Professor of Comparative Social Science at the University of Roehampton, UK, and visiting Professor at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, Bryony Hoskins is an expert on political socialisation, specialising in political engagement across European countries. Professor Hoskins has seven years of policy experience having previously worked at the Council of Europe in the area of youth research, and at the European Commission developing indicators on Active Citizenship. She also has extensive experience of consulting the UK cabinet office, European Commission and Council of Europe on topics such as Citizenship, Education and the European Union. Professor Hoskins is currently performing an evaluation of the contribution of EU programmes to active citizenship in Europe. Her current funded research projects focus on inequalities and political engagement, political socialisation, volunteering, and unpaid work.

Jakov Žižić is the Executive Director of the Academy for Political Development in Croatia. His main academic interests include Croatian politics and modern Croatian political history, but he is also interested more generally in the politics of identity, the politics of recognition, multiculturalism, diaspora, and the activities of those in political exile. His most recent written contributions were to "Policy Insight", a new political magazine in Croatia. Mr Žižić has previously worked at the Croatian Parliament and in the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Zagreb. He holds a Masters in Political Science from the University of Zagreb and is currently working towards a PhD in Comparative Politics.

Catherine Lalumière began her political career as a member of the French National Assembly (1981-1989), where she also held the offices of Secretary of State for the Civil Service and Administrative Reforms, Secretary of State in charge of Consumption, and Secretary of State for European Affairs. Ms Lalumière became Secretary General of the Council of Europe in 1989. Following the fall of the Iron Curtain, Ms Lalumière concentrated on establishing and maintaining contacts with countries in the process of democratising to allow for their quick accession to the Council of Europe. Upon leaving her post as Secretary General, Ms Lalumière was elected as a Member of the European Parliament in 1994, becoming Vice-President of the European Parliament in 2001. Catherine Lalumière has a PhD in Law and is a university lecturer. She has been President of the European Association of the Schools of Political Studies of the Council of Europe since 2008, and is also President of the Maison de l’Europe in Paris.

Hakan Altınay is the Director of the European School of Politics in Istanbul, and the President of the Global Civics Academy. He has written for the Financial Times, the International Herald Tribune, The New York Times, Open Democracy, Project Syndicate, and Social Europe. Altınay’s book, Global Civics: Responsibilities and Rights in an Interdependent World, was published in 2011 by the Brookings Press, and has been translated into Arabic, Chinese, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. He has served as a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, global ethics fellow at the Carnegie Council, and world fellow at Yale University.