Advisory Board

Mauro Cozzolino of Italy

Mauro Cozzolino, Psychologist-Psychotherapist and Hypnotherapist, is Professor of General Psychology at the University of Salerno (Italy).

In several contexts, since 1998 he has carried out training and intervention activities on different areas of psyhology, in educational and clinical context. He is Scientific Director of the International Center for Psychology and Strategic Psychotherapy (CIPPS) of Salerno (Italy). He is also a teacher at the School of Specialization in Psychotherapy with an Integrated Strategic Approach Seraphicum of Rome (Italy) and he’s part of its Scientific Committee. In 2017, together with Giovanna Celia, they were chosen as a couple by the official journal of the Milton Erickson Foundation as protagonists of the column “The Power of Two” for the contribution they have given to the advancement and evolution of clinical psychology, hypnosis and psychotherapy.


Valentina Castello of Italy

University of L’Aquila – SMEs Competitiveness and Gender Balance

Valentina Castello, degree in Economics at Luiss Guido Carli and PhD in Business Economics and Management of Health Care Organizations at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. Since 2000 she has been teaching business management subjects at DIIIE Department of University of L’Aquila; at the same University, at DSU, she teaches “Social Services Programs Evaluation and Monitoring”. Trainer, consultant and researcher since 1996, she has more than 15 years of experience as researcher/project manager in national and international projects. Main current research interest are related to the enhancement of “inclusive sustainable system” (including social impact evaluation and policies; female/inclusive entrepreneurship and so on).


Virginija Šidlauskienė of Lithuania

University of Šiauliai – Gender Study Centre

Virginija Šidlauskiene, has a background in physics and is an associate professor of social science in pedagogies. She is a researcher at the Institute for Gender Studies of Siauliai University, and teaches at the Universities of Siauliai and Vilnius. She is a member of the Expert Forum of The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) and the Group of Specialists on Gender Equality Standards and Mechanisms at European Council, the EU expert on gender equality issues, indicators and equal opportunities and Lithuania’s national gender equality policy expert.  Her latest work is on standards and mechanisms to indicate government commitment to gender equality in research, education and culture with the European Council expert group, and the draft of the National Action Plan Women in/and Science 2006-2007 (NAP) Gender Equality in Science of Lithuania 2007-2014, and newest one 2015-2021.


Curt Rice of Norway

Oslo Metropolitan University – Rector

Curt Rice is Rector of the Oslo Metropolitan University. He leads Norway’s Committee on Gender Balance and Diversity in Research, and  helped create the BALANSE program at the Research Council of Norway, which is designed to increase the numbers of women at the highest levels of research organizations. He is on the Advisory Board of the European Commission projects EGERA (Effective Gender Equality in Research and Academia) (FP7) and LIBRA (H2020). He was on the Science Leaders Panel of genSET (FP7), in which the European Commission was advised about gender in science, and he is a member of the Steering Committee for the Gender Summit. He created the crowd-sourced alternative contest to the European Commission’s Science: It’s a girl thing! teaser video.


Gabriella Rossi of Italy

Aerospace District of Campania – Research Project Manger

Gabriella Rossi is Chemical Engineer, PhD in Chemical Engineering. She is Researcher at ENEA, dealing with Smart Grid Research and Innovation projects. Furthermore, she is involved in research activities on the durability analysis of coating materials for concentrated solar power technologies. She worked for European Commission as Expert Evaluator of chemical engineering research and innovation projects and of R&D and innovation projects submitted within Horizon 2020 and at different levels in FP 5, 6 and 7. She was research Fellow at University of Salerno from September 1st to August 31st, studying new flexible and transparent materials with high barrier properties.


Francesco Niglia of Italy

Francesco Niglia is the research director of a private ICT R&D Lab, he worked more than 10 years as consultant for Technology Transfer and holds focus expertise in the ICT for government solutions domain applied to the analysis of the sustainability and socio-economic impact of the innovation. He is responsible for the development and validation of eGovernment indicators for measuring the application of User Centricity methodology in services to citizens. He provides technical support for technology intelligence and activities to develop new technologies and innovative solutions as well as supports the development of studies focused on the implementation of good practices. He is also member of the European Skills/Competences, qualification and Occupation Board and delivered two European Standards for the CEN – European Committee for Standardization.


Shadrack Mkansi of South Africa

South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement – Science Awareness Platforms Manager

Mr Shadrack Mkansi is a science awareness platforms manager at the South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (SAASTA). SAASTA is the business unit of the National Research Foundation (NRF) in South Africa. Before joining SAASTA, Shadrack was a science communicator at the Giyani Science Centre, a computer science and mathematics subject advisor and an examiner for Additional Mathematics. He was also a part time programming lecturer for UNISA. He was an African coordinator for two Horizon2020 projects NUCLEUS and RRING. These projects were a collaboration of 14 and 20 countries respectively. He manages the country’s National Science Week funded by the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI), a network of about 35 science centres in South Africa and national science festivals. He is the co-author of the book, “Communicating Science: A Global Perspective”. He contributed in the South African chapter, “South Africa Science Communication throughout turbulent times”.


Andrea Pető of Austria

Central European University – Professor at the Department of Gender Studies

Andrea Pető is an historian and a Professor at the Department of Gender Studies at Central European University, Vienna, Austria, a Research Affiliate of the CEU Democracy Institute, Budapest, and a Doctor of Science of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Her works on gender, politics, Holocaust, and war have been translated into 23 languages. In 2018 she was awarded the 2018 All European Academies (ALLEA) Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values. She is Doctor Honoris Causa of Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden. Recent publications include: The Women of the Arrow Cross Party. Invisible Hungarian Perpetrators in the Second World War. Palgrave, Macmillan, 2020. And Forgotten Massacre: Budapest 1944. DeGruyter, 2021. She writes op-ed pieces for many international and national media.


Giancarlo Pazzanese (him/his) of the Netherlands

Amsterdam Fashion Academy – Senior Lecturer and Program Leader of the Business Program

Giancarlo Pazzanese (him/his) is a communications professional with twenty years’ experience in fashion education, social media, visual arts, production, academic publishing, and marketing. He is a Senior Lecturer and Program Leader of the Business Program of the Amsterdam Fashion Academy, where he teaches communications, branding and contextual studies. He worked as Communications Consultant for Workplace Pride and was an active member of the Editorial Board at Elsevier Pride. At present, he is pursuing the M.A. degree in Education & Innovation at the InHolland University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands.