The INSPIRE Team
INSPIRE brings together 17 partner organisations from Northern, Southern, Central and Eastern Europe. The team includes researchers, practitioners and digital designers with extensive knowledge of democratic Innovation.
​​
THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM
Dr Sonia Bussu is scientific coordinator of INSPIRE. Her team at the University of Birmingham will lead on Work Package 3 Co-designing Inclusive Participation. Sonia also leads on the set up and evaluation of the UK-based pilot under WP3, working with institutional partners and youth organisations in the West Midlands, and award-winning Legislative Theatre practitioner Katy Rubin. Sonia is based at INLOGOV, a leading academic centre in the UK for research and teaching on local governance, public policy and participatory governance. She works at the School of Government which brings together internationally leading research on governance, politics, international development, international relations, and public management.
Sonia Bussu
JOHANN WOLFGANG GOETHE-UNIVERSITAET FRANKFURT AM MAIN
Brigitte Geißel
Prof. Dr. Brigitte Geissel, Goethe University Frankfurt/M., professor of Political Science and Political Sociology, Head of Research Unit ‘Democratic Innovations’; fellowships, research and teaching positions at several universities, e.g. Harvard Kennedy School (USA), Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB), Center of Excellence on Democracy at Åbo Akademi (Finland), Universities of Muenster, Berlin, and Illinois (USA), TU Darmstadt as well as the Vietnamese German University, Saigon (Vietnam); research interests: democratic innovations, new forms of governance, political actors (new social movements, associations, civil society, parties, political elites, citizens). She has received a number of awards, e.g. a Democracy Fellowship from Harvard University‘s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, a Senior Fellowship from the Alfried Krupp Foundation and a Marie-Curie-Fellowship from the European Commission.
UNIVERZITA KARLOVA
Petra Guasti is an associate professor of democratic theory at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague, and a senior research fellow at the Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences. Her research focuses on reconfiguring the political landscape and revolves around representation, democratization, and populism. Between 2022 and 2025, Petra is a co-PI of SYRI (National Institute for Research on the Socio-Economic Impact of Diseases and Systemic Risks). She is also leader of the Czech teams in Horizon projects Neo-Authoritarianisms in Europe and the Liberal Democratic Response (AUTHLIB) and Intersectional Spaces of Participation: Inclusive, Resilient, Embedded (INSPIRE). In AUTHLIB Petra leads work package on mini publics in INSPIRE she leads work package on Coproduction of learning and action with public officials and citizens.
Petra Guasti
PLATONIQ FOUNDATION
Olivier Schulbaum
Platoniq Foundation plays a key role in INSPIRE's exploring the relationship between e-democracy platforms, urban development, and political culture and engaging in collaborative research with local communities to map out which cultural strategies and devices attend to the gaps, risks and patterns of exclusion. Moreover Platoniq will support the project through facilitating INSPIRE`s project and respective pilots on Decidim. Platoniq's expertise in designing digital participatory processes and using open civic technologies aligns with the project’s goals of fostering inclusive participation and enhancing direct democracy. Additionally, Platoniq runs the civic crowdfunding platform Goteo.org and promotes cooperative and ethical economic practices, reinforcing its commitment to democratic innovation and social impact.
THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
Oliver Escobar is Professor of Public Policy and Democratic Innovation at the School of Social and Political Science of the University of Edinburgh. He works on participatory and deliberative democracy, with a focus on citizen participation, policy innovation, the commons, political inequalities, and the governance of the future. Oliver combines research and practice to develop social and democratic innovations across various policy and community contexts. He co-leads INSPIRE’s Work Package 2 on the Political Economy of Public Participation and contributes to other aspects of the project. The University of Edinburgh is a renowned public research institution recognised globally for its academic excellence, consistently ranking among the top universities worldwide. ​The School of Social and Political Science is one of the leading schools of social science in the UK.
Oliver Escobar
IPSOS
LaShanda Seaman
Ipsos Qualitative Research and Engagement Centre (QREC), a division within the Ipsos Public Affairs department, uses qualitative research to understand people's lived experiences and bring the public's voice into decision-making. They are experts in qualitative methods, dialogue, public engagement, and integrating public voices into policymaking. Their work is grounded in high-quality, inclusive, and ethical processes to deliver robust insights for people-centered change. Ipsos QREC is committed to delivering impactful and long-lasting insights that make a difference for their clients and the public.
APHELION LTD
Dr. Vanessa Liston is the founder and CEO of CiviQ, focused on advancing methods, approaches and technologies for public engagement and deliberative democracy. Her team at CiviQ will lead the Irish pilot with University College Cork as part of work package 3 on 'intersectional participatory assemblages: co-designing inclusive participation'. Vanessa has over 25 years of experience in democracy research, citizen engagement, and participatory innovations at the local and international level. She is a former local elected representative and is an active community member civil society groups and networks.
Vanessa Liston
INSTITUTO DE CIENCIAS SOCIAIS
Roberto Falanga
Roberto Falanga holds a PhD in Democracy and his investigation has revolved around citizen participation in policy and decision-making. He has published extensively on participatory budgeting and community engagement in urban regeneration. In the last few years, his research agenda has focused on the trajectories and scales of democratic innovations. He is a member of international projects and networks, and has been a consultant to public agencies at different levels. In Inspire, he is the principal investigator at the host institution.
Roberto Falanga is a researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon which is an internationally renowned university institution that undertakes interdisciplinary research, both fundamental and policy-oriented, in the areas of Political Science, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Economics, Human Geography, History, Social Psychology, and Sociology.
UNIWERSYTET WARSZAWSKI
Coming soon....
Anna Przybylska
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CORK
Catherine Forde
Catherine Forde is senior lecturer/associate professor in youth and community work at University College Cork. Catherine’s main research/publication interests are in the areas of community development; ecosocial work and environmental education; participatory governance and state-civil society relations; and children and young people's participation. She has published widely on these themes and is co-author of the book Social Work and Community Development: A Critical Practice Perspective (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015) and lead editor of the book Teaching and Learning in Ecosocial Work: Concepts, Methods and Practice (Springer Nature, 2024). She is co-editor of the themed section Community Development in Social Work Education: Themes for a Changing World (Community Development Journal, October 2021) and the special issue Ethics in Youth Work Practice: Change, Challenge and Opportunity (Ethics and Social Welfare, April 2024). She is a Co-I on the Horizon Europe project (INSPIRE). She serves on the editorial board of the journal Ethics and Social Welfare.
FILOSOFICKY USTAV AV CR V V I
Dr. Alice Koubova is the leader of the art-based participatory pilot design for the Czech republic under WP3. Her main partner is the South Bohemia municipality ÄŒeské BudÄ›jovice, winner of the European Capital of Culture 2028 and Czech award-winning theatre company TANTEHORSE, which acts as a platform for original works, producing high quality socially engaged productions. Alice is Senior Researcher at the Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences and Associate Professor at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, Czech Republic. Her main research interests range from resilience, artistic research, performativity to relational ethics and citizen science developed with public institutions and independent artistic groups.
Alice Koubova
Dániel Oross
HUN-REN CENTRE FOR SOCIAL SCIENCES
Dr Daniel Oross is member of the INSPIRE team. His team at the HUN REN Centre for Social Sciences will lead a pilot as part of Work Package 2 on Co-designing Inclusive Participation working with institutional partners and local organisations in Budapest. HUN REN CSS Budapest is dedicated to building collaborative, transdisciplinary and cross-sectoral networks both within Hungary and internationally. Dr Oross is political scientist, he published several articles on youth participation, leads research on democratic innovations and evaluates local PDD processes in Hungary.
APPLIED RESEARCH AND COMMUNICATIONS FUND
Zoya Damianova is the Program Director of ARC Fund. She has more than 25 years of experience in developing and managing projects focused on research and innovation policy, including foresight and technology assessment studies, with a strong focus on public engagement and participatory methods. Zoya has directly coordinated or contributed in an expert capacity to more than 70 projects during her tenure with ARC Fund. Zoya has been regularly invited as an advisor to projects funded under FP7 and H2020, and as an external expert by DG RTD of the European Commission. Her research focus is on regional policy on research and innovation; sustainable innovation; energy transition, energy citizenship and energy communities; sustainable food systems, workplace innovation and labour market policies, as well as the silver economy.
Zoya Damianova
KING'S COLLEGE LONDON
Marta Wojciechowska
Marta Wojciechowska is a political theorist working on deliberative and participatory democracy, equality, and democratic governance in cities. Her work combines normative political theory with empirical methods (qualitative). Marta is based at the Department of Political Economy, King's College London. Funded in the 2010, the Department of Political Economy is the only department in the UK dedicated to the questions of political economy. Research in the Department of Political Economy focuses on critical questions at the intersection of politics, economics and philosophy that require a pluralistic approach, open to insights from different disciplines, theories and research methods.
PROSSIMA DEMOCRAZIA
Prossima Democrazia is the Italian social promotion association for democratic innovation based on deliberation. They specialize in designing, implementing, and evaluating Citizens' Assemblies. They aim at creating institutional ecosystems where different democratic devices can harmoniously interact. They collaborate with governments, academic institutions and NGOs to experiment and spread a more inclusive democracy and to devise better policies, rooted into balanced information and open discussion. They also do training and research within the framework of European funded projects and Foundations' calls for projects. As advocates of democratic innovation, They advise NGOs and governments on new and more inclusive ways to do democracy so as to embed deliberative innovation in policy making practices.​​
Stefano Sotgiu
UNIVERSITY OF LANCASTER
Temidayo Eseonu
Dr Temidayo Eseonu is contributing to various work packages in INSPIRE, in particular, she is the co-lead for the scoping review of creative approaches and arts-based participatory democracy practice and its impact in promoting inclusive participatory policymaking and intersectional equality. Temidayo is based in the Politics, Philosophy and Religion department at Lancaster University. Her work emphasises deliberative and participatory processes which cultivate spaces for the 'voice of colour', speaking about the experiences of racially minoritised people as part of efforts to address racial inequalities.
UNIVERSITAT AUTONOMA DE BARCELONA
Dr Adrian Bua is co-lead of INSPIRE Work Package 3: the political economy of participation, which assesses the relationship between socio-economic conditions and intersectional spaces of participation. Adrian is based at the Institut de Govern i Politiques Publiques, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, where he is also a Marie-Curie Post Doctoral Fellow. He works at the intersection of democratic theory, critical political economy and urban studies.
The UAB is a young, public and groundbreaking university. A leader in international rankings and a benchmark in research. Barcelonian, Catalan and international. A transformative, supportive, diverse and egalitarian, sustainable and healthy, participative and cultural university
Adrian Bua