bioethics Commission, as well as its annual seminar for students and professionals. He is the president of the Research Ethics Committee of the leading research Institute in Greece “Democritus”. Also, he is a full member of the National Ethics Committee for Clinical Trials, of the Alzheimer’s National Observatory’s executive board, and a deputy member of the National Committee for the Laboratory Animals Welfare. An external member of the Research Ethics Committee of the University of Crete, he participated also as an independent expert in its establishment (2012). An attorney-at-law and a member of the Athens Bar Association, he is the director of the Medical Law and Bioethics department of the Athens Law Firm.

Evangelia Livaniou holds a BSc degree in Pharmacy (University of Athens, 1981) and a PhD degree in Pharmacy (University of Patras, 1988; Ph.D.Thesis accomplished in NCSR “Demokritos”). She had been awarded an Alexander von Humboldt post-doctoral fellowship and worked as research associate in the University of Tuebingen, Germany. She had been Assistant Researcher (1995-1998), Senior Researcher (1998-2004), and since 2004 she has been serving as Director of Research at NCSR “Demokritos” [Institute of Radioisotopes & Radiodiagnostic Products (IRRP), currently part of the Institute of Nuclear & Radiological Sciences & Technology, Energy & Safety (INRASTES)]. Her specific thematic field is Immunochemistry and her research interests include study of bioactive molecules (mainly, immunomodulating peptides) as well as design, development, labelling, evaluation and application of antigens and antibodies to in vitro diagnostics. She has published more than 100 articles in scientific journals, proceedings of international congresses and books with more than 1,000 citations, while she has been reviewing a large number of scientific papers. She has supervised several PhD, MSc and Diploma students in collaboration with the Universities of Athens, Thessaloniki, Ioannina and Thessaly, and teaches in post-graduate programs of the University of Athens. She had been Vice Director of IRRP (2011-2012) and participated in the Educational Council of NCSR “Demokritos” for many years. Since 2014 she has been participating in Committees for protocol evaluation and welfare assessment of laboratory animals at NCSR “Demokritos”. In 2014-2018 she was a member of the (Bio)Ethics Committee of NCSR “Demokritos”.

Dr. Drakoulis Yannoukakos is Director of Research in the field of Human Genetics at the Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory of the Institute of Nuclear & Radiological Sciences and Technology, Energy & Safety (INRASTES), NCSR “Demokritos”. He graduated from the Chemistry Department of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 1984. He then completed his Postgraduate Diploma in Enzymology at Paris XI and his Doctorate in Biochemistry at Paris XII (1987-1991). He worked as a post-doctoral associate in the Molecular Medicine Department of the Beth Israel Hospital, Harvard Medical School (1991-94) and then in the field of Molecular Pharmacology of the Medical School, New York University (1994-95). He was appointed to NCSR “Demokritos” as an Assistant Researcher in 1995, while he created the Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory in 1998, which later developed as a reference laboratory in the field of Cancer Genetics in Greece. He was Faculty member at the Greek Open University (2003-2004). He is a visiting Professor in the following Post-graduate Programs: Clinical Biochemistry – Molecular Diagnostics, Dept. of Biology, Athens University (2007-today), Human Genetics, Medical School, University of Thessaly (2014-today), School of Dentistry, University of Athens (2013-today) and Human Genetics, Democritus University of Thrace (2018). His research focuses on the analysis of Hereditary Cancer Predisposition Syndromes and Rare Diseases. He has published more than 120 articles in peer-reviewd journals and has been reviewer in international journals and funding institutions. He has supervised ten PhD theses in the field of Cancer Genetics while six more are in progress. The last five years following the latest scientific developments he has established the technology of Massive Parallel Sequencing of Human Genetic material (DNA) in the Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory. He has received research funding from the General Secretariat for Research and Technology, the European Union, the Hellenic Association of Women with Breast Cancer "Alma Zois", the Hellenic Cooperative Oncology Group, the Hellenic Society of Medical Oncology and Pharmaceutical Companies. He participates in major international consortia on Cancer Genetics (Consortium of Investigators of Modifiers of BRCA1 and BRCA2 - CIMBA, Breast Cancer Association Consortium - BCAC, Evidence-based Network for the Interpretation of Germline Mutant Alleles – ENIGMA, Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium – OCAC, The Triple Negative Breast Cancer Consortium- TNBCC, and The PALB2 Consortium).

Dr. Marina P. Markellou is a Greek lawyer, admitted to practice in 2003, and she has worked in France and Greece in various positions relating to the interpretation and application of intellectual property law. She is also a recent post-doctoral fellow grant of University of Poitiers, where she has conducted for 6 months a post-doc research project on “ Appropriation Art from an art historical, sociological and legal perspective in Europe and in USA”, at the laboratory of CeCOJI under the supervision of Marie Cornu. This project supplemented her legal education already received from University of Montpellier I (PhD on “Copyright Contracts - a comparative analysis under German, French and Greek Copyright Law”) and Master 2 in Business Law focusing on Intellectual Property Law, Contracts, Competition Law and Personal Data Law) and the University of Thessaloniki (Bachelor of Laws). Her primary professional interests concern intellectual property (Copyright, Trademarks, Patents) and cultural heritage law. Member of the CECOJI CNRS of France and of the Greek group of the International Literal and Artistic Association (ALAI), she often participates as a legal expert in many European programs (CIHA conference 2012, ICIL conferences 2013, 2011, 2010, 2009, COUNTER workshop project 2009/IDABC project 2008). She is an external ethics advisor at the Institute of Telecommunications and Informatics of NCSR Demokritos. She also works at various Universities in Greece and in Cyprus where she teaches Competition Law, Intellectual Property Law, Culture Heritage Law. She speaks French, English and Spanish.

Vassilis Stamatopoulos is a graduate of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the NTUA and a Ph.D. of the Department of Biomechanics of the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. He has international certifications for Project Management (PMP) and Personal Data Protection (CIPP / E). He worked for three years as Project Manager at the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust Hospital in London. He then completed his post-doctoral research at the Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens in 2008. Since 2008, he collaborates with the Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas/PRAXI Network as a Technology Transfer Consultant. From 2010 until 2016, he was the National Contact Point for the Security, Transport and Space Themes for FP7 and Horizon 2020, mandated by the European Commission and the General Secretariat for Research and Technology. From 2015 until today, he is the coordinator of GSRT's National Smart Specialization Platform setting out the National Research and Innovation Strategy in the field of “Health and Medicines”. In 2016 he co-founded “Fraud Line IKE” active in business ethics, whistleblowing, prevention and detection of fraud and corruption in businesses and organizations, and personal data protection. Since 2010 he has been the technical coordinator at the educational infrastructure "National Center for Road Safety Reporting - AVENUE", which was founded by the "Road Safety Institute Panos Mylonas".

Yannis Bassiakos (Y.B.) is a geologist and chronologist of the University of Athens. He has got specialization on ancient mining/metallurgy and on Fission Tracks dating in the Max-Planck-Institute for Nuclear Physics (Heidelberg/Germany) and in the Geology Dept of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy/USA). During the first 7-years-period of his occupation at NCSR “Demokritos” dealt with the ‘Uranium Exploration Project’, thus worked in all geographic and geological provinces of Greece as wall as in the field of various C.-W. European and Mediterranean countries. After been occupied, for some decades, with “good practice” indicated in the Cultural/Technological Heritage and Ancient Landscape valorisation and sustaining, he sets as priority a pertinent contribution to the NCSR “D” Research Ethics Committee (REC), in which he participates as an alternate member. Y.B. retired from “Demokritos” in 31 December 2016 and since 2018 he became emeritus researcher of the Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (INN). Since 2008 he acts as Editor-in-Chief for the archaeometric Journal “Archaeological and Anthropological Science”, IF 2.41.

Emmanuel Saridakis is a Principal Researcher at the Laboratory of Structural and Supramolecular Chemistry, Institute of Nanoscience & Nanotechnology, National Centre for Scientific Research “Demokritos” in Athens, and an Honorary Research Fellow at the Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London. He studied Physics at Imperial College, where he also obtained his Ph.D. in Biophysics/ Crystallography in 1995. He has worked as a post-doctoral researcher at Athens University, Imperial College, Foundation of Research and Technology- Hellas, and at “Demokritos”. His research interests focus on crystallisation theory and the development of new methodology for macromolecular crystallisation, as well as in X-ray crystallography of macromolecules and small organic molecules of biological and medical interest. He has published 42 full papers in peer-reviewed international journals, with over 2000 citations and an h-factor of 23. He also holds a Master’s degree in the Philosophy and History of Science from the London School of Economics and Political Science (London University) and is the author of the book “Bioethics. Ethical problems of the new biomedical technologies” (Papazissis Publishers, Athens 2008; in Greek), which is included in recommended textbook lists of relevant courses of several universities and polytechnics.

Vergopoulos Dimitris is a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Informatics at Ionian University, with research object "Analysis of big data in Education, Tourism, Health and Culture - Data mining with Artificial Intelligence algorithms". He completed his Phd at EKPA entitled "Artificial Intelligence - Ethical Responsibility - Modern and distance education", holds three master's degrees in "Information Systems" (Open University of Greece), in "Ethical Philosophy" EKPA - Univ. Peloponnese and "Computer Science and Adult Education" Middlesex University and holder of three bachelor degrees "Mathematics - Informatics", "Business Administration and Organizations" and "Accounting and Finance". He teaches at the level of Assistant Professor at the University of Patras, at the International University of Greece and the TEI of Peloponnese, while he has worked in primary and secondary education as a professor of Informatics. To date, he has presented papers at International and World Conferences, he is an anonymous reviewer of papers in International journals and has participated in European Programs as a researcher or research associate with partners Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), University of Peloponnese, EKDDA, EOPPEP etc. He is a founding member and President of the Messinian Association for Contact with Alzheimer's Disease (MESENA), a regular member of the Hellenic Ethics Society, EPE (Greek IT Association), MENSA Greece, EEPEK (Scientific Union for the Promotion of Educational Innovation), the DOE (Hellenic Teachers' Federation) and the Economic Chamber of Greece. He has also served as Deputy Mayor of Programming, Development and European Programs of the Municipality of Kalamata, member of the Management Committee of the Peloponnese Regional Development Plan (EYDE), Chairman of the Water Org and member of many Committees of the Municipality of Kalamata.

Dr Zafiroula (Iro) Georgoussi graduated from the Biology Department of the University of Patras obtained a Diploma from Queen Elizabeth College, University of London and received her PhD in 1986 from the Kapodistrian University of Athens for work that has been carried out in the National Hellenic Research Foundation and the University of Ruhr in Bochum, Germary. In 1996, she undertook postdoctoral studies at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics in Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN, USA for studies on the biology of G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). In 1990, she returned to Greece as a postdoctoral Research Assistant at the Institute of Biology, National Centre for Scientific Research “Demokritos” and in 1995 she obtained a tenure track position as an Associate Researcher and established the laboratory of Cellular Signaling and Molecular Pharmacology that she directs until today. Dr Georgoussi’s expertise is on the signaling mechanisms governing G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) with special emphasis on the function of opioid receptors, particularly their involvement in pain, tolerance drug dependence and neuronal outgrowth. Her current activities focus on the dissection of signaling pathways through which opioid receptors regulate transcription that influences neuronal cell differentiation, neurogenesis and neuronal death. Her team has also developed cell-based high throughput screening assays for the discovery of new therapeutic compounds. Over the years she has trained a high number of students at undergraduate and post-graduate level and has received awards from the i) Ιnternational Warsaw Invention Show (IWIS, Poland), ii) Ιnternational Federation of Inventors’ 2008, iii) Hellenic Industrial Property Organization, 2d National Award and iv) the Polish Government for the development of new drugs to alleviate pain. She has attracted National funding by the Hellenic General Secretary of Research & Technology, Pharmaceutical companies and the European Union grants (CHRX-CT94-0689-ENBeST; FP6-LSHC-CT2006-037733-NORMOLIFE and the FP7-222927-ENaROMATIC). Dr Georgoussi is a National Representative for the COST actions CM1207-GLISTEN: “GPCR Ligand Interactions, Structure and Transmembrane Signaling: a European Research Network”, CA-18133-ERNEST a “European Research Network on Signal Transduction” and CA18240-ADHER´N RISE,has served as an elected member of the Scientific Council of IBA, NCSR “Demokritos” and has played an instrumental role toward the establishment of the National Infrastructure “OPENSCREEN-GR”, which is coordinated by the IBA.