Dr. Harald Sander is Associate Professor of Economics at MSM and a Professor of Economics and International Economics at TH Köln - University of Technology, Arts and Sciences, where he directs the Institute of Global Business and Society and holds the Jean Monnet Chair "Europe in the Global Economy", sponsored by the European Union (2014-17). His main research areas are economic integration, trade and industrial policies, and the macroeconomics of financial crises.

Dr. Katharina Friz works at the VDI Technology Center since 2023 as a consultant in research funding for the Federal Ministry of Research and Education. She completed her bachelor's degree in Economics (B. Sc.) at the University of Bremen in 2016. From 2017 to 2021, she worked as a research associate and PhD candidate at the Chair of Economics, esp. Innovation and Structural Economics at the University of Bremen and completed in 2019 a research stay at Jagellonen University in Poland. In 2022, she worked as an international project consultant at the Expert Centre for Emerging Economies at the Maastricht School of Management (MSM) and was involved in projects in Sudan and Burundi.

Antonella Anastasi is a Project Consultant for the Expert Centre on Emerging Economies (ECEE) at Maastricht School of Management (MSM). She attained an MBA at MSM with specialty in International Business and Sustainable Development in June 2020, and holds two Master degrees from LUMSA University in Rome (Italy), in the field of international cooperation and international relations. Since 2019, she is coordinating, managing and monitoring TVET and higher education programs in developing countries, such as Sierra Leone, Sudan and Burundi. Her research interests include emerging economies, renewable energies, corporate social responsibility, sustainability, inclusive development, global value chain.