José Manuel Mendonça is currently the Chairman of the Board of INESC TEC and Full Professor at the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, School of Engineering, University of Porto. He is Chairman of the Nacional Council for Science, Technology and Innovation, National Director of UT Austin Portugal Program and Chairman of the Independent Evaluation Panel of Eureka Eurostars Program. Graduated in Electrical Engineering at the School of Engineering, University of Porto, he obtained his Ph.D in Electrical Engineering at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London. Presently he is a Fellow of the IC2 Institute of the University of Texas, Austin, and member of the High-Level Group of the European Technological Platform Manufuture. Over the last decade, he had been Chairman of the Board of ForestWISE CoLAB, Vice-President of the Innovation Agency, CEO of the Ilídio Pinho Foundation and Chairman of the Board of three technology-based companies: Tech M5 SGPS, Fibersensing SA e Kinematix SA.

Retired Professor at the Mechanical Engineering Department of the University of Coimbra, Portugal. Working in the field of forest fires since 1985, mainly in the area of fire behaviour and fire safety. He is the director of the Forest Fire Research Centre and created the Forest Fire Research Laboratory, for the research on physical aspects of fire spread and for fire fighter training. He participated in 70 research projects and contracts supported by National and European funds and coordinated several meetings and courses, including nine International Conferences on Forest Fire Research, since 1990. He was invited by Government Agencies to report on accidents or large fires, in Portugal (2000, 2006, 2013, 2017, 2020 and 2022), Spain, Australia, Croatia and Israel. He was a member of the Executive Board of IJWF (1993-96), the Board of Directors of International Association of Wildland Fire (IAWF) (2001-2006) and of the Editorial Advisory Board of the IJWF (2001-2009). In 2017, he received the Wildland Fire Safety Award, from the IAWF, for the significant contribution to wildland firefighter safety through wildland fire research, and in 2022 he received the Ember Award for Excellence in Wildland Fire Science, from the IAWF.

Joaquin is a wildland fire technologist who has been working for the last 30 years to bridge the gap between scientists and end users. He is the founder of Technosylva, Inc. and the creator of several of the most advanced fire behavior software model implementations and decision support systems for fire agencies and utilities, including the Wildfire Analyst and fiResponse software tools. Since 2020 is the current president of the International Association of Wildland Fire, and from 2011 he has helped coordinate the first European M.S. in Forest Fires (www.máster-fuego.com). Joaquin has a PhD in remote sensing and GIS at the University of Leon, an M.S. in forestry from the University of Lleida, and a B.S. in forest engineering from the Polytechnical University of Madrid, Spain.

Currently Deputy Coordinator of eBUPi, Paulo Madeira began his career as a lawyer in 2000 and today has more than 20 years of professional experience in technical and public management functions in multiple entities of the public sector, both in Portugal and abroad, for example on the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste supporting the Government Electoral Authority of Timor-Leste (STAE) and the Ministry of State Administration. In Portugal, special emphasis on the work carried out in the National Elections Commission, with the Assembly of the Republic (CNE), at the Regulatory Entity for Water and Wastewater Services (ERSAR), at the Institute for the Conservation of Nature and Forests (ICNF). At eBUPi - Simplified Land Digital Registry Mission Unit of Portugal (eBUPi), he worked as a specialist technician in the legal and financial areas and currently is responsible for the technological and innovation areas. From the academic track record perspective, he has a master's degree in Public Administration, from ISCTE-IUL, in the area of Administration and Public Policies, a degree in Law, from the Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa, and a diploma from the Course of Advanced Studies in Public Management (CEAGP), from INA, with specialization in Organizational Development, People Management and Leadership.

Alexander Held holds MSc in Forest Science from Freiburg University, Germany. He started as a fire ecologist at the Fire Ecology working group of the Max-Planck Society, got a number of operational qualifications in the US and South Africa. He moved from fire ecology to fire management and worked with the Global Fire Monitoring Center GFMC in Europe and Southern Africa. Later, Alex worked with the South African Working on Fire Program, from its early beginnings till 2012, when he joined EFI. At EFI, Alex works on the current project Waldbrand-Klima-Resilienz, where the exchange of expertise and knowledge, mutual assistance and cooperation in Europe is the tool to create more resilient landscapes and better-informed fire management for Germany. His expertise is in fire management, silviculture and deer management for resilient forests.