Speakers

Michael was previously Deputy Head of International Research & Innovation (R&I) Cooperation Strategy, Innovation Union policy officer, Acting Head of Strategy for ICT R&I, Sector Head of ICT R&I Work Programme and Planning, coordinator of ICT Essential Technologies and Infrastructures, and project officer in High Performance Computing and Networking. Before joining the EC, he was with Computer Resources International and with Rovsing International. His educational background is from the University of Pennsylvania’s Computer and Information Science PhD program and from the Technical University of Denmark’s Electrical Engineering Master’s program.

Miloslav Bahna is a senior researcher at the Institute for Sociology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, where he currently serves as its director. His research focuses on international migration, quantitative comparative sociology and quantitative survey methodology. He is a long-term representative of Slovakia in the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) and a former director of the Slovak Archive of Social Data (SASD). He currently represents SASD at the CESSDA GA.

Darren Bell has worked at UK Data Service (UKDS) for twelve years, firstly as a data modeller and as Director of Technical Services since the beginning of 2020. Before 2012, he worked in roles in both global infrastructure and development in both the public and commercial sectors. His special interests are metadata uplift through AI and the automation of traditionally administrative practices like curation and access management. He is vice-chair of the DDI Scientific Board and chair of the CESSDA Interoperability Working Group.

Mercè Crosas is the Director of Computational Social Sciences and Humanities at the Barcelona Supercomputing, leading a pioneering initiative to understand current and past large-scale, complex questions in human societies, using new types of data, Artificial Intelligence, and High-Performance Computing. Crosas is also President of CODATA, the Committee on Data of the International Science Council, and an affiliate of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University. Crosas holds a PhD in Astrophysics from Rice University and a degree in Physics from the University of Barcelona. She completed both predoctoral and postdoctoral fellowships at the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard University, where she spent most of her professional career.

Dr Ingrid Dillo was Deputy Director at Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) in the Netherlands for 10 years. She is now affiliated with the institute as senior advisor. Ingrid holds a PhD in history and has worked in the field of policy development for the last 35 years. Among her areas of expertise are research data management and the certification of digital repositories. Ingrid is chair of the Board of the RDA Europe (Research Data Alliance). She led the EU-funded FAIRsFAIR and FAIR-IMPACT projects.

Maja Dolinar is Head of the Slovenian Social Science Data Archives (ADP) at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, where she leads national infrastructure for the preservation, curation, and reuse of social science research data. Her work focuses on trustworthy digital repositories, FAIR data, long-term digital preservation, and open science governance at both national and European levels.

Tiziana Ferrari is Director of the EGI Foundation since 2020. She holds experience in management of large-scale research infrastructures, European science policy and governance, ICT standardisation, federated service management, and project management. Tiziana was formerly Technical Director and Chief Operations Officer of the EGI Infrastructure, taking care of the operations coordination of the technical infrastructure, one the largest computing platforms for research in the world. Tiziana holds a PhD in Electronics and Data Communications Engineering from the Universita’ degli Studi in Bologna.

Darja Fišer is Executive Director of CLARIN ERIC, the European virtual distributed research infrastructure for language data, tools and services which currently has 27 member countries from Europe and beyond. CLARIN, which has been on the ESFRI roadmap since 2006, gained ESFRI ERIC status in 2012 and Landmark status in 2016, provides access to over 500,000 language resources, tools and services. CLARIN's 22 CTS-certified data centres have a focus on FAIRness & interoperability (federated login, central metadata harvesting for easy discovery, and chained services). CLARIN's 39 Knowledge centres cover a large number of research topics, languages and resource types.

Professor Rory Fitzgerald is Director of the European Social Survey (ESS), established as a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ESS ERIC) in 2013 and hosted at City, St George’s University of London. ESS ERIC now has 30 Members (November 2021), over 230,000 registered users, significant policy and media impact and extensive use in teaching and research across Europe and the rest of the world. Professor Fitzgerald is currently working to expand the ESS to include a regular cross-national web first panel.

Catalina Franco is a researcher at the Centre for Applied Research (SNF) and the Centre of Excellence FAIR at NHH Norwegian School of Economics. Her research examines how generative AI is reshaping mental health support, education, and work—often in gendered ways. Featured in Aftenposten and The Economist, her work shows that men adopt AI tools faster and turn to them more readily for emotional support than women, raising new questions about gender inequality in the age of AI.

Marijana Glavica works at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, where she currently leads the Croatian Social Science Data Archive (CROSSDA), a Service Provider for CESSDA ERIC. Her career is dedicated to supporting researchers and students in their various information needs. As a Psychology graduate, she developed interest and expertise in research data management and archiving by participating in several international projects and by attending numerous workshops and lectures in close cooperation with the CESSDA network.

Professor Matthew Gray is Director of POLIS: The Australian National University Centre for Social Policy Research and President of the World Association of Public Opinion Research Asia-Pacific Chapter. Matthew’s research focuses on social and economic policy. He has extensive experience in data-driven policy analysis, evaluation of government programs, and collaboration with national agencies.

Hilary Hanahoe serves as Secretary General of the Research Data Alliance (RDA) and CEO of the RDA Foundation, leading a global community of over 16,000 members across 151 countries. She provides strategic leadership whilst managing operations, cultivating relationships with funders and stakeholders, and ensuring long-term sustainability. Her work centres on stewarding RDA's dynamic volunteer community dedicated to enabling open data sharing and reuse globally, championing the organisation's mission to break down barriers to global data accessibility.

Bjørn Henrichsen is a pioneering figure in European research infrastructures and social science data services, with a career spanning more than four decades. He served as Executive Director of the Norwegian Centre for Research Data (NSD) from 1975–1981 and again from 1984–2018, playing a central role in building sustainable national and international data infrastructures. Bjørn has held numerous leadership positions across Europe, including Vice-President and President of CESSDA, Chair of the CESSDA AS/ERIC Board, and Norwegian Delegate to ESFRI, where he also chaired the Social Sciences and Humanities Strategy Group. He has further contributed to the development of research data standards and services as Deputy Director for Strategy at European Social Survey (ESS ERIC) Data Advisor to the European Science Foundation, and the first Chair of the DDI Alliance. His work has been instrumental in shaping the governance, strategy, and long-term sustainability of social science research infrastructures in Europe.

Simon Hodson (he / him) has been Executive Director of CODATA, the Committee on Data of the International Science Council, since August 2013. Simon is an expert on data policy issues and research data management. Most recently, he was coordinator of the groundbreaking WorldFAIR project, which is now being extended as an international collaborative initiative, WorldFAIR+, to advance the development and implementation of the Cross-Domain Interoperability Framework (CDIF). Simon has contributed to a number of landmark reports and policy documents: he chaired the European Commission’s Expert Group on FAIR Data which produced the Turning FAIR into Reality report. He was also vice-chair of the UNESCO Open Science Advisory Committee, with an influential role in drafting the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science, which was adopted in November 2021.

Jeannette Jackson is the Director of Strategic Initiatives for ICPSR at the University of Michigan. In this role she leads the work for the Research Data Ecosystem (RDE) an NSF funded infrastructure project - modernizing the software platform and building tools across the research data lifecycle - and an initiative fostering technical collaboration across the global Social Science Data Archive Network. She received her MBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business and BA in Economics from Smith College.

André Jernung works as a Research Data Advisor at Swedish National Data Service (SND), which is hosted by the University of Gothenburg.

Dr. Eija Juurola is the Director General of ACTRIS ERIC. ACTRIS, the Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research Infrastructure, European research infrastructure delivering high-quality integrated datasets and access services in the field of atmospheric sciences. Before joining ACTRIS during its implementation phase, she worked in ICOS ERIC, the Integrated Carbon Observation System. She obtained the PhD in University of Helsinki. Dr. Juurola was the Chair of the ENVRI Board in 2025 and is the Vice Chair of the ERIC Forum.

Lars Kaczmirek is Head of AUSSDA – The Austrian Social Science Data Archive. He holds a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Mannheim and specializes in research infrastructure development and survey methodology. He previously served as Associate Professor at the Australian National University and as Adjunct Assistant Research Scientist at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research. He leads the strategic development and scaling of research infrastructure services and has acquired and managed competitive national and international funding, advancing open, high-quality science.

Seokho Kim is a professor at the Department of Sociology, and director of KOSSDA(Korea Social Social Science Data Archive) at Seoul National University. He received his Ph.D. in Sociology from University of Chicago. His research interests are political attitudes and behavior, civil society, international migration, and survey methodology. He has authored a number of papers on political participation, voluntary associations, voting behavior, migrant workers in Korea, multiculturalism among Koreans, scale development, and survey non-response on several prestigious journals. Address: College of Social Sciences, Bldg. 16, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea E-mail: seokhokim@snu.ac.kr

Mari is Development Manager at the Finnish Social Science Data Archive (FSD), the national SP for CESSDA ERIC. Mari has 25+ years of experience in digital data preservation and open science. She has contributed to building EOSC in several EU projects on topics related to metadata, FAIR, repository certification and trust. Currently she is active in the FIDELIS project, chairs the CESSDA Trust and Landscape WG, is a member of the EOSC TF on FAIR, and the EDDI Conference Program Committee.

Since 2008, Brian Kleiner is head of Data Management and Archive Services at FORS, and member of the FORS Executive Board. His ongoing work involves the provision of research infrastructure and services to support work and data sharing in the social sciences in Switzerland. He specializes in research data management topics, such as data security, informed consent, and anonymization.

Dimitra Kondyli studied sociology, political sciences and anthropology in French universities and she holds a PhD from the Doctoral School of Social Sciences, section of Anthropology, university Paris VIII-St. Denis. She is currently Deputy Director of the Institute of Social Resaerch at EKKE, Greek representative at the CESSDA GA and SPF as well as Chair of the SoDaNet Steering Committee and co-scientific responsible of the EKKE Repository. She represents EKKE at the Greek Initiative for Open Science since 2019. She has coordinated european as well as national research projects and has been part of the core research team in more than forty research projects. Her research interests include: a) Social research methodological issues pertaining to the development of research infrastructures b) Research on digital transformation and the impact of ICTs on the fields of work and education. c) Gender aspects of R&D d) Migration from a gender perspective.

For over ten years, Helena Laaksonen has served as Director of the Finnish Social Science Data Archive (FSD), a Service Provider of CESSDA ERIC, following more than a decade as Deputy Director. Her background is in comparative sociology. She also chaired the CESSDA ERIC General Assembly from 2021 to 2024.

Giovanni Lamanna holds an experimental sub-nuclear physics PhD. Giovanni Lamanna is the director of the CNRS LAPP laboratory. His main research interests are in the interfaces between Particle Physics and Astrophysics. His experimental activities concern the development of advanced research instrumentation and data processing methods. Giovanni Lamanna has been involved in the conception and preparation of the CTA Observatory, serving as coordinator of the Data-Management project, and having a leading role in the design and construction of the first Large Size Telescope (LST-1) deployed at La Palma Island. He is the director of the ESCAPE cluster open collaboration and the coordinator of the Horizon-Europe OSCARS project.

Dr. Pei-shan Liao is currently a Research Fellow at the Research Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, Academia Sinica, and serves as Chair of the Institutional Review Board for Humanities and Social Science Research at Academia Sinica. She has served as Executive Editor for several distinguished academic journals in Taiwan. Her primary research interests encompass survey research methodology, subjective well-being, and the sociology of natural resources and the environment.

Georg Lutz has served as Director of the Swiss Center of Expertise in the Social Sciences (FORS) since 2016 and is a professor of political science at the University of Lausanne, where he conducts research and teaches on political behavior and research methods. He also serves on the governing and scientific boards of numerous national and international organizations and research infrastructures.

Lorenz Makula is the Principal Investigator of the OSTrails Project (Horizon Europe), which supports the planning, tracking, and assessing of scientific research data. He has also developed a mentoring program for OSCARS-funded projects on behalf of CESSDA. In another project, he contributes to the dissemination of ESS survey data. Previously, he served as Service Owner for CESSDA services DMEG, DAG, and CVS. He is also a member of the EOSC-A Task Force “FAIR Metrics and Digital Objects.

Dr. Steve McEachern has served as Director of the UK Data Service at the University of Essex since August 2024, following 15 years as Director of the Australian Data Archive. As Director he is responsible for the UKDS strategic direction and leading the partnership of 5 organisations delivering the Service from 2024-2030. Steve has over 25 years of experience in data archiving, survey data collection, and teaching of research methods in the social sciences in Australia and the UK.

Yasuyuki Minamiyama is an associate professor in the Center for Social Research and Data Archives at the Institute of Social Science, the University of Tokyo, Japan. His expertise is in interdisciplinary data curation methodologies, and he has been working with data curators from various fields such as earth sciences, life sciences, and humanities and social sciences. Currently, he is practically exploring how to facilitate the re-use of social survey data through a survey of metadata descriptions in representative data archives.

Vigdis Namtvedt Kvalheim is Director of Research and Knowledge Resources, Sikt – The Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research. Kvalheim came from the position as Director of NSD, a position she held from August 2018. She has spent all her career in the research infrastructure business, being actively involved in data infrastructure activities and projects both nationally and internationally, particularly in the context of CESSDA.

Marthe Nordtug is Director in the Department of research, higher education and international affairs in the Norwegian ministry of research and education. Nordtug is responsible for overseeing strategic initiatives related to research and higher education policy. This includes Norwegian policies on research infrastructures and on European cooperation on research and higher education. Nordtug is concerned with a whole-of-government approach, and the ability to navigate in the intersection between academia, government, and international cooperation.

Professor Linda Nøstbakken is Research Director at Statistics Norway and holds a professorship in economics at the Norwegian School of Economics. Her research focuses on natural resource and environmental management, including marine resources, endangered species protection, and the renewable energy transition. She has served on editorial boards or as co-editor for several academic journals. She has extensive policy experience from serving on and chairing public commissions and advisory panels and currently serves on the board of the Research Council of Norway and as President of the European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE).

Hilde Orten works as a metadata specialist at Sikt, focusing on cross-domain interoperability. She is involved in the work of the DDI Alliance and is the current chair of the DDI-Alliance Scientific Board. With background from the European Social Survey, she is engaged in several EU funded projects focusing on integrating environmental data with data from social surveys and other projects involving cross-domain interoperability, for example SoGreen and CLIMATE-ADAPT4EOSC. Hilde is also member of the EOSC-A Semantic Interoperability sub group.

José Luis Martínez Peña is a distinguished physicist and research leader with extensive experience in materials science and research infrastructure. He was Full Professor of Physics at the University of Madrid (1984–1987) and later worked at the European research facility Institut Laue Langevin in Grenoble, France. In 1992 and held several senior research management roles, including Deputy Director General for Research Projects at the Spanish State Secretariat for R&D and Deputy Director General of Institut Laue Langevin (2007–2012). Since 2016, he is Chair of the European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) for the period 2024-2026. He holds a PhD in Materials Physics from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.

Brett M. Powell is the Associate Director of the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at Cornell University, where he directs the daily operations of the Center, including the archiving, software development, and membership/marketing teams. Brett is an adjunct professor at the Roy H. Park School of Communications at Ithaca College and previously taught psychology at Corning Community College. Brett holds an MS in Experimental Psychology from Saint Joseph’s University and earned his MBA at Cornell University.

Matthias Reiter-Pázmándy is Deputy Head of the Department for Social Sciences and Humanities in the Directorate General for Scientific Research, International Relations, Gender Equality and Diversity Management in the Austrian Federal Ministry for Women, Science and Research. Currently he is delegate in the Programme Committee for Cluster 2 in Horizon Europe and Chair of the General Assembly of CESSDA ERIC.

Nicolas Sauger is Director of Progedo, the French national infrastructure for quantitative social sciences. He is also Professor of political science and methods at Sciences Po, Paris. He has been working in a data archive since 10 years, with comparative surveys for 20 years. He has been especially involved with the European social survey and with the Comparative Survey of Electoral Systems. His works has been recently published in journals as American Journal of Political Science and Comparative Political Studies.

Carthage Smith joined the OECD as head of the Global Science Forum (GSF) Secretariat in 2014. He is responsible for working with countries to define the overall strategy and priorities for the Forum. This includes policy work on research infrastructures, open Science, research funding, science advice, research security and research careers. Carthage was originally trained as a biochemist, with a PhD in neuroscience. He has previously held senior roles at the UK Medical Research Council International Council for Science.

Sonia Stefanizzi is full professor of Sociology. She teaches in the bachelor's and master's degree program in Sociology and in the international PhD program Analysis of Social and Economic Processes (ASEP). She is president of the Italian Sociological Association (AIS). She is the national coordinator of the Research Infrastructure DASSI (Data Archive for Social Sciences in Italy), which is part of CESSDA-ERIC and she is the Italian representative in the Strategy Working Group on Social Science and Humanities of ESFRI (European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures). She has coordinated several national and international research projects including the Project of Excellence (2023-2027) of the Department of Sociology and Social Research. Her research interests cover the fields of research infrastructures, epistemology, research methodology, deviance and urban security.

Eva Stensköld has served as Director of the Swedish National Data Service (SND) since February 2024. SND is Sweden’s national research infrastructure supporting open access to digital research data across all disciplines. With a PhD in archaeology, she has a background in the cultural-heritage sector and has held senior roles in research funding and policy at the Swedish Research Council, Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, and the Ministries of Education, Research, and Culture. She brings extensive experience in European, Nordic, and national research-policy development, particularly in research infrastructures, open science, and research data.

Eiríkur holds a Ph.D. in zoophysiology from Göteborg University and a M.Mus. in musical composition from the Icelandic University of the Arts. His current role at the University of Iceland is within the Division of Science and Innovation, where he is the director of the Office for Research Infrastructure and Research Data.

Erik Ø. Sørensen is a professor of economics at the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) and co-principal investigator at the FAIR Centre for Experimental Research on Fairness, Inequality and Rationality. His research applies experimental and behavioral economics to the study of fairness, inequality, responsibility, and moral decision-making. He has held positions in Mannheim, Amsterdam, Oslo, and at NHH, served on Norway’s commission estimating the emission effects of climate measures, and heads the FAIR data infrastructure unit.

Bojana Tasic is Head of Infrastructure & Development at FORS, leading national initiatives in open science and responsible AI. With a strong background in software engineering, she specialises in building FAIR repositories and sustainable research infrastructures. She completed advanced studies at the University of Oxford in AI Ethics, Regulation and Compliance, and Artificial Intelligence for Business. Combining technical expertise with a deep commitment to governance and ethical innovation, Bojana drives collaborative, transparent, and future-ready solutions across the research ecosystem.

Audrone Telesiene is professor of sociology and communication science, and head of the Center for Data Analysis and Archiving at Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on social dimensions of climate change, environmental attitudes and behaviours, risk perception and communication, open science and sustainable development. She works with the Lithuanian open research data infrastructure LiDA (service provider, CESSDA ERIC), and has made significant contributions to the European Social Survey – ESS-ERIC, and the International Social Survey Programme – ISSP.

Javier Teran is the Data Partnerships Lead and a Statistician at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). He oversees the maintenance of the Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX), OCHA’s open platform for sharing data on humanitarian crises, ensuring the consistent application of organizational and international standards across the platform. He brings more than 20 years of professional experience in statistics and analysis, gained through roles across multiple United Nations organizations.

Klaus Tochtermann studied computer science at Kiel University and at Dortmund University, where he received his doctorate. From 2001 to 2010 he was the scientific director Know-Center, a competence centre for information technology-based knowledge management located in Austria. Since 2010, Klaus Tochtermann has been the director of the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics in Kiel and Hamburg, and has held a chair for Digital Information Infrastructures at Kiel University. Since 2025 he has been President of the EOSC Association.

Olja Toljagic is a senior adviser at the Research Council of Norway, ESFRI delegate for Norway, and National Contact Point in Horizon Europe Research Infrastructures Programme.

Johan Van der Eycken is Head of the Digital Archiving Service at the Belgian State Archives. He leads the federal strategy for digital preservation and is responsible for SODHA, Belgium’s platform for long term access to digital research data. His work focuses on sustainable workflows, metadata quality and interoperability. He contributes to European research data initiatives through DARIAH and CESSDA, aligning national practices with international standards. Johan is also a research fellow at KU Leuven, working on AI in the humanities.

Maaike is a Research Data Management Specialist at the Dutch National Centre of Expertise and Repository, DANS. In her role, she works to translate ongoing developments and new insights between the Dutch national context and the wider European and international landscape. Her specific area of expertise is repository trustworthiness. Maaike serves the CoreTrustSeal Board as Treasurer, leads the Training and Support Pillar in the FIDELIS project, and focuses on CoreTrustSeal support in the CESSDA Trust and Landscape WG.

Professor Barbara Wasson is Director of the Centre for the Science of Learning & Technology (SLATE), University of Bergen, and co-Director of the national AI Centre for the Empowerment of Human Learning (AI LEARN). Wasson is a member of the Norweigan Ministry of Education’s expert commission on AI in Higher Education and Council of Europe’s expert group on AI and Education. She teaches the popular data literacy course Fantastic Data for UiB students/staff and in the continuing education programme.

Katrin Weller is Scientific Director of Data Services for the Social Sciences at GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences and Professor for Research Data Management at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Germany. Her interdisciplinary work bridges data archiving, research data management, and computational social science, focusing on enhancing data accessibility and quality. She collaborates with international networks to advance best practices in data sharing and supports innovative research using digital behavioral data such as social media content.

Deborah Wiltshire is based at GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences, where she leads the Secure Data Center, a Trusted Research Environment, which provides safe access to a wide range of sensitive data. As the Chair of the CESSDA Sensitive Data Working Group, Deborah participates in several projects, including EOSC-ENTRUST, aimed at enhancing transnational data access and the ASSURED project which focuses on developing training for researchers working with sensitive data. Additionally, she has published on topics such as training, data governance and the safe use of sensitive data. For more detailed information, you can visit her profile on the GESIS website.

Christof Wolf is President of GESIS Leibniz-Institute for the Social Sciences and professor of sociology at University of Mannheim. His research interests include survey methodology, statistics, and social inequality.

Bonnie Wolff-Boenisch is the executive Director of CESSDA ERIC. Bonnie has 25 years of work experience in research and infrastructures, management and advocacy across different countries, cultures, and research disciplines. She is a member of Scientific Advisory Boards in Germany, Italy, France and the US. Bonnie Wolff-Boenisch has a PhD in Isotope Geochemistry from the Max-Planck Institute in Mainz, Germany. She is the Chair of the ERIC Forum since January 2026.

Lynn Woolfrey is a data scientist in the field of data curation with 30 years’ experience in preserving and sharing African data from governments and research institutions. She is responsible for data services and infrastructure at DataFirst, a research data service at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. DataFirst’s open data repository, that provides access to African data, is a World Data System member repository and has been awarded the Data Seal of Approval and CoreTrustSeal trusted digital repository certifications.

Olga Zhmurko is a researcher at the Czech Social Science Data Archive (CSDA), Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and a PhD student at Masaryk University (Brno, Czech Republic). She actively collaborates with research infrastructure initiatives in Ukraine, including the Kyiv Archive, to support data exchange for current social research. She leads the project “Identity of Ukrainian Students in the Czech Republic under War and Crisis" at the Czech Academy of Science. Her interests include access to education in Ukraine, migration, cultural sociology, and identity formation during war and crisis.