Meet our partners

Tessa manages interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary consortia working on food security, sustainable food systems, agriculture and sustainable diets. She focuses on the European context, where the food system is characterized by a growing gap between consumers and producers, inequality, the prevalence of obesity, a polarized debate on sustainable food systems and a continuous decrease in the number of farmers. She is a member of diverse working groups at national, regional and local level, contributing to an evidence-based transition of the food system and to empowerment of all actors in the system.

Marco obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and a Master’s degree in Sustainable Rural Development from the University of Perugia. He is currently pursuing his PhD at the Department of Bio-economics at KU Leuven, where he focuses on the adoption of practices that enhance soil health, on the potential and impact of carbon sequestration, and on value chain dynamics. As a member of the Sustainable Food Economies Research Group (SFERE), he participates in the Horizon SoilValues project.

Kasper is an anthropologist specializing in agriculture and, in particular, the cultural history and practice of farmers. He works for the Department of Agroecology, Agricultural Systems and Sustainability at Aarhus University, where he participates in research projects bridging legislation and human-cultural everyday practice. In doing so, he aims to analyze the relationship between notions of the good life in the countryside and the legislation that one has to navigate as a stakeholder in the agricultural industry and the environment

Maja is an experienced project manager and environmental engineer with 10 years of experience implementing EU-funded projects in agriculture. She has proven experience in implementing pilot projects, mapping stakeholders, engaging end-users in collaborative co-creation processes, building cross-functional teams and networks for project purposes. In addition, Maja has extensive knowledge of regional and local agricultural ecosystems, including the networks of farmers, agri-advisors, researchers, industry players, public bodies and relevant decision-makers. Maja holds a M.Sc. in Environmental Engineering (University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Technical Engineering).

Diogo has a master’s degree in Materials Engineering from Universidade Nova de Lisboa. He has been a trainee at Joint Research Centre (JRC) – Petten working in the Environmental and Mechanical Materials Assessment (EMMA) infrastructure. Diogo has 3 years of experience in project management, having worked on evaluation and projection of manufacturing industrial technology, energy management, and testing and assessment of agriculture digital technology. He is currently involved in two other Horizon Europe projects at Consulai: QuantiFarm and ClimateFarmDemo. His main responsibilities include coordinating 30 Test Cases of DATs’ testing under real conditions in 20 European countries, coordinating and implementing project training centres, assisting in coordinating a Living Lab initiative and developing knowledge sharing with other projects, initiatives, and policymakers.

Positive relationships, constructive communication and meaning making is key for Marie. She has a Master’s degree in Public Relations specialized in « Europeans affairs ». She is leading the ENPLC communication and her objective is to give a voice to Private Land Conservation and its supporters. She wants to make sure that landowners and NGOs’ positive actions to enhance biodiversity are visible and heard. She loves to interact with passionate people, share knowledges, find solution, write, learn and laugh.

živilė Navardauskė, Head of Administration, Forest and land owners association of Lithuania (from 2016), Bachelor of Applied Ecology and Environmental Studies (2007), Master’s Degree in Applied Ecology and Environmental Studies (2011).

Hans Vandermaelen holds a bachelor’s degree in geography (2013), a master’s degree in urbanism and spatial planning (2015) and a PhD in urbanism and spatial planning (2023). His doctoral research “Urbanising the agroecological reproduction of soil fertility” was situated at the interface between urbanism and political agroecology and studied what it means to consider agroecological soil fertility reproduction as an object of collective, urban organisation. He specialised in land management and public land ownership. His current research is situated at the interface between urbanism and spatial planning, agroecology, land management, landscape ecology and soil care.

Jurgen Vangeyte works as Director for the agrifood technology department, which has been involved in European projects in the past, such as IOF2020, Smart Agri Hubs and Cybele. Through this department, ILVO supports an active and mature Digital Innovation Hub Smart Digital Farming and the Agrifood Technology Living Lab recognised by Enoll.  ILVO deploys the Flemish data sharing initiative DjustConnect as one of the first fully operational regional data spaces in agriculture. Currently, the team specialises in the crossover between digital and data technologies, soil proximate and remote sensing in projects such as Envision, ScaleAgData and SoilWise. Therefore, they are well placed to support ‘digital technologies’ and ‘data support systems’ in SoilValues.

Sylvie Fosselle graduated as a forestry engineer. She worked in several multi-actor processes in agricultural areas at governmental institutions. She is active in facilitating learning processes on implementing bluegreen measures (Turquoise), and in setting up capacity-building programmes to support the transition to agroecology (ALL-ready).

Nerea Arias is an agronomist with a PhD in soil. She has more than 12 years of professional expertise in INTIA and has worked on crops such as cereals, horticulture and industrial crops as a consultant but also as a knowledge disseminator. In recent years, she has focused on crop fertilisation as a field trial technician. She also participated in several European and national research projects.

Piotr Gradziuk is associate professor in the Department of Economic Modelling at IRWiR PAN. He is an agricultural economist whose research focuses on sustainable development, renewable energy sources, efficiency in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. He also leads and contributes to numerous national and international research projects and has experience in working with various stakeholder groups in Poland, including farmers, middlemen, processors, local self-government representatives, agricultural organisations and policy makers.

Adrianna Wojciechowska is a PhD student and research assistant in the Department of Economic Modelling at IRWiR PAN. She graduated with a master’s degree in Economics and Organization of Enterprises. Her interests include urban agriculture, ecological farming practices, environmental protection and climate change. Experienced in project communication and promotion on social media, interactions with stakeholders, preparation of communication materials and visualisations.

Matteo brings 3 years of experience in sustainable projects within the non-profit sector, along with over 3 years of experience working on financial innovation for socio-economic development. Matteo holds a MSc in Poverty, Inequality, & Development from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. Matteo joined KOIS in 2023 and has been involved in innovative and blended finance projects with a wide range of stakeholders from the public and private sectors. His contributions have spanned advisory assignments within the climate & nature impact platforms, encompassing various geographies such as Europe, Sub-Sahara Africa, and South Asia.

Silvana brings over 2 years of experience in international development and impact evaluations. She has worked for non-profit research organizations in policy assessment and analysis. She holds a Master’s degree in International Development from Sciences Po Paris and a BA in International Relations from Queen Mary University of London. Silvana joined KOIS in July 2023 and has contributed to innovative finance projects within the Climate & Nature impact platform.

Marc Rosiers holds a Master of Science in Economics from the KU Leuven (1980) and London School of Economics (1981). He can look back on 25 years of experience as internal consultant and board member in agri-food companies, agri-food investors and professional associations such as Agri Investment Fund, Agriland, Arvesta, Belgian Pork Group, Boerenbond, Greenyard, Iscal Sugar and Société générale des Fabricants de Sucre de Belgique. Since 2016, he is managing director of MR F&A Consult. In this capacity, he is senior advisor to the ELO European Policy Group and is the file holder for carbon farming. For more information, see https://www.linkedin.com/in/marc-rosiers-1406016/

Elke Plaas has a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from the Georg August University in Goettingen. She is senior research fellow at the Thuenen Institute of Farm Economics. Dr. Plaas’ main areas of work are: socio-economic assessment of (soil) biodiversity, agricultural policy and environmental economic issues in Europe, CEEC and China, analysis of individual farms, water economics and rural development. She has been involved in several projects on biodiversity and sustainable farming systems in Biodiversa ERA, BELMONT and Horizon 2020 programmes.

Gerald Schwarz has a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from Humboldt University in Berlin. After his Ph.D. he worked for several years at the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute in Scotland. Since 2009 he has been working at the Thünen Institute of Farm Economics in Germany. His work focuses on transdisciplinary research on the transformation of farming and food systems and policy instruments for delivering public goods from agriculture. He has been involved in several projects on agroecology, organic farming, sustainable farming systems and agri-environmental policies and coordinated projects on these topics in the EU’s FP6, FP7 and Horizon 2020 programmes.

Helmut Saatkamp is Associate Professor of Business Economics at Wageningen University and conducts interdisciplinary research in agronomy, animal production, economics (business economics, value chains and sectoral economics) and policy (support).

Amanda Matson is a senior scientist in the Soil, Water and Land use Team at WUR. Her research to date has focused broadly on the effect of anthropogenic activities on soil biogeochemistry in agricultural and forest systems. She is particularly interested in the selection and use of soil indicators to support decision-making around sustainable soil use and management, as well as how innovative sensor and isotope techniques can provide insight into soils at different scales.

Dr. Jack Faber is a senior scientist with a strong background in soil ecology and ecotoxicology. His research activities are focused on soil biodiversity, soil health and ecosystem functioning. This includes studies on the relevance of soil biodiversity for soil fertility, soil structure and water regulation in sustainable agriculture and nature conservation, with implications for management to enhance ecosystem services. Experience and experimental know-how is applied in site-specific ecological risk assessment and the development of decision support systems for contaminated land management, as well as in the derivation of soil quality standards. He is currently involved in the HEU Soil Mission projects BENCHMARKS and SoilValues, and in the EJP SOIL projects SIREN (coordinator) and MINOTAUR (WP leader).