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Dr. Vasileios Takavakoglou: Agronomist (MSc, PhD). Senior Researcher at the Soil and Water Resources Institute of the Hellenic Agricultural Organization “DIMITRA.” Over 20 years of professional and research experience in both the public and private sectors, with emphasis on agri-environmental management, and “blue–green” nature-based solutions for supporting rural development and enhancing the resilience of Mediterranean agri-food systems. Participation in more than 50 national and European projects on agri-environmental monitoring and management and author of over 80 publications in international scientific journals, conferences, and books. Actively involved in the EU Soil Mission and the EU Mission for Oceans and Waters. Active member of the European Innovation Partnership for Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability (EIP-AGRI), participating in the EU Focus Groups of experts “Water and Agriculture” and “Nature-Based Solutions for Water Management under Climate Change.”

Dimitris Bliziotis is an Earth Observation expert with over a decade of experience in geospatial technologies, satellite data applications, and strategic programme management in the private and governmental sector.

He currently serves as the national Programme Manager for the Earth Observation component of Greece’s national satellite programme and as Scientific Officer at the Hellenic Space Center, Greece’s Space Agency. Dimitris is also Advisor for Space Matters to the Secretary General of Telecommunications and Post at the Ministry of Digital Governance, and National Delegate to EU EO boards as well ESA’s Programme Board for Earth Observation (PB-EO) and DOSTAG.

He has led multidisciplinary teams (>30 people) in delivering cutting-edge EO and GIS solutions for key institutional stakeholders, including ESA, the European Commission, FRONTEX, EU SATCEN, EEA, JRC and national Ministries of Defense. His work bridges technology and policy, focusing on AI integration, geospatial intelligence (GEOINT), and satellite-based applications in security, environment, and emergency response.

Kostas Karyotis graduated from the School of Mathematics at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 2013 and received an MSc in Webscience from the same faculty in 2016. Since 2018, he has been working as an associate researcher at the Interbalkan Environment Center and the Laboratory of Remote Sensing of the Aristotle University, focusing on modeling physicochemical soil properties using spectroscopy and remote sensing techniques. He has actively participated in more than 20 European and National research projects related to Earth Observation. Since 2020, he is serving as the secretary of the “IEEE P4005: Standards and Protocols for Soil Spectroscopy” initiative.

Her research focuses on the interaction between natural and anthropogenic environments, aiming to enhance ecosystem health ανδ climate resilience by addressing soil health, the quality of inland and coastal waters, agri-livestock production systems, food safety and, consequently, human health. She specialises in biogeochemical cycles in Earth system, with emphasis on both abiotic and biotic environments, and in the use of MRV methodologies for the quantitative assessment of environmental impacts for the implementation of sustainable management policies. Her work integrates isotopic techniques, process-based models with AI tools, and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). She has participated in more than 34 national and European research projects, coordinating the scientific work in 13 of them, and has published over 35 scientific papers. Her work contributes to monitoring soil health and water quality, reducing environmental footprint, and supporting the implementation of sustainable policies aligned with the EU strategies for healthy soils, ecosystem restoration and the One Health approach.

Panos Panagos is a senior scientist at JRC (Joint Research Centre, European Commission). He has more than 24 years’ experience in environmental modelling and policy developments in the European Commission.  Panos Panagos is the Project and Team leader of EU Soil Observatory (EUSO).  Panos supports a wide range of policies in the EU, including the recently adopted Soil Monitoring Law, the EU Soil Strategy 2030, the Carbon Removals Certification Framework (CRCF), the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and the Zero Pollution Action Plan. Panos is also responsible for the scientific and technical support of the JRC to the HORIZON Europe Mission “A Soil Deal for Europe”. He leads the innovative soil health assessments such as the ones in soil erosion, soil organic carbon, soil nutrients and diffuse pollution. He has more than 250 publications in peer-review journals and he has been awarded the Web of Science highly influential scientist award (7,000 influential researchers worldwide) for the last 7 years (2019-2025).