Salvatore Barillà is a PhD candidate in Politics at the School of Social and Political Science of the University of Edinburgh. He obtained a combined Bachelor and master’s degree in Law at LUISS University (Rome) and a double master’s degree in European Studies at LUISS University and in International Relations at China Foreign Affairs University (Beijing). He is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AdvanceHE). He has served as a reviewer for Oxford University Press (OUP). His current research investigates the EU and China in the World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement, focusing on the role of ideas in international trade. In particular, it investigates the role of economic and legalistic programmatic beliefs in the EU and China's trade officials' approaches to the WTO dispute settlement. He worked as a legal intern in multiple law firms in different countries, and as an intern at the commercial office of the Italian Embassy in Belgium. He is interested in International Political Economy, International Trade and Investment Law, and EU-China studies.

Maria Berghs is an anthropologist with a PhD in sociology and social policy. She works in the field of medical anthropology and sociology, specialising in disability studies. Her research interests include disability, global health (sickle cell), humanitarianism, ethics, gender and West Africa (Sierra Leone).

Cameran Ashraf is an assistant professor at the School of Public Policy, Central European University, a human rights defender, and co-founder of international human rights and technology organization AccessNow. In recognition of his work, the European Parliament selected AccessNow as a finalist for the 2010 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, the European Union's highest human rights honor. In 2009 he assembled a team providing digital security to the threatened activists, journalists, and vital leadership websites during Iran's Green Movement, "the first major world event broadcast worldwide almost entirely via social media". Cameran and his team defended critical Green Movement websites from state-sponsored attacks, provided personal communications security for hundreds of vulnerable in-country activists and journalists, distributed proxy servers used by over 40,000 Iranians daily, facilitated more than 3 million protest video downloads from inside Iran, and played a key role in connecting millions worldwide to the peaceful protests. This work led Cameran to co-found AccessNow, one of the world's largest international human rights organizations dedicated to defending and extending the digital rights of users at risk. Cameran has been invited to speak at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, UC Berkeley, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and as an invited expert for the Kofi Annan Commission on Elections and Democracy in the Digital Age. He has also appeared in the New York Times, National Public Radio, Wired Magazine, and Bloomberg BusinessWeek. He has advised the International Criminal Court on digital security, given expert input to the offices of U.S. Senators Lindsay Graham and John McCain on global censorship policy, is a recipient of the University of California's Herbert F. York Global Security Fellowship, and awardee of a "Break the Blackout" grant from Avaaz.org. Cameran continues to work for human dignity and human rights through teaching, research, and meaningful engagement with students. He recently served as Deputy Director of the Open Society Foundations Internship for Rights and Governance, helping to prepare the next generation of human rights defenders. In 2015, he completed his Ph.D. at UCLA on the geopolitics of Internet censorship and cyberwar.

Sylvester has field and research experience in adolescents and young adults sexual behaviour and its psychological and sociocultural determinants. His research and community services are foregrounded on sexual health promotion and risk reduction among young people and evidence-based interventions and policies. Sylvester also conducts research on migrant health, health equity and the social aspects of emerging infectious diseases. He has worked in UNICEF and MacArthur Foundation funded projects on sexual and reproductive health and HIV/STIs prevention initiatives.