Anastasia Panori is an Electrical and Computer Engineer (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Engineering), holds a Master’s Degree in Economics from the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki, and a PhD in Economic and Regional Development from Panteion University of Athens. Her main research interests focus on urban and socio-economic development, data science, smart cities, and Smart Specialisation Strategies at a regional level. Since 2012, she has been working as a researcher and has participated in various projects funded by the European Union and the Greek Government.

Elvira Galanaki has studied informatics at the Department of Informatics in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and has received a master degree from Imperial College London in Advanced Computing. She has extended working experience, from 2007 up to now, in software design and development, specialised in database design and web programming.

Maria Schoina is a graduate of the Department of Civil Engineering of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. After graduation she has been working as a scientific researcher at the Universities of Thessaly and Western Macedonia, in a series of projects and studies in the fields of Regional Development, Innovation, Management of Technology and Tourism Development. Since 2000 she has been working at URENIO Research of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and since 2009 at INTELSPACE, participating in the implementation and management of projects in the field of innovation policy, commercialisation of technology and intelligent transportation systems.

Artemis Psaltoglou is a PhD candidate at the Department of Urban and Regional Planning of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) and a Master student on Computer Science and Web Technologies. She is a graduate of the Department of Architecture of AUTH and she holds a master’s degree on Smart Cities from the University of Girona. Since 2016, she has been working as a researcher and her research interests include the concept of urban intelligence, the use of digital technologies in tackling urban challenges, as well as the social dimensions of smart cities.

Giorgos Martinidis studied psychology in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and Middlesex University, economics and politics in the University of Macedonia, and holds a PhD in the contribution of human factors to regional innovation systems, also from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Since 2007 he has worked on the administration and implementation of various research projects and the drafting of research proposals for Aristotle University’s URENIO research, INTELSPACE, the University of Sheffield’s South Eastern Europe Research Centre, and Creativity Platform.

Panagiotis Tsarchopoulos received a Master in Electrical Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 1992 and he has been working as a multimedia and web developer since 1993. He has an extensive experience with all parts of a Website building process and state-of-the-art technologies: Information Architecture, Web Design, Content Creation, Content Management Systems, Web 2.0 applications, and Usability Evaluation. He received a PhD from the Department of Urban and Regional Development and Planning, School of Engineering at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki with a thesis on digital cities.

Christina Kakderi holds a degree in Economics from the University of Macedonia, Greece, a MSc from the School of City and Regional Planning, Cardiff University, and a PhD on innovation systems analysis from the Faculty of Engineering of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She has received a three-year fellowship from the State Scholarship Foundation and a fellowship from the Research Committee of AUTH; she has also attended a number of extended training courses at the DIMETIC (Strasbourg, Maastricht and Pecs) on innovation networks, policies and methodologies, and at the Spatial Econometrics Advanced Institute (in Rome) on spatial econometrics.

Paraskevi TARANI studied architecture at the School of Engineering in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She is a PhD candidate at the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, on the topic “The European Cities in the New Economy of Knowledge”.Her research interests include the area of urban and regional innovation, urban theory and planning.

Elena Sefertzi received a Master in Sociology from the University of Sorbonne and a PhD from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Science Sociales, Paris. She has a rich professional experience in the management of innovation, technology transfer, and regional innovation strategies. Elena served as CEO of INTELSPACE till June 2014. She is an associate professor at the Department of Spatial Planning and Development, Faculty of Engineering, Aristotle University.

Nicos Komninos is co-founder of INTELSPACE and professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He holds a master’s degree of Architecture-Engineering, post-graduate studies in Semantics, and a PhD from the EHESS Paris. His research interests are in two fields (1) intelligent / smart cities: intelligent city evolution, structure, strategy and planning, smart ecosystems, connected intelligence, and (2) systems of innovation: territories of innovation, innovation platforms, transformative innovation, innovation strategies, measurement of innovation performance.