Mohammed Bamyeh is currently a professor of sociology at the University of Pittsburgh and the editor of International Sociology Reviews (ISR). He has delivered invited lectures and keynotes at many universities, research institutions and plenaries around the world.

He served most recently as the lead author of the first comprehensive report on social sciences across the 22 members states of the Arab League, Social Sciences in the Arab World: Forms of Presence (ACSS, 2015).

His books include :

• Intellectuals and Civil Society in the Middle East (ed., Tauris 2012);
• Anarchy as Order: The History and Future of Civic Humanity (Rowan & Littlefield 2009);
• Of Death and Dominion: The Existential Foundations of Governance (Northwestern UP 2007);
• The Ends of Globalization (Minnesota UP 2000);
• The Social Origins of Islam: Mind, Economy, Discourse (Minnesota UP 1999);
• The trend report Transnationalism, published as a special issue of the International Sociological Association’s journal Current Sociology (1993).

He has also co-edited (with Sari Hanafi) a special issue of International Sociology on the Arab Spring (2015); edited Palestine America (as a special issue of South Atlantic Quarterly, 2003); Literature and Revolution (as a special issue of the Arab-American journal Mizna, 2012); and co-edited (with Brett Neilson) Drugs in Motion: Toward a Materialist Tracking of Global Mobilities (published as a special issue of Cultural Critique, 2009). His latest book, Lifeworlds of Islam is forthcoming next year with Oxford University Press.

Hamid Bouabid is actually Head of Department of Scientific Research and Higher Education Evaluation at the National Authority of Evaluation within the Higher Council of Education, Training and Scientific Research. He is also Professor at the Mohammed V University in Rabat. Bouabid holds a PhD in Physics from the same university and a Certificate of Studies and Research in Science Policy and Research Evaluation from University of Sussex in UK.

Bouabid had been previously Head of Division at the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in charge of research evaluation and innovation and before Head of Division at the Ministry of Industry in Morocco, in charge of industrial investment particularly in R&D and technology transfer among others. He was in 2005 and 2006 member and Vice-President of the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development (UNCSTD) and also member of the Research and Technology Organization, a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) body from 2005 to 2010.

Hamid Bouabid owned 3 patents and published more than 60 scientific papers in international and indexed peer-reviewed journals out of which a dozen in the field of Scientometrics, Research evaluation and Research Policy. He co-edited in 2017 a book ‘The internationalization of scientific research in Morocco’. Bouabid participated also in the Policy Review of Investment and Innovation in Morocco led by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Bouabid is a reviewer to the well-known journals: Scientometrics, JASIST and Journal of Informetrics.

Since 2015, He is the president of the Association of Scientometrics, Technometrics and Research Evaluation (ASTRE).

Olivier Bonneau, 55 years old, is a University Professor of exceptional class specialized in mechanics and mechanic engineering at the University of Poitiers. He is presently a Coordinating Scientific Counselor for Science and Technology at the Department of Scientific Research Evaluation attached to the Higher Council for Evaluation of Research and Higher Education.

Former student of the École Normale Supérieure of Cachan, he defended a Doctorate thesis at the University of Poitiers (1989) and a “Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches” (habilitation to conduct research) in 1996. His research work covers more particularly the study of static and dynamic behavior of tree lines guided bt fluid elements. This theoretical but also empirical work is being conducted in partnership with manufacturing companies and energy and aeronautical and spatial transportation sectors.

Olivier Bonneau has been co-responsible and co-founder(1991-2002) of a DESS degree (High Specialized Studies Degree) in mechanic conception and modeling.

He had been at the head of the Laboratoire de Mécanique des Solides (UMR CNRS-University of Poitiers) for eight years (from 2002 to 2009). He coordinated on behalf of the University of Poitiers, during four years, the Transport du Contrat de Projets État Région program which involved 200 researchers belonging to 11 research unities.

Dr Bonneau has been co-responsible and co-founder(1991-2002) of a DESS degree (High Specialized Studies Degree) in mechanic conception and modellling.

Dr Vincent Larivière is an Associate Professor at the Library and Information Science School of the University of Montreal where he teaches library and information science research methodologies. He is equally the Scientific Director of the Erudit platform and Deputy Scientific Director of the Observatory for Science and Technology and a regular member of the Inter-university Center of Research in Science and Technology. He holds a Baccalauréat in Science, technology and Society (UQAM), a Master Degree in the History of Science (UQAM) and a Doctorate in Information Science (McGill).

Dr Larivière’s research interest covers the characteristics of Quabec, Canada and world research systems as well as the transformations, in the digital universe, of scientific and technological knowledge production and dissemination modes. Dr Larivière’s works have been published in the most prestigious specialized and multidisciplinary scientific revues and been particularly outstanding in national and international media as well as in scientific journals. In parallel to his fundamental research activity, Professor Larivière conducted more than 300 contract research projects funded by ministries, universities and granting organisms, thus developing an extensive experience in the transfer of knowledge to users, in addition to an excellent knowledge of research systems.

Since joining the University of Montreal in 2011, Professor Larivière’s research activity has been financed by Canada’s Research Chair Program, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, the Council for Research in Human Sciences, the Quebec Fund for Research –Society and Culture, the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie and the Sloan Foundation.

Seteney Shami is founding Director-General of the Arab Council for the Social Sciences since 2012. She is an anthropologist from Jordan. She obtained her BA from the American University of Beirut and her MA and PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. After teaching and setting up a graduate department of anthropology at Yarmouk University, Jordan, she moved in 1996 to the regional office of the Population Council in Cairo as director of the Middle East Awards in Population and the Social Sciences (MEAwards). In July 1999, she joined the Social Science Research Council in New York (from which she is currently on leave) as program director for the program on the Middle East and North Africa (currently) and also the program on Eurasia (until 2010).

She has been a visiting Professor at U.C. Berkeley, Georgetown University, University of Chicago, Stockholm University and the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in the Social Sciences (Uppsala). Her fieldwork has focused on Jordan, Egypt, Turkey and the North Caucasus. Her research interests center on issues of ethnicity and nationalism in the context of globalization, urban politics and state-building strategies, and population displacement and transnational mobility.

Sari Hanafi is currently a Professor of Sociology and chair of the department of sociology, anthropology and media studies at the American University of Beirut. He is also the editor of Idafat: the Arab Journal of Sociology (Arabic).  He is the Vice President of both the International Sociological Association and the Arab Council of Social Science.  He is the author of numerous journal articles and book chapters on the political and economic sociology of the Palestinian diaspora and refugees; sociology of migration; transnationalism; politics of scientific research; civil society and elite formation and transitional justice. Among his recent books are: From Relief and Works to Human Development: UNRWA and Palestinian Refugees after 60 Years. (Edited with L Takkenberg and L Hilal) (Routledge). The Power of Inclusive Exclusion: Anatomy of Israeli Rule in The Occupied Palestinian Territories (Edited with A. Ophir & M. Givoni, 2009) (English and Arabic) (NewYork: Zone Book; Beirut: CAUS), The Emergence of A Palestinian Globalized Elite: Donors, International Organizations and Local NGOs (with L. Taber, 2005) (Arabic and English). His last book is Knowledge Production in the Arab World: The Impossible Promise. (with R. Arvanitis) (in Arabic, Beirut: CAUS and in English with Routledge -2016).

Nelly Bruno is an economist working as Policy Analyst in the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD) of the European Commission since 2015. Currently working for the “Better Regulation” Unit she is specifically dealing with the monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment of the European Research and Innovation Framework Programmes and recently coordinated the overall interim evaluation of Horizon 2020 – the eight Framework Programme with a budget of close to EUR 80 million over the period 2014-2020. She also previously worked in DG RTD on the economic evidence underpinning investments in environmental research and innovation for a greener growth. In 2006-2007 she worked as an intern in DG CONNECT of the European Commission in the unit “New infrastructure paradigms and experimental facilities” where she focussed her work on the European Network of Living Labs and open innovation models.

Between 2007 and 2015 she worked as a senior consultant in Technopolis Group in Brussels advising regional, national and international public authorities on their programmes and policies related to research, innovation, higher education and regional development carrying out policy studies, programme evaluations and devising monitoring systems. In this endeavour, she developed specific expertise in evaluation methodologies such as counterfactual evaluation methods, peer reviews, statistical analysis, bibliometrics, case studies, survey design, interviews, workshops, and indicator systems. She co-authored more than 40 studies and evaluation reports.

Nelly Bruno was born in Chambéry, France. She holds a M.A in European economic studies from the College of Europe (Bruges, Belgium, 2006), as well as French (University Paris X, 2004) and German M.Sc. in macroeconomics (Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, 2004), where she specialised in knowledge economics.

Mohamed Najim Born in 1945 in Morocco, Dr Mohamed Najim obtained his PhD in Science from Toulouse in 1972. He worked as a researcher in Rabat for over 16 years and founded a laboratory of research in Economics that has worked in close collaboration with the socioeconomic environment. Dr Najim worked also as a visiting professor at Berkeley University and is the founder and first Director of the National Higher School of Computer Sciences and Systems’ Analysis (ENSIAS-Morocco): the first school of Computer Science Engineering in Africa.

Dr Najim is a specialist in Image Signal Processing and has held, since 1998, the first Chair of Image and Signal Processing in Bordeaux. He has proposed mathematical modeling tools for a large variety of signals and images in the fields of speech, radar, biomedical and seismic signals in partnership with manufacturers like CEA, EDF, Thales, Total, Safran, Sagem, Yamaha and Moroccan Cherifian Company of Phosphates (OCP). He has also contributed with the Thomson CSF Company to the setting up of the first digital modem by the end of the eighties. Dr Najim has, for over 40 years, chaired numerous European projects consortiums and the establishment of industrial partnerships. He has also been an advisor to international organizations such as the European Union, the UNESCO and the WIPO.     

Dr Najim has published a dozen of books in French and English and given lectures in all the continents, and has been awarded many prizes and awards: the IEEE fellowship (1988), the A. Shumann Prize (1982), the Science Academy Medal Twas (2011) in addition to the most prestigious European distinction in Signal and Image Processing; EURASIP (2013). In 2000, he received the highest Royal distinction in Morocco and in 2016 has been decorated with the Palmes Acdémiques by French former

Dr Kleiche-Dray is a historian of science and technology, in charge of Research at the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) attached to the UMR 196 Ceped (Paris v Descartes University-IRD), and a member of the Institut Francilien Recherche Innovation et Société (IFRIS). Her research interest focuses on the collective dynamics and the institutional mechanisms implied in the construction of scientific knowledge in context: knowledge production, scientific communities and science policies in Mexico and Morocco. She is presently working on the reconfigurations of the relationships between techno-sciences and native and rural knowledge in a context of globalization and the spread of environment-friendly agri-food practices among Mexican farmers.

Some of Dr Kleiche-Dray’s publications on the basis of her work on Morocco:

She took part in the Evaluation of the National System of Research (dir. R. Waast) and co-published Kleiche-Dray, M. and Waast R., (dir.) (2008), Le Maroc scientifique. Paris, Publisud, 312 p. She also supervised the evaluation of the university reform (2008) and co-published the report: M. Kleiche-Dray, M. et Belcadi, S. (2008), L’université marocaine en processus d’autonomisation. Rabat : CSE, 108 p. She equally edited the book Les Ancrages Nationaux de la Science Mondiale. XVIIIe-XXIe. Paris : EAC/IRD, 2017, 587 p., which includes a chapter on Morocco, co-written with Kamel Mellakh: Enjeux et tensions entre science et développement au Maroc, p. 355-390.

Melita Kovacevic was EUA-CDE (European University Association Council for Doctoral Education) Steering Committee member (2009-2016) and Chair (2011-2016).  Melita Kovacevic has been a member of different national and European bodies related to higher education. She has been frequently invited to give talks on different topics related to HE home and abroad. She gave more than seventy speeches as a keynote or plenary speaker worldwide. Within the UNICA network (Network of Universities from the Capitals of Europe) Melita Kovacevic served as a Steering Committee member and she has been in particular active in the area of doctoral education and research. She contributes largely to the debate on doctoral education in Europe and beyond. Melita Kovacevic contributed to number of documents and publications on doctoral education.

Melita Kovacevic participated in number of projects related to doctoral education in European Union, South-East Europe, China, and Central Asia and Africa. European Commission, World Bank, European University Association and DAAD as well as national agencies have been inviting her for collaboration and ask for her expertise on doctoral education and research.  She has a status of European expert of higher education. As a HE expert she participates in international evaluation teams both of institutions and doctoral programmes.

Melita Kovacevic is a former Vice-Rector for Research and Technology at the University of Zagreb (2006-2014). She is Full Professor at the Department of Speech and Language Pathology. She is Head of the Laboratory for Psycholinguistic Research and Director of the Interdisciplinary Doctoral Programme Language and Cognitive Neuroscience. Melita Kovacevic held research and visiting positions at different European and American universities and is a member of various national and international societies.