Dr. Oriol Talló-Parra (DVM, MSc, PhD) is a researcher at the Animal Welfare Education Centre (AWEC) and the Department of Animal and Food Science within the School of Veterinary Medicine at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). His work focuses on research, teaching, and consultancy in the field of wild animal welfare, both in free-ranging populations and under human care, as well as its relationship with species conservation. In addition to his research activities, Oriol coordinates the MSc in Animal Welfare at UAB and teaches across a range of several educational programs, including master's degrees, FELASA-accredited courses, and the UAB veterinary degree program. He has also supervised several PhD dissertations, master's theses, and undergraduate research projects. Beyond academia, Oriol serves as the Animal Welfare Officer at Oceanogràfic València and works as an animal welfare consultant for various zoological institutions, European associations, and public agencies.

Dr. Eduardo J. Fernandez is the Animal Behaviour Program Director and a Senior Lecturer of Applied Animal Behaviour and Welfare in the School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences at Adelaide University (Australia). Most of his work involves behavioral research applied to the welfare, enrichment, and training of zoo, aquarium, and companion animals. His general research focus is on animal welfare and the applied animal sciences, largely influenced by learning and evolutionary theories and perspectives. He currently runs the Exotic Enrichment and Learning (EEL) lab, which focuses on improving the lives of animals located in zoos, aquariums, and wildlife parks. Many of his past publications and presentations as well as current research can be found on his ResearchGate profile: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Eduardo_Fernandez18

Dr. Mariana Panayotova-Pencheva graduated from Trakia University, Bulgaria, with a master's degree in veterinary medicine in 1995. That same year, she began working as a researcher at the Institute of Experimental Pathology and Parasitology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and obtained her PhD in veterinary medicine (specialty: Parasitology and invasive diseases of animals and humans) in 2009. She is currently an associate professor at the Institute of Experimental Morphology, Pathology, and Anthropology with Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. She has many years of experience as a lecturer in parasitology and wildlife diseases at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Forestry, Sofia. Her research focuses on veterinary parasitology, mainly helminthology, pulmonary parasites, parasitic zoonoses, and wildlife parasitoses.

Marko Sabovljević (1974) is a biologist specializing in bryophytes, with research spanning both fundamental and applied aspects. He received his PhD from the University of Bonn (Germany) and is currently teaching at universities in Serbia, Slovakia, and Uzbekistan. He also serves as a guest lecturer at several other European universities, focusing on bryophyte biology. He has published over 600 research papers and pioneered a conservation physiology approach to bryophytes. Actively involved in bryophyte conservation initiatives across Europe, he maintains a living in vitro collection of more than 300 bryophyte species from all over the world at the Belgrade Botanical Garden. Nearly 60% of these species are globally or regionally threatened.

Gianni Bedini is Full Professor of Systematic Botany at the University of Pisa (Italy), where he also serves as Head of the Bachelor’s Degree Programme in Natural and Environmental Sciences. His research focuses on plant biodiversity conservation, with particular emphasis on ex situ conservation, seed banking, and the development of botanical databases. He has been closely involved with botanical gardens for most of his career: from 1988 to 2015 he served as Curator and later Scientific Director of the Pisa Botanical Garden and Museum. He contributed to the establishment of the Italian network of seed banks for plant conservation (RIBES), serving as its first President, and collaborated with the Millennium Seed Bank of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, on protocols for seed collection and ex situ conservation. He has also coordinated activities on botanical gardens within the Italian Botanical Society and represented Italy in the European Botanic Gardens Consortium. He is currently President of the Tuscan Society of Natural Sciences, member of the Scientific Committee of the Apuan Alps Regional Park, Associate Editor of the Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens, and an aggregate member of the Accademia dei Georgofili.

Maria Panitsa holds a degree in Biological Sciences and a PhD on “Flora and Vegetation of island ecosystems”. She is Professor at the Department of Biology of the University of Patras in the field of Flora and Plant geography and member of the Botanical Museum (Herbarium) and the Botanical Garden of the University of Patras Management Committees. Her research interests and key-expertise lie in diversity, biogeography and taxonomy of plant species focusing among others on islands and protected areas, plant species, plant communities and habitat types diversity, conservation  and  monitoring  of  plant  species  and  natural habitats, biogeography, study  of  the  Greek  flora, citizen science and biodiversity; She has published 73 articles in peer-reviewed International journals and she has participated with more than 120 presentations at international and national conferences; She has participated at 38 national and European research programs as a coordinator or researcher; She has served as a reviewer for more than 35 scientific journals and she is guest editor of 5 special issues. She is member of SSC Mediterranean Plant Specialist Group of IUCN and has served as a member of the Natura 2000 National Committee for the Protected Areas of Greece; she is currently vice-president of the Board of the Hellenic Ecological Society.