Prof. Doris Schroeder was educated in Germany and the United Kingdom at postgraduate level in economics / management and philosophy / politics. Her first career was in management, as a strategic planner for Time Warner. She is Professor of Moral Philosophy and Director at the Centre for Professional Ethics in Preston, UK, Adjunct Professor in the School of Law at Uclan Cyprus and Adjunct Professor at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (CAPPE), Charles Sturt University Canberra, Australia.

Doris has published widely on benefit sharing, global justice, dignity and access to medicines. She co‐ordinated two previous EU‐projects as well as projects funded by the Wellcome Trust. Doris has given invited papers on topics of justice and science governance in China, India, Canada, the US, South Africa, Cameroon, Kenya, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Egypt, Japan, Belgium, Holland, Germany, the UK, France, Italy, Spain, the Czech Republic, Ireland and Greece.

Dr David Coles is currently Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Professional Ethics, University of Central Lancashire, a Research Associate at the University of Newcastle’s School of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development and Director of Enhance International Ltd. Interests include ethical and risk communication issues, particularly in relation to food production and security, biomedical ethics, multidisciplinary, converging and emerging technology research, innovation and the relationship between science, technology and policy.

Dr Miltos Ladikas is a senior research fellow at the Centre for Professional Ethics, University of Central Lancashire, UK. He has held research positions at the London School of Economics and the Science Museum in the UK as well as the European Academy for Technology Assessment and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany. His research background covers the areas of technology assessment, public perceptions of science and technology, ethics in science and technology policy, and science and development. He has coordinated a number of international research projects in these areas. He is currently the coordinator of Global Ethics in Science and Technology Policy, a project funded by FP7, the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for Research.

Prof. Thomas Pogge received his PhD in philosophy from Harvard University, USA, and has published widely on Kant and in moral and political philosophy. He is Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs at Yale University, USA, adjunct professor of political philosophy at the Centre for Professional Ethics of the University of Central Lancashire, UK, research director at the University of Oslo Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature, Norway, and a member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. His recent publications include Politics as Usual (Polity, 2010), World Poverty and Human Rights (2nd edition, Polity, 2008), Global Justice and Global Ethics (co‐edited, Paragon House, 2008), The Health Impact Fund (with Aidan Hollis, Incentives for Global Health, 2008), John Rawls: His Life and Theory of Justice (Oxford, 2007) and Freedom from Poverty as a Human Right (edited, Oxford & UNESCO, 2007). Pogge is president of Academics Stand Against Poverty.

Julie Cook Lucas is a research associate in the Centre for Professional Ethics, University of Central Lancashire, UK. After obtaining a BA (Hons) in English literature, Julie developed national women’s health initiatives at the Health Education Authority of the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) in the 1980s. Julie ran award‐winning health and environment campaigns for the Women’s Environmental Network through the early 1990s, and co‐founded the UK’s first course on ecofeminism at Birkbeck College, University of London, in 1994. Her interests revolve around environmental issues, feminism and animal rights, and she has worked for a range of NGOs, including some in the anti‐vivisection and pro‐choice movements.  She joined the Centre for Professional Ethics in 2005 and now works as a project manager on a range of externally funded research projects in connection with health and global justice. She has published a number of papers on benefit sharing, with particular emphasis on gender issues.

Dr Brigit Chesworth is a Research Associate in the Research Support Team of Uclan’s School of Health. Her background is in Clinical Medicine and in Public Health. She holds undergraduate degrees in Psychology and in Medicine & Surgery, and has also completed a Master of Public Health degree. Brigit qualified as a doctor in 2008, and prior to joining UCLAN held various clinical posts in primary and secondary care and in Public Health. Her work as a Research Associate in the Research Support Team involves providing academic support for a range of research activities and projects across the School of Health. She also provides day‐to‐day, practical management of the Research Support Team, under the supervision of the Director of Research.

Dr Francesca Irene Cavallaro  is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Professional Ethics, University of Central Lancashire, UK, currently in charge of ProGReSS’ dissemination activity. She served as senior researcher and clinical research coordinator at Tecnalia Research and Innovation (Spain), where she has developed a thorough knowledge of both the industry and policy perspectiives on R&D+I projects related to health, ageing and ICT. Prior to joining UCLan in May 2014 she was associated researcher at the Law Science Technology & Society (LSTS) at Vrije Universiteit Brussel. With a PhD in Cognitive Sciences from University of Siena (Italy), a degree in Epistemology, and almost six years spent in private research and technology centers, Francesca posseses a multidisciplinary background and an extensive experience in working with designers, engineers, medical doctors, end users and end user organisations.

Heather Cadd is a Clerical Assistant in the Research Support Team at the School of Health. Heather provides a high level of administrative support to research projects across the School of Health. Prior to undertaking her current role, Heather has worked in the Health Care and Public sector gaining 18 months administrative experience. Heather holds an undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences from Lancaster University.

CSSC has pioneered research on ethical and policy implications of emerging technologies in the field of ICT for ageing, e‐Inclusion, biometrics, security, identification technology. CSSC carries out its work in several ways, including studies, publications, training, and coordination of multicentre research projects. Since 2002 CSSC has participated in 20 EC funded projects (coordinating 7 of them).

Prof. Emilio Mordini is a Psychiatrist and Philosopher. He has been formerly trained as a psychoanalyst and was partner of the Psychoanalytic Institute for Social Research (1986‐2001). From 1994 to 2006 Emilio taught bioethics in the Medical School of the University “La Sapienza” of Rome and served as a scientific secretary of the Bioethical Commission of the Italian National Research Council (CNR). Focusing his efforts on creating an international research centre devoted to ethical, political and social implications of emerging technologies, in 2002 Emilio founded the Centre for Science, Society and Citizenship (CSSC), that he is currently chairing.

Emilio has participated either as a partner or a coordinator in a number of international collaborative projects funded by the European Commission and by the NATO Science for Peace Program. He is currently coordinating the European Commission funded projects PACT and TELL ME. Emilio is a member of the management committee of the COST Action IC1106 Integrating Biometrics and Forensics for the Digital Age, where he chairs the Working Group 6 on ethical and societal implications, and a member of the management committee of the COST Action IC1206 De‐identification for privacy protection in multimedia content. He serves as a member of the CEN/TC224/WG18 on Biometrics; and he is member of the coordination group of the Integrated Mission Group on Security (ISM‐G) where he chairs the Technology Area 3 (Ethics, Human Factors, and Society). Emilio also chairs the Ethical and Privacy Committee of the European Association of Biometrics. Emilio has extensively published in academic peer reviewed publications, and edited 14 books. His most recent publications include (ed. with D.Tzovaras) Second Generation Biometrics: the Ethical and Social Context, Springer‐ Verlag:Berlin:2012 and Ethics and Politics of Concealment in the Global Information Society, Springer‐Verlag:Berlin: in press

Dr Bruno Turnheim is currently a research fellow at the Centre of Science, Society and Citizenship (CSSC) where he works on a number of European projects related to the ethical and societal aspects of science and technology. He is also a visiting fellow at SPRU (University of Sussex), one of the world-leading research departments focussed on studying the rate and direction of scientific change and innovation, the promotion and management of innovation, the regulation of technological risks, the search for effective energy policies and paths to a more sustainable society.

Bruno holds a PhD in Science and Technology Policy Research from SPRU (University of Sussex), an MSc. in Industrial Ecology from Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden), and an MSc. Eng. from Ecole des Mines de Douai (France).

Bruno has been involved in a number of European research projects. His research has been focussing on areas related to long‐term socio‐technical change, innovation, sustainable transitions, and the role of normative problems in science and technology trajectories more broadly. His multidisciplinary expertise stems for the combination of technical education and literacy with advanced studies in the social sciences.

Dimitris Dimitriou holds an MSc in Health Psychology (City University of London) and an MSc in Environmental Psychology (University of Surrey). He served as researcher for the British Standards Institution (BSi) in London for more than six years (2004 – 2011). Since 2011, Dimitris has been serving as a researcher in the Centre for Science, Society and Citizenship (CSSC), investigating issues relevant to technological interventions for health and psychosocial well‐being in ageing, as well as public perception and response to large-scale emergencies.

Dr Patrizio Romano Dell’Anna  is an Industrial and Organizational Psychologist, specialized in web communication, user interface design, usability and accessibility of web applications. Patrizio is currently a consultant for the Centre for Science, Society and Citizenship (CSSC). From 2008, he has been responsible for technical and design curation for the Center’s website and involved in design and development of a number of European projects’ websites. In the scope of Progress WP6 Dissemination he is in charge for the project website development, content curation and user access administration.

TECNALIA operates in all fields of industry. TECNALIA is a member of JIIP (Joint Institute for Innovation Policy), a member of the Executive Committee of EARTO (European Association of Research and Technology Organisations) and a member of EUROTECH.

TECNALIA’s Health Division is focused on developing ICT‐based solutions for autonomy, safety, independence and quality of life for disabled and elderly people: e‐health, rehabilitation, compensation for motor and cognitive impairments, assistive robotics, prevention of physical and cognitive deterioration, solutions for caregiver support are all part of the portfolio.

TECNALIA’s Information Strategies Division is focused on Social Innovation and reducing the digital gap by bringing Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) closer to citizens and small enterprises. The division possesses long standing experience in research dealing with Regional Knowledge Management (Science, Technology and Innovation), policy impact assessment, policy recommendations, industrial area management and sustainability.

Dr Michael Obach is a senior research scientist and project leader at TECNALIA Research & Innovation. He holds a diploma from the mathematics and computer sciences department of the University Kassel (Germany). In 2003, he obtained a PhD from the same university for his research on the Application of Artificial Neural Networks in Ecology at the Max-Planck Institute for Limnology (Schlitz, Germany). From 2003 to 2004, he was leader of several R&D projects at the Technology Centre IDEKO (Elgoibar, Spain). From 2005 to 2007, Dr Obach was coordinator of R&D projects on Speech technology, Biometrical systems, Pervasive Computing and Pattern Recognition at the applied research centre VICOMTech (San Sebastián, Spain). Since 2007, he is working with TECNALIA Research & Innovation (before 2011: FATRONIK-Tecnalia; San Sebastián, Spain) in European, Spanish, Basque and internal projects related to health and gerontology.

Dr Jesús Valero Congil holds an MSc in Biology and a PhD in Biology by the Chemistry Faculty of the University of the Basque Country (2000), a Master in Water Technology by the Polytechnic University of Cataluña (1992) and a Master in Marketing and Commercial Management by ESIC Marketing and Business School (2009). In 1994 he started his research career in TECNALIA in the field of microbiology (environmental, food and materials microbiology). His research has focused on the modification of materials surfaces to obtain bioactive materials for different applications. From 2005 to 2008 he was Head of the Biotechnology Department of TECNALIA where 15 researchers develop their research in the interphase between materials and biology. In 2008 he created a start‐up company called Biofinder S.L. in the field of rapid microbiology. From 2008 to 2010 he was Market Director of the Health Division of TECNALIA. In 2011 he was appointed as Unit Director of Health Technologies in the Health Division where currently he is R&D Director and responsible for commercialisation of the FIK project. He has negotiated several licenses at national and international level.

Dr Antonia Bierwirth earned her PhD in Innovation Management at the Autonomous University of Madrid, furthermore she holds degrees in Business Administration (University of Sofia) and Political Sciences (University of Frankfurt am Main), with postgraduate studies in Marketing and Economic Management of R&D Projects. Antonia possesses more than ten years of professional experience across a variety of innovation and research areas, such as business forecast & trends analysis, innovation in ICT and financial services, development of new business models. In Tecnalia she is working in the Technology and Society area, as an EU R&D Project Manager. Antonia also serves at the European Commission as a scientific and ethics evaluator of H2020 proposals. Her research interests include Social Innovation and Social inclusion initiatives, Responsible Research and Innovation, creation of sustainable business models and industrial design for personal, social and societal transformation. Antonia is fluent in four languages (English, German, Spanish and Bulgarian).

The Europäische Akademie has developed a Computational Policy Lab, which allows policies to be experimentally tested before implementation. Research supports policymakers and business managers in facing the economic, social and political challenges presented by developments in science, technology and innovation. The EA is currently involved in other EU‐funded projects, among them:

2011–2014 eGovPoliNet ‐ Building a global multidisciplinary digital governance and policy modelling research and practice community, CSA FP7;

2013‐2016 GREAT – Governance of Responsible Innovation, CP FP7.

Prof. Petra Ahrweiler. From 1st of April 2013 prospectively, Prof. Petra Ahrweiler will be Professor of Technology Assessment at the Johannes‐ Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany, and the Director of the Europäische Akademie. She studied law, sociology, journalism and political science at the University of Hamburg finishing with her Ph.D. in the area of science and technology studies at the Free University Berlin where she was supported by the German National Merit Foundation. Since her habilitation thesis at the University of Bielefeld on social simulation of innovation processes she worked as a Heisenberg Fellow of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG and as a Professor of Economic Sociology at the University of Hamburg where she built up a new research programme on innovation research. From 2007 until March 2013, she was Professor of Technology and Innovation Management at the Michael Smurfit School of Business at University College Dublin in Ireland, where she led the UCD Innovation Research Unit (IRU). Petra Ahrweiler has long experience as principal investigator and co‐ordinator of international projects on innovation networks, e.g. the EU projects on Simulating Self‐Organizing Innovation Networks (SEIN) and on Network Models, Governance, and R&D Collaboration Networks (NEMO). She holds various research awards and is a member of various advisory boards in both governmental and academic organisations.

Dr Stephan Lingner is deputy director of the „Europäische Akademie zur Erforschung von Folgen wissenschaftlich‐technischer Entwicklungen Bad Neuenahr‐Ahrweiler GmbH“. He is responsible for the academy’s research programme on technology and environmental assessment and has coordinated several interdisciplinary projects in this field. Previously, he was a research fellow at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), where he performed conceptual studies and systems analyses on new options for space exploration. Before, he was planetary scientist at Münster University. His research focuses on technology assessment, environmental ethics and space exploration.

Stephan Lingner is also Editor of the Springer book series “Ethics of Science and Technology Assessment”. He worked as Expert Reviewer for the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) and on other scientific programmes and projects. Stephan Lingner was lecturer for Ecology at the Koblenz University of Applied Sciences and has been a member of the German speaking “Netzwerk Technikfolgenabschätzung” (NTA), of the European Space Policy Research and Academic Network (ESPRAN) and of the Philosophy of/as Interdisciplinarity Network (PIN) at Georgia Tech University.

Dr Margret Engelhard, Dipl.‐Biol. studied biology in Marburg and Edinburgh and graduated 1997 in micro‐ and molecularbiology at the Phillipps‐ Universität Marburg and the Max‐Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology. For her Ph.D.‐thesis with Professor Thomas Boller at the University of Basel she continued to work on agriculturally relevant plants that are able to live in symbiosis with nitrogen fixing bacteria, and focused on the molecular crosstalk between these two organisms. For the genetic aspects of this work she stayed for half a year at the University of Geneva. In 2004 she was conferred a doctorate. In 2004, Margret Engelhard became member of the scientific staff of the Europäische Akademie zur Erforschung von Folgen wissenschaftlich‐ technischer Entwicklungen Bad Neuenahr‐Ahrweiler. Dr Engelhard has a scientific focus on philosophy of science and research on societal implications of biotechnology. She coordinated a number of interdisciplinary projects including a project on pharming. Currently she is chairing a project on Synthetic Biology.

Benjamin Schrempf. As of April 2013 Benjamin Schrempf will be working on the PRoGReSS project as scientific assistant at the Europäische Akademie. Besides that he is involved in the EU FP7 Marie Currie International Training Network project ‘ManETEI’ (managing emerging technologies for economic impact). Benjamin is currently pursuing a PhD at the University College Dublin in Complex Systems and Computational Social Science, supervised by Petra Ahrweiler. In his PhD work he is investigating the nanotechnology innovation network of Ireland with social network analysis methods. Based on the empirical data he is building an agent‐based model to simulate the emergence and dissemination of general purpose technologies. Benjamin graduated from the University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany in 2009 as Diplomoekonom. Prior and during his studies, he worked for Landesbank Baden‐Wuerttemberg, Volkswagen AG and Lux Research Inc.

IWEP regularly organises academic seminars and conferences to discuss topical international issues and is also involved with many foundation‐sponsored research projects. IWEP provides educational opportunities through the Department of World Economics and Politics at the Graduate School of CASS, offering Doctorate Degrees on World Economy and International Relations, Master Degrees on World Economy, Finance, International Trade and Investment, and International Politics. The Institute also has post‐doctoral research programs.

IWEP publishes the following academic journals: Journal of World Economy (monthly), World Economics and Politics (monthly), International Economic Review (bi‐monthly), China & World Economy (bi‐monthly, in English), The Yearbook of World Economy (annually). In addition, the CASS also publishes books and working papers on a broad set of international issues, such as The Yellow Book of World Economy, The Yellow Book of International Politics, Frontier Issues on World Economics, and Frontier Issues on International Relations Theories and Strategies.

Dr Yao Zhizhong is a senior fellow and Assistant Director of IWEP. He got his Ph.D.in Economics in 2002.His primary research area is macroeconomics and international economics.

Dr Han Bing is an associate research fellow at IWEP and she got her Ph.D.in law in 2007. Her primary research area is international investment law, international human rights law and Constitution.

Dr Li Guoxue is an associate research fellow at IWEP and he got his Ph.D.in Economics in 2007.His primary research area is international investment and global production networks.

The first interdisciplinary Center for ethics to focus on the professions, CSEP continues to be one of the nation’s leading institutes for practical and professional ethics. The primary question members of the Center are involved in answering is: “What is a scientist’s or an engineer’s responsibility to society?” The Center’s activities are overseen by a Board with significant industry representation, including high‐ranking staff from Boeing, Fox Entertainment, as well as several energy and IT companies.

Prof. Michael Davis is Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions and Professor of Philosophy, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL 60616. Among his publications are: Thinking Like an Engineer (Oxford, 1998); Ethics and the University (Routledge, 1999); Conflict of Interest in the Professions (Oxford, 2001); Profession, Code, and Ethics (Ashgate, 2002); Actual Social Contract and Political Obligation (Mellen, 2002); Engineering Ethics (Ashgate, 2005); Code Writing: How Software Engineering Became a Profession (Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions, 2009); and Ethics and the Legal Profession, 2nd (Prometheus, 2009). Since 1990, he has received four grants from the National Science Foundation to help integrate ethics into technical courses.

Kelly Laas is the Librarian/Information Researcher at the Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions (CSEP) at the Illinois Institute of Technology. During her seven years at the Center, she has supervised a number of projects relating to the development of online ethics resources and collections, including the management of CSEP’s large Online Codes of Ethics collection and the development of the NanoEthicsBank, a web‐based bibliographic database of materials on the social and ethical implications of nanotechnology. She also has collaborated with the National Academy of Engineering’s Center for Engineering, Ethics and Society in developing bibliographies and other materials for the Online Ethics Center, as well as developing the Ethics Education Library, an online database of articles, syllabi, ethics case studies, and best practices of how to integrate ethics into existing technical courses and workshops. Ms. Laas received her MLS in 2005 from the University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign, and is vice chair of the Ethics Committee of the American College and Research Libraries division of the American Library Association.

CAPPE aims to combine frontier research in social and applied philosophy with close attention to the concrete problems and requirements of practitioners in the public sphere. The Centre’s blend of in‐depth research and presence in the public sphere not only sets its work apart from otherwise comparable centres, but the interplay between these different elements improves the quality and relevance of the research and its impact on public life.

CAPPE has a proven track record of collaborating with European (e.g. Delft Technical University, Bradford/Exeter/Wellcome Trust dual use project) and other international (e.g., WHO (TB, dual‐use and collaborating centre for bioethics), HIF, UNESCO, Govnet etc.) institutions in research on the ethical and philosophical considerations in innovation, science, and technology.

Prof. John Weckert is Professorial Fellow at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics and Professor of Computer Ethics at Charles Sturt University. He is the founding editor‐in‐chief of the Springer journal NanoEthics: Ethics for Technologies that Converge at the Nanoscale. His current research interests are in the ethics of technology, especially new technologies.

Dr Emma Rush is a lecturer in philosophy and ethics at Charles Sturt University. Her research focuses on applied ethics, particularly environmental ethics and public ethics. Emma is also active in professional ethics, writing about newly professionalising work areas such as complementary medicine and creative industries, as well as teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students in human services and health.

Dr Mary Walker is a research assistant at the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, Charles Sturt University, and a Research Fellow at Macquarie University. Her current research focuses on defining disease in relation to overdiagnosis. Other research interests include narrative and practical identity, neuroethics, and philosophical contributions to health and health policy, with a particular interest in drug policy.

Prof. Rachel Wynberg. Associate Professor Rachel Wynberg holds a DST/NRF South African Research Chair in Environmental and Social Dimensions of the Bio‐economy, hosted by the University of Cape Town. Her work is focused on bio‐politics, the commercialization and trade of biodiversity, access and benefit sharing, and the integration of social justice into biodiversity concerns and environmental governance. She has consulted and published widely on these topics, including over 140 scientific papers, technical reports and popular articles, and four recent co‐edited books (Indigenous Peoples, Consent and Benefit Sharing: Lessons from the San Hoodia case, Springer, 2009; Wild Governance: Finding Policies that Work for Non‐Timber Forest Products, Earthscan, 2010; Sharing Benefits from the Coast: Rights, Resources and Livelihoods, UCT Press, 2013; and Governance for Justice and Environmental Sustainability, Earthscan, 2013). Rachel is also active in the NGO community in southern Africa and sits on the Boards of Biowatch South Africa, Environmental Monitoring Group and PhytoTrade Africa. She is also a member of the Expert Committee for the UK government’s Darwin Initiative, one of the largest and most significant global funders of biodiversity projects.

Prof. David Kaplan: BA BComm. (UCT) MA (Kent) DPhil (Sussex). Professor of Business Government Relations and Professor of Economics, UCT. Professor Kaplan has a long engagement in policy oriented research and working with government. 2000‐2003, first chief economist of the Department of Trade and Industry; 2004 ‐2010 Chief Economist (part‐time), Department of Economic Development and Tourism, Provincial Government of the Western Cape. He has a particular interest in innovation. He organized the first green paper on innovation policy in South Africa. He has been a member of the National Advisory Council on Innovation (NACI) and is currently engaged with NACI in a project reviewing South Africa’s innovation system. In the last 12 months, he has undertaken work for the World Bank: the African Development Bank; the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa; the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation; Business Leadership South Africa.

Jaci Van Niekerk holds a BSc degree in Zoology from the University of Stellenbosch and an MPhil in Environmental Management from the University of Cape Town. In 2008, she undertook her Masters dissertation which examined the contribution of the international trade in an endemic medicinal plant – Pelargonium sidoides, to rural livelihoods in South Africa and Lesotho. Since 2009 she has been employed at the Environmental Evaluation Unit at the University of Cape Town, conducting research on the social and environmental aspects of the commercial use of indigenous southern African biodiversity and the rights of small‐scale farmers. She has been involved in projects ranging from the preparation of guidelines for users of South Africa’s bioprospecting, access and benefit‐sharing regulatory framework to coordinating a week‐long training course for African participants on access and benefit sharing ‐ held in Cape Town in 2010, Nairobi in 2011 and Gaborone in 2013.

Laura Pereira completed her BSc (Hons) in Ecology at Wits University in South Africa before moving to Oxford where she did an MSc (on coca in Colombia) and DPhil (on private sector adaptation to climate change in South Africa and Brazil). Before starting her current post doc, she did a stint in sustainability science at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government where she looked at the case of cassava bread in Nigeria as part of the Innovation and Access to Technologies for Sustainable Development group. Laura is now based at UCT, where she works on orphan crop innovation for transformation in the food system.  In particular she looks at the interface between traditional knowledge systems and more formal systems of innovation with regards to food, nutrition and agriculture. She is a World Social Science and Future Earth fellow and is also a member of the Future Agricultures Consortium where she was an early career fellow in 2012. She has published quite widely on the food system and is currently working on a variety of projects, including a Future Earth funded initiative that aims to look at food system governance in southern Africa through the lens of the maize value chain.

San representatives have been collaborating with scientific research institutes for a number of years and their traditional knowledge on the appetite suppressant properties of a local plant have led to the most famous benefit sharing case to date.

Meryl‐Joy Schippers is a Human Ecologist, who started her professional career as an educationist from the mid‐1980’s to the mid‐1990’s. After a brief stint as a researcher in the Urbanisation and Health Department of the Medical Research Council, she joined the South African San Institute‐SASI, first as an Operations Manager. In the ensuing years she has held the post of Programme Manager and Deputy Director. She is currently on the board of SASI.

Roger Chennells, senior partner of the human rights law practice Chennells Albertyn (Stellenbosch, South Africa) since 1980, has specialized in labour, land, environmental and human rights law, with an overall emphasis on public interest law affecting rural communities. Prior to 1990, his practice represented and protected those that opposed the apartheid state, and after the overthrow of apartheid he began to represent indigenous peoples in their struggle for restitution of land and heritage rights, leading on to intellectual property and heritage related issues. Working as SASI legal advisor, he has acted for the San and other indigenous communities in a number of cases where their traditional knowledge of medicinal plants has resulted in commercial products, such as Hoodia, Sceletium, Buchu, Rooibos tea and others. Roger currently undertakes PhD research funded by the Wellcome Trust.

Jafta Kapunda, Para‐Legal is a Khwe male who was born in South West Africa while under South African occupation. The advent of Namibian independence and his father’s participation in the South African Defense force resulted in his move to Schmidtsdrift army base in South Africa. It is here that he gained a particular interest in political history and matriculated in 2002 from the ! Xunkhwesa Combined School in Schmidtsdrift. He passed with a distinction in history and continued to further his education when resources permitted. In 2004 he worked as a field worker with SSI and did data analysis for the history projects in the Khwe community. Therafter he worked for Deutsche Gesellschaft Fuer Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) as the project officer for the !Xun and Khwe indigenous community in Platfontein. Duties included community transformation and the development of the Platfontein game lodge. Since 2009 he has been working at the South African San institute as a Para‐legal Assistant under the supervision of Mr. Roger Chennells and continues to serve under such a capacity. He has conducted various community projects and workshops with the !Xun, Khwe and Khomani San communities. These projects include intellectual property rights protection, the preservation of traditional knowledge through the youth, and community awareness programmes. Jafta continues to be actively involved in various community activities such as Khwe Community Development Committee, Member of the Khwedam language Committee, Member of the Khoi, San and Nama Language Board and Member of School Governing Body of the !Xunkhwesa Combined School.

RIS is mandated to function as an advisory body to the Government of India on matters pertaining to multilateral economic and social issues, including regional and sub‐regional cooperation arrangements and innovation policies. RIS functions in close association with various governmental bodies, research institutions, academicians, policy‐makers, and business and industry circles in India and abroad. RIS has a consultative status with UNCTAD, NAM and the WTO and has conducted policy research and other activities in collaboration with agencies including UN‐ESCAP, UNCTAD, UNU, Group of 77, SAARC Secretariat, Asian Development Bank (ADB), The World Bank, and the South Centre.

RIS publication programme covers books, research monographs, discussion papers and policy briefs. It also publishes journals; South Asia Economic Journal, Asian Biotechnology and Development Review, and RIS Diary.

Dr Sachin Chaturvedi is a Senior Fellow at the Research and Information System for Developing Countries, a policy research institute in New Delhi, India. He works on key policy issues confronting the developing world with a focus on trade, technology and innovation linkages. He was Global Justice Fellow at the MacMillan Center for International Affairs at the Yale University, where he worked on drug prices and IPR related issues. He is author of two books, edited three volumes and has published several research articles in various prestigious journals and contributed chapters in different books. His experience and assignments include working at the German Development Institute (2007), Institute of Advanced Studies Shimla (2005) and the University of Amsterdam in 1996. He was a member of IGSAC Committee of Experts to develop a framework of Cooperation for conservation of biodiversity in the SAARC region. He has worked closely with several international agencies like the World Bank, UNESCAP, Bangkok, FAO and several other UN agencies. Currently he is leading the RIS work programme on emerging economies and their development cooperation polices and is Visiting Professor at the Centre for Studies in Science Policy. School of Social Sciences. Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi.

Dr Krishna Ravi Srinivas is an Associate Fellow with RIS and Managing Editor of Asian Biotechnology and Development Review. He holds a Phd from the National Law School of India University and did research on biodiversity and intellectual property rights. He was a recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship and was, a visiting Scholar at the Law School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia and a visiting Scholar at the Law School, Indiana University, Bloomington. He was a Post‐Doctoral Research Fellow at the South Centre, Geneva. He has written on inter alia, intellectual property rights, open source and open innovation models, traditional knowledge, and, climate change and technology transfer. He has been a consultant to UNDESA, Anthropological Survey of India and UNESCO.