Ulrike founded the European Democracy Lab in 2014. She holds a professorship  at Danube-University Krems, in Austria and continues to support the Lab as a scientific advisor. She is a political scientist with 20 years of experience in the European think tank community and has taught at universities in Europe and the United States. She is the visionary behind the European Republic and the inspiration for the Lab’s overall agenda.

Alberto Alemanno is an academic, civic advocate and public interest lawyer. He’s currently the Jean Monnet Professor of EU Law at HEC Paris and Global Professor of Law at New York University School of Law in Paris. Due to his commitment to bridge the gap between academic research and policy action, Alberto pioneered innovative, gamified forms of civic engagement and activism in the transnational space via his civic start up The Good Lobby.

Daphne Büllesbach is the Managing Director at Humboldt-Viadrina Governance Platform. Before she was the Executive Director at European Alternatives. In 2012 she founded the Berlin office after having been an activist with EA for a couple of years. She is interested in the sustainable networking of civil society actors in Europe.

Tilo Jung is a journalist and chief editor of the political webshow “Jung & Naiv”. Even before starting studies in Business Administration and Law, he worked as a freelance reporter for the regional newspaper. He then moved on to working for the radio and finally founding his own political talk show, which aims to make an accessible contribution under the headline “Politics for the Indifferent” by inviting interesting politicians, journalists and other well-renowned commentators. His current focus is regular press conferences of the German government.

Robert Menasse is a novelist and political-journalistic essayist. Having studied philosophy, political science and German studies in Salzburg, Vienna and Messina, his work mainly deals with European institutions, the idea of a Europe of Regions, Austrian history and the role of underdogs in society and literature. Before returning to Vienna in 1988, he taught as a guest lecturer at the University of São Paulo. He has also been honoured with various prizes.

Emilia Pasquier works as a foreign, economic and cultural policy consultant of the Swiss President Alain Berset. Previously, she was the Managing Director of the foreign policy think tank foraus as well as Deputy Secretary General for the UN Global Compact Switzerland and the Swiss Chamber of Commerce. Having studied political and economic philosophy, she also joined the Année Politique Suisse as a researcher and author, and is a board member of the Swiss Society for Foreign Policy and the European Forum Alpbach.

Wolfgang Petzold is the deputy director for communications of the EU’s Committee of the Regions. He has previously worked for the European Commission’s Regional Policy and Employment and Social Affairs Directorate-Generals and is also an occasional researcher and part-time lecturer at the University of Osnabrück.

David van Reybrouck is a cultural historian, archaeologist, journalist, dramatist and author.

Elke Schmitter is an author and journalist who has led the German newspaper “taz.die tageszeitung” and written for “Die Zeit”, “Süddeutsche Zeitung” and “Der Spiegel”. Having studied philosophy in Munich, she has also published various collections of lyrics as well as novels which have been translated into 12 languages.

Sławomir Sierakowski is a sociologist and political commentator who works as Director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Warsaw, President of the Stanislaw Brzozowski Association and fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy, Harvard, Yale and Princeton. He has written on Polish and European politics for The New York Times, the Guardian and other well-known journals such as Le Monde and Haaretz. He founded the Krytyka Polityczna, a magazine and movement of liberal intellectuals, artists and activists in Eastern Europe.

Armin von Bogdandy is director at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg as well as Professor for Public Law at the Goethe University Frankfurt. He has been President of the OECD Nuclear Energy Tribunal, member of the German Science Council and Scientific Committee of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights and held positions at NYU, the Xiamen Academy of International Law and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, amongst others.

Stefan Collignon is a political economist, professor and author with a focus on the economic governance of the EU. While having taught at the University of Hamburg, SciencePo Paris and Lille, College of Europe Bruges, FU Berlin, Harvard, LSE, and now being professor at the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa as well as International Chief Economist of the Centro Europa Ricerche in Rome, he has also previously worked for the German Ministry of Finance and Association for the Monetary Union of Europe.

Erik Oddvar Eriksen is the Director of the ARENA Centre for European Studies, editorial board member of multiple scientific journals and a Professor of Political Science with a focus on political theory, public policy and European integration. He has previously been a professor at the University of Tromsø, the University of Bergen, the Centre of Professional Studies and the University College of Oslo and is currently at the University of Aalborg.

Senka Neuman-Stanivukovic is Assistant Professor of European Integration at the University of Groningen. Her research interests include European multiplicity, contested territorialities in EU accession, protests and popular uprising in South-East Europe as well as theorizing (dis-)integration and citizenship. Besides research and teaching, she sits on the Programme Board of the Erasmus Mundus Euroculture Programme and contributes to the Colours of a Journey Collective.

Jürgen Neyer is a Professor of Political Science with a focus on the institutional order of the EU, International Relations and Global Governance. He taught and researched at the Goethe University Frankfurt, the University of Bremen, FU Berlin, LMU Munich, European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) and UC Berkeley.

Saskia Sassen is a Professor of Sociology at Columbia University with a focus on the role of inequality, gendering and digitalization with respect to cities, immigration and states in the world economy. She has authored numerous books and contributions to the world’s biggest newspapers, directed several large-scale research projects, served scientific juries and various boards and received various grants, prizes and over ten doctor honoris causa.