Antonio holds a PhD in Ecology (University of Almeria 2009) and is a Catedrático de Universidas (Full Professor) of Ecology at the University of Almería. He is an ecologist by training and a sociologist by passion—ultimately, a social-ecological systems scientist. His research centers on understanding and addressing conservation conflicts, with a broader interest in the complex and evolving relationships between people and nature. He aims to explore the ecological, economic, and psychological dimensions that shape conservation efforts and sustainability outcomes. Since 2024, he leads the Sustainability, Resilience, and Governance of Socio-Ecological Systems Lab (SociECOS Lab). He also serves as an Affiliated Faculty member in the Department of Biological Sciences at Idaho State University, a role I have held since 2018.

His academic journey is international and interdisciplinary. As a Ph.D. student, he conducted research as a visiting scholar at the Laboratorio de Análisis Regional y Teledetección (LART) at the University of Buenos Aires under Dr. José Paruelo (2006–2007). He was later awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at Charles Sturt University in Australia, collaborating with Dr. Gary Luck (2010–2011), followed by a research appointment at VU Amsterdam in the Netherlands with Dr. Peter Verburg (2011–2012). In 2011, he moved to the United States, where he spent over six years. He first worked as a postdoctoral associate at the University of Oklahoma with Dr. Caryn C. Vaughn (2012–2015), before joining Idaho State University as an Assistant Professor (2015–2018), where he founded the SociECOS Lab. Currently, he serves as an Associate Editor for Ecology & Society, People & Nature, and the Journal of Arid Environments. From 2018 to 2022, he was a Lead Author of Chapter 3 of the IPBES Values Assessment, contributing to the development of diverse valuation approaches. He also an active member of the new Society for Social-Ecological Systems (SocSES).

Antonio J.

Cristina holds a PhD in Applied and Environmental Sciences (University of Almeria 2016) and currently is a Ramón y Cajal Researcher at the University of Almería. She has an environmental science background and has a master’s degree on Global Change monitoring and Assessment. Her research is focused on the analyses of complex social-ecological systems, specifically with an interest on how people relate and interact with nature. She leads different projects under the umbrella’s concept of biocultural diversity, exploring how culture and biodiversity are interlinkages and how cultural dimension can shape and drive sustainability. Additionally, she is interested in the incorporation of gender approaches in science, and is a member of 

, a collective of women researchers who develops participatory, transdisciplinary and feminist approaches to address sustainability problems.

At academic level, she developed her Ph.D. thesis in collaboration with the Social-Ecological Systems Laboratory at the Autonomous University of Madrid, and at the Centro Andaluz para el Cambio Global - Hermelindo Castro (ENGLOBA) at University of Almería (UAL). She has a wide and extensive international experience as a predoctoral researcher (e.g., visiting researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Center in Sweeden and she was awarded buy a predoctoral fellowship at the Ciudad de Panamá in Panamá). After finishing her Ph.D., she moved to the United States, as a postdoctoral researcher at Idaho State University (2016–18), and later to Germany as a postdoctoral researcher at the Chair of Social-Ecological Interactions in Agricultural Systems at Kassel University (2018-21). In 2020 she got a Postdoctoral Research Grant of Junta de Andalucía and move to the UAL; later in 2021, she was awarded by a Marie Curie Fellowship at the UAL, where she was the PI of the 

Social-ecological pathways and gender perspectives for future conservation of biocultural mountain agro-ecosystems

 (2021-23) and later she was awarded by an EMERGIA postdoctoral grant where she led the 

Fostering social-ecological resilience to preserve biocultural diversity in rural Spain

Currently, she is a Ramón y Cajal Researcher and lead a research line focusing on Analysis of social-ecological systems and biocultural diversity. She is the PI of the EmBraCe project on “Evaluating biocultural diversity and social-ecological vulnerability for conserving rural areas in Spain”, funded by the Convocatoria de Generación de Conocimiento 2022. She also serves as an Associate Editor for Ecosystems & People and is an active member of the new Society for Social-Ecological Systems (SocSES).

Cristina

Juan Miguel holds a PhD in Applied and Environmental Sciences (2015) from the Centro Andaluz para el Cambio Global – Hermelindo Castro (ENGLOBA) at the University of Almería, as well as a Master’s degree in Global Change Assessment and Monitoring (2012). He is a quantitative ecologist with an academic path marked by a strong interdisciplinary and international orientation, bridging the ecological, computational, and social dimensions of challenges driven by Global Change. Following his doctoral studies, he embarked on a postdoctoral journey that led him to several leading research institutions in the United States, including Idaho State University, Boise State University, and the University of Michigan. During this international stage, he was also awarded support through the prestigious Microsoft AI for Earth program, furthering his efforts to apply machine learning and open data to pressing global environmental issues. These experiences strengthened his expertise in remote sensing, socio-ecological systems, and cutting-edge modeling techniques applied to environmental challenges.

In 2021, he returned to Spain as a recipient of a prestigious María Zambrano Fellowship for the Attraction of International Talent, where he expanded his research into the intersections of human, animal, and environmental health. He currently leads the AdapGreenAI project as the sole Principal Investigator at the University of Almería, exploring the use of artificial intelligence to develop sustainable solutions for intensive agriculture.

Alongside his research, Juan Miguel contributes to undergraduate and graduate teaching in Environmental Sciences, Agricultural Engineering, and Natural Resources Management. His academic career is complemented by active involvement in knowledge dissemination, public outreach, and open science. He has participated in collaborative research projects across Europe and the United States, contributed to scientific committees and editorial boards, and taken a leading role in organizing international and national conferences. He currently serves as a member of the Editorial Board of Global Environmental Change Advances, reinforcing his commitment to advancing high-quality research and scientific communication.

With a deep commitment to education and mentorship, he has supervised students at various academic levels and supported the training of the next generation of environmental researchers. In recognition of his scientific contributions, he received the San Alberto 2023 Research Award from the University of Almería for the highest-impact publication in Environmental Sciences. His professional trajectory reflects a consistent dedication to interdisciplinary collaboration, innovation, and the advancement of sustainability science.

Juan M.

Daniela holds a bachelor's degree in Environmental Engineering by the Universidad El Bosque, Bogotá-Colombia (2012-2017), during which I completed a 5-month academic exchange at Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Mendoza-Argentina (2016). Subsequently, she earned a European Master's degree in Sustainable Use of Natural Resources and Ecosystem Services from the University of Almeria (2018-2019), receiving the Extraordinary Master's Award for the best academic records in 2018-2019 academic year. In 2019, I began working as a research assistant in the LIFE project “

Restoring desertified areas with an innovative method of tree cultivation across the Mediterranean border to increase resilience

” led by the Andalusian Centre for Global Change - Hermelindo Castro at the University of Almeria. In 2020, I joined the Sustainability, Resilience and Governance of Socio-Ecological Systems Group (Sociecos), where she pursued a PhD funded by the University Teacher Training (FPU 2019) grant. Her thesis, titled "

Understanding conservation conflicts from social-ecological perspectives: analysis of cases in the Iberian Peninsula”

, was awarded the distinction of Outstanding Cum Laude with International Mention (October 2024).

Her PhD research employed social-ecological systems science to understand and manage conservation conflicts, considering the environmental justice perspective. During the PhD, she undertook two research stays, totaling four months, at the Social-Ecological Systems Institute, a European research center at Leuphana University, Germany (2022 and 2023). Her research outcomes include a total of 8 scientific articles published in recognized international journals and one chapter in 

The Routledge Handbook of Cultural Ecosystem Services.

Currently, her research focuses on wildlife interactions, conservation conflicts, and human dimensions of conservation, aiming to integrate social and ecological perspectives to enhance biodiversity conservation strategies. Since January 2025, she has been working as a postdoctoral researcher on the project “

Evaluating biocultural diversity and social-ecological vulnerability for conserving rural areas in Spain (EmBraCe)

Daniela

Enrica Garau holds a Bachelor's degree in Urban and Environmental Planning from the University of Sassari, Italy (2011–2014), and a European Master's degree in City Planning and Policies from the same university (2014–2016). In 2018, she completed a Master's in Management of Protected Areas at the Autonomous University of Madrid. She earned her PhD in Environmental Science from the Department of Geography at the University of Girona (UdG) in 2022. Her PhD research focused on human-nature relationships through a social-ecological lens, exploring perceptions, values, and mental models that influence freshwater resource management and landscape planning policies.

In 2022, she joined the SociECOS Lab at the University of Almería (UAL), and the Centro Andaluz para el Cambio Global - Hermelindo Castro (ENGLOBA), as a postdoctoral researcher within the EU-funded project 

“BONEX: Boosting Nexus Framework Implementation in the Mediterranean”. 

She currently holds a Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral fellowship at UAL. Her research focuses on the socio-cultural dimensions of urban nature, particularly on perceptions, values, preferences, and mental models in semi-arid urban contexts. The goal of her research is to inform the design of socially accepted urban nature spaces that enhance social-ecological resilience and human-nature connections in arid and semi-arid ecosystems.

Over the past three years, her academic journey has enabled her to establish a wide network of collaborations and participate in international research initiatives, such as the PECS Working Group and the YESS network. She has expanded her research network through active participation in national and international research projects and research stays at prestigious European institutions, such as the University of Kassel (Germany), the Stockholm Resilience Centre (Sweden), and the Social-Ecological Systems Institute (Germany). These opportunities have enhanced her interdisciplinary expertise in urban and environmental planning.

She has presented her research in different national and international conferences through oral and poster presentations, earning awards for best presentations at the XI Congreso Ibérico de Gestión y Planificación del Agua and the 3rd ESP Europe Conference. She has also co-chaired sessions at the 5th ESP European Conference (Wageningen, Netherlands, 2024) and the Spanish Ecology Society Conference (2023), where she also contributed to local coordination efforts.

Enrica 

Irene holds a double Bachelor’s degree in Biology and Environmental Sciences from the University of Navarra and a Master’s degree in Biodiversity Conservation, Management and Restoration from the University of Granada. She is currently a PhD student in the Applied Environmental Sciences program at the University of Almería, funded by a predoctoral fellowship (FPI) from the Andalusian Regional Government (Junta de Andalucía). Her doctoral research is supervised by Dr. Antonio J. Castro and Dr. Cristina Quintas-Soriano.

Her doctoral project focuses on the conservation of biocultural diversity in Spanish rural agroecosystems. She adopts a mixed-methods approach that has been combining systematic literature reviews, the development of a spatial index using online data, and participatory fieldwork—including interviews, surveys, and community workshops—to better understand how different generations perceive and engage with biocultural diversity in their rural landscapes.

As part of her academic training, Irene has carried out international research stays at the University of Western Australia (Perth), working with Prof. Graeme Cumming on remote biocultural diversity mapping, and at the University of Turku (Finland), collaborating with Dr. Nora Fagerholm on the participatory mapping of biocultural diversity. These experiences have broadened her methodological perspective and strengthened her commitment to interdisciplinary research in social-ecological systems.

Irene’s research interests include biocultural diversity, socio-ecological systems, landscape values and traditional knowledge. She is particularly driven by a desire to explore the emotional and cultural connections between people and nature, and how these connections influence conservation attitudes and decisions. Her work aims to inform more inclusive and effective conservation strategies that integrate local knowledge, intergenerational perspectives, and participatory governance.

Born and raised in Arazuri, a small village in Navarra, Irene’s passion for nature and science was nurtured from an early age. This personal connection with rural landscapes continues to inspire her work. She believes that science must serve people and nature alike, and she is committed to building stronger bridges between research, policy, and society.

Irene 

Álvaro holds a degree in Biology from the University of Granada (2023) and is currently enrolled in the Master’s program in Mediterranean Greenhouse Horticulture at the University of Almería. His passion for nature and ambition for sustainability are reflected in his long-term goal: contributing to the development of a sustainable territorial management model based on biodiversity conservation and the creation of a territorial identity closely connected to nature and its benefits.

During his studies, he collaborated with Prof. Dr. Francisca Ruano (UGR) and researcher Estefanía Rodríguez (IFAPA) in their research on semi-arid natural habitats surrounded by intensive crops, with a particular focus on the habitat remnants of 

 in the Campo de Dalías region (Almería). His main objective was to highlight the ecosystem services that these natural spaces offer to surrounding intensive agricultural landscape in order to foster synergies with conservation-driven measures. This line of research has been central to both his Bachelor's Thesis 

"Sentinel plant sampling to assess the effect of habitat proximity on biological control in protected horticulture."

"Biodiversity and biological control patterns"

Currently, Álvaro holds a research contract linked to the AdapGreenAI project, titled 

Bridging barriers in the adoption of an AI-powered pest early-warning network in greenhouses for Climate Change adaptation

, under the guidance of Dr. Juan Miguel Requena (PI). The project focuses on enhancing Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies through AI-driven solutions to monitor pest populations in greenhouse environments. This project serves as the foundation for Álvaro's future doctoral thesis and connects him with the SociECOS Lab team.

Álvaro

Youssra holds a master’s degree in Industrial Chemistry at the University of Tetouan (2018) in Morocco. Later, she got a master degree in Sustainable Use of Natural Resources and Ecosystem services at the University of Almería (2020) and developed her research practices at the SociECOS lab of lead by Prof. Dr. Antonio J Castro. During her master’s training she gained valuable knowledge and skills on the understanding of the social-ecological systems and the interdisciplinary assessment of ecosystem services.

Specifically, in her Master thesis entitled “Exploring landscape values and preferences to understand human-nature connectedness across Spanish drylands”, she investigated how ecosystem services values and preferences associated to landscapes of Spanish drylands can be integrated to understand conservation conflicts.

Currently, she is a PhD student under a predoctoral contract at the UAL, where she works with the Principal Investigator (PI) Dr. Cristina Quintas Soriano on the EmBraCe project titled “Evaluating biocultural diversity and social-ecological vulnerability for conserving rural areas in Spain” funded by the Convocatoria de Generación de Conocimiento 2022 from the Agencia Estatal de Investigación. Youssra is developing her Ph.D. thesis on biocultural diversity in order to understand which practices, traditions and knowledge are linked to nature and promote the conservation of biodiversity in southern Spain.

Youssra

Dr Sean Goodwin is a multidisciplinary researcher with a present research focus on urban climate change adaptation, nature-based solutions, and monitoring and evaluation. His research addresses pressing questions facing communities of research and practice at the intersection of climate change, biodiversity conservation, urban planning and social justice, such as, what does it mean to adapt to climate change “with nature” in cities and how will we know when we are adapting? His work with IMAGINE Adaptation focuses on answering these questions in relation to urban climate change adaptation, where the project has an explicit transdisciplinary focus in working with local actors in cities to improve the way they monitor, evaluate, and learn from their adaptation efforts to advance successful adaptation.

Sean

My name is Dainee Gibson, and I am overjoyed to join the Idaho Conservation League as a Conservation Analyst. I have dreamed of doing conservation work for as long as I can remember, and I feel so lucky to use my passion and skills to investigate climate change issues in Idaho.

I grew up on a family farm in rural Virginia, which established my appreciation for the natural world. From looking for white-tailed deer in the soybean fields to bird watching in the cow pastures, my childhood was marked by a desire to understand and preserve the environment around me.

A family road trip in the Rocky Mountains made me fall in love with this region, and I knew I would end up moving here from the southeast. After completing my bachelor’s degree in biology and sustainability science at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, I packed up my bags and finally moved out west to Pocatello, Idaho, where I obtained my master’s degree from Idaho State University.

My research at ISU consisted of using a social-ecological approach to identify conservation opportunities within the Portneuf River watershed. This experience immersed me in the state of Idaho, which I couldn’t bear to leave after graduate school.

At ICL, I will use my analytical skills to support our conservation programs. Working from the Boise office, I will be working with ICL’s climate team to help mitigate climate change in Idaho. I plan to combine my education in sustainability science and conservation biology with my background in agriculture to ensure conservation success in the state.

While I’ve spent the past few years living in both the eastern and western corners of southern Idaho, I am ready to explore more of the state! I’m always on the lookout for new animal species, and I never turn down an opportunity to see a moose.

Dainee

Adam 

Berta Martín López holds a degree in Environmental Sciences and a PhD in Ecology and Environment from the Autonomous University of Madrid. She is currently a professor in Sustainability Science at the Faculty of Sustainability at Leuphana University (Lüneburg, Germany). She is a member of the scientific committees of the ecoSERVICES program and the Programme for Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS), both affiliated with Future Earth, as well as the advisory board of BiodivERsA, the European network of funding organizations for biodiversity and ecosystem services research.

At the science-policy interface, she is heavily involved in the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), currently serving as coordinating lead author of the chapter on ‘Nature’s Contributions to Quality of Life’ for the Europe and Central Asia assessment. In the field of sustainability policy, Berta also contributed to the review of the Sustainable Development Goals conducted by the International Council for Science (ICSU).

Berta

Research Scientist at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) at the Institute for Advanced Social Studies (IESA).

His research aims to integrate approaches developed by various disciplines, including both social and natural sciences, to understand the complex relationships between biodiversity conservation and other human activities that rely on natural resources. He is particularly interested in investigating conservation conflicts through a multidisciplinary framework in order to find solutions that help mitigate them and ultimately contribute to the sustainable use of natural resources. He is an invited member of the expert group on “Sustainable Use and Livelihoods” of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and serves on the scientific committee of Future Earth (

 Miguel 

Mario holds a PhD in Applied Economics (University of Vigo, 2006) and is an Associate Research Professor at the CSIC Institute of Marine Research, where he has served as Head of the Department of Marine Ecology & Resources from 2023 to 2025. Previously he was associate lecturer and researcher at the University of Vigo, tenured scientist at the Spanish National Institute for Technology and Agricultural Research, and associate professor at the Complutense University of Madrid (currently on leave). His research areas fall within the field of environmental economics: environmental valuation and sustainable management of natural resources. His research has been applied to multiple environmental issues, such as energy, water, pollution, forestry, rural development, biodiversity conservation, protected areas, etc. He is (co)author of more than 70 papers in JCR journals such as Land Economics, Ecological Economics, Energy Economics, Energy Policy, World Development, Regional Studies, Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, Agricultural Economics, Forest Policy and Economics, Journal of Forest Economics, Science of the Total Environment, Journal of Environmental Management, Biological Conservation, Conservation Biology, Landscape and Urban Planning, among others. His research counts more than 1300 citations (h-index=21 based on Scopus). He regularly acts as reviewer for international scientific journals and since 2022 is Academic Editor of ‘Plos One’. Currently, his research interests focus on the economic valuation of ecosystem services in coastal and marine ecosystems, and how the psychological, institutional, socioeconomic and home-site factors influence the behavior of people. Ongoing research projects focus on effects of climate change in coastal environments, marine renewable energy, vulnerable marine ecosystems, by-catch in Atlantic fisheries, and conservation programs in protected areas.

Mario

Caryn Vaughn is a stream ecologist interested in the connections between biodiversity and ecosystem function, and how properly functioning ecosystems benefit humans. Most of her work has focused on unionid mussels, a highly diverse and imperiled fauna that serve as hotspots of biological activity in many rivers. She received her Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Oklahoma and conducted postdoctoral studies in marine biology at Rice University. She is currently synthesizing over 30 years of data on mussel functional traits, community change, environmental change and ecosystem processes to forecast future ecosystem function in rivers across a biogeographic region.

Caryn C.

Colden Baxter is a Professor of Biological Sciences at Idaho State University. He grew up ranching, principally in northwest Montana, and received training in biology and geology (BA, Univ. Oregon), ecology (MSc, Univ. Montana), fisheries science and philosophy of science (Ph.D., Oregon State Univ.), and food web studies (postdoctoral fellowship, Colorado State Univ. & Hokkaido Univ., Japan). He leads the ISU Stream Ecology Center, directs the Center for Ecological Research and Education (CERE), is director of ISU's graduate programs in biology, and recently served as president of the Society for Freshwater Science.

Colden V.

Jodi 

I am a Professor of Sociology at Idaho State University (hired August 2013, tenured in May 2018). I received a B.A. in Political Science from Colorado State University in 2001 as well as an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Arizona in 2007, both of which inform my work. I then completed a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Arizona in 2013 and started as an Assistant Professor at Idaho State University in Fall 2013.

I study the reality that fundamentally, there will be trade-offs involved with any of the policy and other negotiations associated with climate changes. This also means that the fairness of the outcomes will depend on an intentional building of alliances, in which researchers come to understand how different communities establish values — including those related to socio-environmental sustainability. My recent work has focused especially on rural farming communities’ legal issues regarding water rights and how the policy process, and the built-in uncertainties in it, affects farmers as they make early-season decisions and prepare for future crop years.

I am also just starting a Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) project working with rural communities in the Pacific Northwest to see what they need to adapt to climate change. This work is occurring primarily in Umatilla County, Oregon, and involves working with collaborators at the Climate Impacts Group at the University of Washington as well as a local community group in Umatilla/La Grande called Oregon Rural Action. For this project, which involves testing and mapping nitrate contamination in the local aquifer, both environmental justice and government accountability is centered.

I am currently working on a project centered around climate grief/eco-anxiety, and the role climate projections make in both the decision-making and mental health of young people. In the past I also examined international variation in public opinion about climate change and noted that respondents from developed “richer” countries were less concerned about the effects of a changing climate than those living in less developed places in which subsistence farming was still common. If you are interested in participating in this project — as respondent or other — please let me know.

Trina

Amanda Jiménez Aceituno, work as a researcher 50% in Germany at Leuphana University Lüneburg and 50% in Sweden at Stockholm Resilience Centre. My background is on Environmental Sciences, and I transitioned to TD during my PhD, that I did at the Ecology Department on Environmental Education programs for biodiversity conservation in Spain and Costa Rica. Now I work on sustainable transformations of the food system in drylands, using a pathways approach to reach the Sustainable Development Goals. Co-designing with different actors positive futures that help change the current trends of food related systems is my main current passion.

Amanda

Victor Galaz is associate professor in political science at Stockholm Resilience Centre, and programme director of the Beijer Institute’s 

Governance, Technology and Complexity programme

Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability (COSUST)

, and Member of the Advisory Panel to the Inter-American Development Banks (IDB) programme 

 He is a Senior Advisor to the programme 

 that explores responsible uses of novel technologies to accelerate biodiversity conservation and regeneration in Latin America and the Caribbean. He is the author of the book 

 about the impacts of artificial intelligence, digitalization and automation for the Biosphere, and regular contributor in Swedish media, including as a 

His research explores the political and governance challenges created by rapid global change, including globally networked risks, governance dimensions of “planetary boundaries”, the interplay between financial systems and Earth system dynamics, and the sustainability implications of novel technologies. Galaz's work about societal challenges created by technological change includes governance dimensions of geo-engineering, early warning systems of epidemic outbreaks, uses of social media to detect ecological change, online mis- and disinformation on environmental issues, and sustainability risks embedded in early applications of artificial intelligence.

Victor

Currently, Norström is the Science Director at the Earth Commission, while concurrently holding the position of Associate Professor at the Stockholm Resilience Centre and serving as a Science Committee member for the Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society. These roles showcase his commitment to exploring the complexities of our planet's interconnected social-ecological systems and advancing sustainable solutions.

In his prior role, Norström served as the Head of Knowledge for the Global Resilience Partnership (GRP), a collaborative effort comprising over 60 organisations that have joined forces to work together towards a world where people and places can persist, adapt and transform in the face of shocks, uncertainty, and change. The GRP secretariat is hosted by the Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University.


Norström's background is coral reef ecology, but his ongoing research areas are broad. His current work spans the Safe and just Earth System Boundaries (ESBs), assessing and operationalising resilience, transformation pathways towards sustainable futures, and gender and fisheries in the Global South.

, which is a suite of research activities that aim to solicit, explore, and develop a suite of alternative, plausible visions of “Good Anthropocenes” – positive visions of futures that are socially and ecologically desirable, just, and sustainable.

Norström served as Executive Director of Future Earth's Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS) between 2011-2018. PECS integrates research on the stewardship of social–ecological systems, the services they generate, and the relationships among ecosystems, human wellbeing, livelihoods, inequality, and poverty.

Between 2018-2020 he served as the Deputy Director of the Guidance for Resilience in the Anthropocene: Investments for Development (GRAID) programme which was hosted by the Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC) and funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).

Norström is currently a member of the Scientific Committee of the Future Earth Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society (PECS), and a member of the UNFCCC Race to Resilience technical & methodological expert group.

Albert

Aguiar is a researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre and at the Brazilian Institute for Space Research (INPE). Her research focuses on pathways to achieve the SDGs (UN Sustainable Development Goals), combining quantitative and qualitative approaches, with a focus on cross-scale participatory processes.

XPaths Project (Science in action: intersecting pathways to the SDGs across scales in drylands, one of the selected projects for the FORMAS “Realising the global sustainable development goals” program)

. This project addresses the critical issues of co-designing inclusive pathways towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through a science-action research process in three critical dryland regions - Senegal, Brazil and Spain. The project will run from 2021 to 2023 aiming at advancing the knowledge on barriers and leverage points for the achievement of the SDGs through participative transdisciplinary processes operating at multiple levels, from local to global, as a means to connect global goals to local issues and aspirations.

Aguiar joined SRC in 2017 to contribute to the center activities around UN 2030 Agenda, mainly the global initiative TWI2050 - a global initiative which supports the policy process and implementation of the UN Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). One of her key activities during this period was the development of an innovative pathways approach adapted to the context of the SDGs (Aguiar et al. 2021, Colste et al. 2020, Aguiar et al., 2019). Related to this work, she is currently part of the 

, a global modelling initiative aligned to TWI2050. The consortium's role at SRC is to organize the participatory process to co-design the new scenario narratives.

From 2016 to 2021, she contributed in multiple ways to the IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services), in particular as a Lead Author in IPBES Global Assessment launched in 2019 and as an expert in the scoping of the Nexus Assessment. She is also member of the IPBES Task Force in Models and Scenarios since 2019. She has also contributed eventually to IPCC (The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) as a scenario expert.

Aguiar holds a Bachelor degree in Computer Science (UNICAMP), MSc in Remote Sensing/Image Processing and PhD in Remote Sensing/Environmental Modeling (INPE). She has supervised a number of PhD and MSc students, working on various aspects of land use and cover issues, from local to regional scale, including deforestation, forest degradation, secondary growth vegetation dynamics, desertification and restoration. At INPE, she led the development of the open source spatially explicit modelling frameworks for land use change (

) and greenhouse gas emission estimates (

Ana Paula

I have a degree in Environmental Sciences. Master in Hydrogeology in arid areas. PhD in Applied Environmental Sciences. I was hired at CAESCG, doing research related to processes and methodological tools of science-management interface in the framework of socio-ecological systems governance. Since 2019 I am working as a postdoctoral researcher at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya.

My main area of research focuses on conducting inter- and transdisciplinary research to strengthen the links between science and other parts of society in order to advance the governance of social-ecological systems in different cultural, social and institutional frameworks. My motivation is to research so that scientific knowledge can be an engine of social learning and a driver of policy change to move towards sustainability.

María D.

I graduated in 2019 with a Bachelor’s degree in Biology with a minor in Applied Biology, from the University of Aveiro (Portugal). During this period, I joined the Wildlife Unit and the Bussaco National Forest Foundation with whom I did a curricular internship in which I studied the effects of invasive plant species and drought regimes in the macrofungi communities, which provided me with a useful experience with real implication on natural resources management.
Later on, I obtained a Master’s degree in Ecology and Environmental Management at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon. In the MSc’s final year, I engaged a curricular internship in the Directorate-General for Maritime Policy with the theme: "Comparison of the Evolution of the Ocean Economy of Portugal, Iceland, Norway and the United Kingdom”. It was during this time that I started developing a strong interest in the way businesses work and learned a lot about the application of economic science in an environmental context across different countries.
More recently, I am a PhD student in the BioDiv PhD programme where I will be focused on the way how businesses integrate biodiversity and ecosystem services in the decision-making process in the Water-Food-Energy Nexus. During this time, I will continue contributing to the identification of practical resource management measures, keep in touch with the business sector, and continue the work of articulating these issues with policies and decision-making, especially in cross-sectoral and relevant topics that provide essential tools to achieve an economically sustainable society.

Patricia

Full Professor in the Department of Ecology and researcher at the Socio-Ecosystems Laboratory of the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM). She holds a degree in Environmental Sciences (2006) and a PhD in Ecology and the Environment (2011) from UAM. Since then, she has developed her career by integrating ecology, social analysis, rural development, and agricultural sciences.

She has worked as a postdoctoral researcher in national and international institutions such as the University of Almería (2012), the University of Oxford (2012), and the Department of Social Analysis at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (2013–2015) through the competitive Alianza 4Universidades program. Between 2015 and 2019, she worked at the Madrid Institute for Rural Development, Agricultural and Food Research (IMIDRA) under a competitive contract awarded by the National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (INIA).

Since then, she has pursued a line of research from a transdisciplinary perspective, bridging science, management, and practice. This approach has enabled her to combine socio-ecological and agroecological frameworks, deepening the analysis of ecosystem services in agricultural systems, the promotion of agroecology, inclusive social farming, and the implementation of open agriculture laboratories (Agrolab) aimed at revitalizing the agricultural sector and rural areas.