Yuri Kazepov is a Professor of Urban Sociology at the Department of Sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences (University of Vienna). His research interests address the territorial dimension of social policies in a comparative perspective, multilevel governance arrangements, social and environmental sustainability, school-to-work transitions. On these topics he carried out extensive research at European level in different policy domains.  For his publications see the u:cris portal. He served as president of the Research Committee 21 on Urban and Regional Studies of the International Sociological Association (2010-2014), was a founding board member of ESPAnet Europe, the Network for European Social Policy Analysis (2002-2008) and founded and co-chaired ESPAnet Italy (2009-2011) and co-founded ESPAnet Austria (2016).

Miriam Aistleitner holds a B.A. in Transcultural Communication, with the working languages English, Czech and German, and an M.A. in Specialized Translation and Language Industry from the University of Vienna, with forays into literary translation. Besides doing stints as freelance translator and copy editor, she has worked in adult education, teaching German as a foreign language, and as an in-house copy editor for a primary education publisher.

Byeongsun Ahn is currently involved in the JPI Urban Europe project MUNEX, which examines the institutionalization of grassroots innovation in Amsterdam, Barcelona, and Vienna. He has a PhD and MSc in sociology and BA in political science. His research interests include governance rescaling, participatory policy-making and program evaluation.

Ruggero Cefalo's main research interests include the analysis of skills formation and school-to-work transition systems social policies in comparative perspective, multilevel governance, territorial cohesion and spatial disparities, and the integration of young people in the labour market at various territorial levels. He was co-organiser of the 20^th Anniversary ESPAnet Conference in Vienna and is currently involved in the Horizon Europe project CLEAR.

Yvonne Franz is an urban geographer focusing on the role of urban neighbourhoods and their relations within a multi-level governance system. In the ongoing INTERREG Central Europe project “GEtCoheSive”, she contributes theoretical knowledge on social integration as well as empirical knowledge on participatory methods. She is also scientific co-director of the “Cooperative Urban and Regional Development” at the Postgraduate Center of the University of Vienna.

Ádám Németh defended his PhD thesis at the University of Pécs, Hungary. Since then, he has gained experience at research institutions in Austria, Germany, Estonia, and Latvia. His area of research is migration and cultural diversification in Central Europe and the Baltic region. His current project WELLCOH – funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions – focuses on the nexus of subjective well-being and social cohesion in Vienna and Budapest.

Tatjana Boczy is PhD candidate in Sociology interested in comparative urban and regional research, eco-social transformation, and mixed-methods advancement. Her thesis investigates local welfare institutions under recent social, economic, and environmental changes. She holds an MA in social and political theory and a BA in Sociology. Her MA thesis on Smart City received the prize for outstanding theses from the Austrian Sociology Association.

Jana Brandl is a PhD candidate at the Research Platform "The Challenge of Urban Futures". Her doctoral project deals with eco-social policy integration in European urban areas. She obtained a MSc. in Welfare Management and Policies from Lund University and a MSc. in Socioeconomics from the Vienna University of Economics and Business. Her research interests include the interrelation of social and environmental sustainability and the role of gender in socio-ecological transformations.

Nikoletta Jablonczay's academic credentials include a BA in Sociology at the Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, and an MA in International Development at the University of Vienna. Her research interests include labour market policy evaluation, skill mismatches, and regional developments. In her Digital Humanities studies at the University of Vienna, she focuses on Data Analysis and NLP Techniques. She is currently involved in the Horizon Europe project CLEAR. 

Niklas Pernhaupt (no pronouns/he/him) is currently involved in the Horizon Europe project CLEAR which inquires into the factors that shape learning outcomes across Europe. NP received a BA and an MA in sociology at the University of Vienna. NP’s research interests include cognitive cultural sociology, Pragmatist sociology, sociology of education, imagination and democracy in (post-)digital times, and precariousness.

Hannah Sommer's doctoral research is carried out within the SOLiDi (Solidarity in Diversity) project and analyses the discursive strategies in the proposals of the EU’s 2020 New Pact on Migration and Asylum. Hannah obtained her B.A. in philosophy, her B.Sc. in psychology (LMU Munich) and her MA in philosophy (University College London). She worked for the Munich Refugee Council from 2019-2021.

Brice Berthelot is a Political Science bachelor student at the University of Vienna, from which he also holds a BA in Sociology. He currently works on various research projects as scientific project staff at the platform “The Challenge of Urban Futures” and at the Department of Sociology. His research interests lie in critical education and theories of democracy, as well as forced migration and gender relations in Urban Studies.

Natalie Trell is a master student at the Department of Sociology, University of Vienna, writing her thesis on digitalization in Viennese Schools. She currently works as a researcher assistant at the Research Platform: The Challenges of Urban Future at the same university. The focus lies on a JPI Urban Europe project, which examines participatory budgeting forms in Amsterdam, Barcelona, and Vienna. Her research interests include social inequality, education, sustainability, and urban sociology.

Martha Fromme studied conference interpreting at Leipzig University with the working languages German, Spanish, English and French. After working at Leipzig University both in the Welcome Centre and in international public relations, she now supports the Urban Futures team as administrative assistant. She also works as a freelance interpreter in social, socio-political, cultural, medical and psychotherapeutic contexts and is currently pursuing a psychotherapy training in Vienna.