Territorial and Inter-Organizational Cooperation'2022

Noémia Bessa Vilela is Head of Research at OPHIZ, Inštitut pravnih znanosti, Maribor. She is currently a Doctoral Researcher at the EOTVOS LORAND University in Budapest, under a Grant from the FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology, the Portuguese national funding agency for science, research and technology, attributed on the basis of scientific merits.

Partner in several EU funded projects on EU Law, and with an impressive record of research funding,  she is currently Chair of CA20123 – IGCOORD, dealing with matters of intergovernmental coordination. Noémia's research interests range from EU Law, Anti Trust, and Research Methodology to Human Rights, having published in well-renowned journals and Press houses.

Sergiusz Bober is a political scientist (PhD) and lawyer (MA), with both degrees obtained at the Jagiellonian University. Since 2017 he has been employed at the European Centre for Minority Issues in Flensburg (Germany), where he heads the Politics and Civil Society Research Cluster. His main research interests include minorities in the Danish-German border region, ethnicity in the former Eastern Bloc, the intersection of minority issues and decentralization/federalism, as well as minority language media. He is a member of the Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism (ASEN), the European Society for Central Asian Studies (ESCAS) and the International Association for Minority Language Media Research (IAMLMR).

Domagoj Cingula, president of Organising Committee of Economic and Social Development (ESD) Conference under ownership of VADEA Ltd, Croatia, where he holds CEO position. Has organized eighty three (83) international scientific events, with more than thirty international academic and national or local authority partners. He is a University Specialist in field of Business Systems Management, with fifteen years of banking experience and one decade in teaching microeconomics, banking, business finance and financial markets, with more than thirty scientific papers published worldwide. For three years in total, was engaged on European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and European Investment Bank (EIB) green financing projects, in Zagreb, Croatia (REENOVA+) and Beirut, Lebanon (LEEREFF), as international key-expert in training, bank relationship management and marketing.

Grégory Hamez is Professor in human geography at University of Lorrain since 2017 and is the director of the research unit ‘LOTERR-Centre de recherche en géographie’ since 2018. He is a member à the Center for Border Studies of the University of the Greater Region, and is director of the trinational Master in "Border Studies" for the University of Lorraine.

His research fields are: border regions, territorial cooperation and European integration on different scales, in an interdisciplinary focus (between geography, linguistics sociology and law) . He is working on spatial planning in border cities and cross-border spaces in Western Europe.

Christophe Masson is currently the Team Leader for Human Development in the Eastern Partnership in DG NEAR. He is covering regional programmes on thematic issues such as Culture, Education, Vocational Education and Training (VET), Employment, Health Youth and Social Protection.

Christophe is an economist with over 20 years of experience, working mainly with the Southern Neighbourhood, Eastern Europe, the Western Balkans, but also with other Developing Countries (Asia & Central Asia).Christophe has been working in the EC Delegation in Poland, where he oversaw preparations of the accession of Poland to the EU (2004).

Christophe was also posted to the Operational Sections of the EU Delegation in Egypt (2005-2007). This latter involved overseeing the implementation of major regional projects in the Middle East in the field of Information Society (EUMEDIS).

Christophe also served as Head of the Social Sectors of the Directorate General for International Cooperation and Development (DG INTPA), covering a broad range of areas (Employment, Culture, Youth, Social Protection and VET), including responsibility for driving forward the Human Development agenda in Developing Countries.
At other times in his career in the Commission, he was a member of the Task Force dealing with the economic and financial crisis (2008-2010).

Christophe is currently teaching in different European universities (Sorbonne, Sciences Po Paris, Maastricht, Namur, ULB, Leuven…). Since 2017, Christophe implemented Policy Labs. Teaching Policy Labs is different from a usual workshop because it explores policy challenges and policy dialogue in a participatory leadership way.

Gyula Ocskay, member of the UPC-CESCI Research Group on Border Studies is a political philosopher and regional economist. Since 2009 he has been working for the Budapest-based Central European Service for Cross-Border Initiatives (CESCI) as secretary general. In his position, he coordinates the research, planning, development and knowledge sharing activities of the CESCI team. His main field of research is cross-border governance.

Khrystyna Prytula - Dr in Economic Sciences, Associate Professor, Head of the Cross-Border Cooperation Sector, State Institution «Institute of Regional Research named after M.I. Dolishniy of the NAS of Ukraine». Coordinator of many international and national research projects. In particular, the project manager of the international project «Boosting Local Economic Growth in Border Regions in the Process of EU Integration: Best Practices of Eastern Partnership (EaP) Countries» (2018-2022) (Erasmus + program under Jean Monnet with the support of the European Neighborhood Instrument). The author of more than 130 scientific publications. Scientific interests: regional development, economic growth, cross-border cooperation, development of logistics and transportation systems, EU regional policy, modelling of economic processes etc.

Abdelhamid Nechad is Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Littoral (France). Presently a professor at the National School of Business in Tangier/ Abdelmalek Essaadi University and Associate-Professor at ESCA Casablanca. Member of AASSB Laureate. A specialist in geoeconomics and geopolitics. He has published several articles and hosted several conferences in more than 25 countries.

Tomasz Studzieniecki, Ph. D -  an academic teacher specializing in territorial management, European integration and international tourism. Works at Gdynia Maritime University (Poland). Studied marketing at City University (Seattle, USA) and international economics at the University of Gdańsk (Poland). An author of over 100 scientific papers, coordinator of numerous development strategies and cross-border cooperation initiatives.

He is a European Commission expert on territorial cooperation, a member of EGTC  Platform, a member of Baltic Advisory Council at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a member of Management Committee of ENTAN (European Non-Territorial Autonomy Network). Since 2007 he presides over Academia Europa Nostra, an  international NGO, which carries out scientific and educational activities

Rewarded by the President of Poland, the Minister of Maritime Affairs, the Minister of Tourism and several times by the Rector of Gdynia Maritime University for his valuable theoretical and practical contributions.

Florian Weber studied geography, business administration, sociology and journalism at the University of Mainz (Germany) and gained his doctorate at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg with a thesis comparing German and French area-based policies in light of discourse theory. Since October 2016 he has been Associate Lecturer (Akademischer Rat) at the University of Tübingen’s Department of Geography, where he completed his post-doctoral degree (Habilitation) in 2018. In April 2019 he was appointed Junior Professor of European Studies at Saarland University, with special reference to Western Europe and border regions. His research focuses on cross-border cooperation, renewable energies, and comparative international urban district policies and development.

Louise Weber (French) works as a training manager at the Euro-Institut, a French-German institution facilitating the cross-border cooperation in the Upper Rhine Region. After obtaining a bachelor's degree in German-French studies with a focus on cross-border communication and cooperation, she completed a bi-national master's programme in European Studies and European Project Management. Besides developing and implementing trainings, mainly in the field of intercultural communication and project management, she assists in the moderation of workshops. Furthermore, her tasks include assisting in the coordination of working and networking groups and working on European projects.