Dr. Špela Stres is a researcher, innovation policy expert, and patent attorney at the Jožef Stefan Institute, where she heads the Innovation Relay Centre Slovenia. Her interdisciplinary background combines physics, law, and innovation management. She has extensive experience in research policy, intellectual property, and evaluation systems, including their ethical and societal dimensions. Dr. Stres serves as a Board Member of the European Innovation Council (EIC) and an expert evaluator for the European Research Council (ERC). She previously served as Director of the Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency (ARIS) and as Assistant Director of the Jožef Stefan Institute, as well as a member of the United Nations 10-Member Group for the Technology Facilitation Mechanism. Her current work focuses on research autonomy, responsible research assessment, and the ethical implications of AI-driven evaluation systems. She is active in European initiatives promoting institutional autonomy and integrity within the European Research Area.

Francesca Di Donato is a researcher in political philosophy at the Institute of Computational Linguistics of the Italian National Research Council (CNR-ILC). For over twenty years, her research has focused on the study of open models and systems for the production, management, evaluation, and communication of science (Open Science). In particular, over time she has developed a theoretical interest focused on the conditions of the republic of letters (its practices and means) and on the comparison between the traditional system of science communication, as configured in Enlightenment thinking, and the new paradigms of online digital science communication and their concrete applications. In 2022, she was part of the core group that drafted the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment. Since 2023, he has been a member of the G7 working group on Open Science, and between 2023 and 2025 she was co-chair of the Italian national chapter of CoARA. Her recent publications concern the reform of research assessment (2022, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7433048), research quality and responsible assessment (2024, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10890788), and the integration of values and methods for a more effective uptake of Open Science (2024, DOI: 10.6092/issn.2532-8816/20976).