Mark Mann is the Managing Director of two companies providing strategic innovation services across Europe – Mark Mann Limited and Mark Mann OÜ. He is also a Director of Divine Ox, an impact measurement company focused on SMEs. Mark is an experienced venture and ecosystem builder who has specialized in social innovation and brand-building strategies. He provides many training courses through PraxisAuril, ASTP, AESIS and other organizations.

Christoph is the managing partner at the science consultancy company G&K in Cologne/Germany. He supports research institutions in turning results into impact, focussing on social sciences, humanities, and the arts (SSHA) research in order to solve industrial and societal issues. Christoph belongs to several pools of experts and advisory boards on the European and national levels, including the Austrian Knowledge Transfer Center program and the COST CIG program. He started and leads the working group on SSHA impact at ASTP.

Julian is the Director of ARC Accelerator. He focuses on ARC Discover and ARC Launch. Until recently, he has worked as a Research Commercialisation Manager at the University of Bristol. Julian also has extensive entrepreneurial experience and has run as well as successfully exited several innovative social enterprises and for-profit ventures.

Chris is the Director of the ARC Accelerator and focuses on ARC Accelerate and ARC Scale. Chris also works with OU Consulting to help universities create startups from social science, humanities and the arts as well as social ventures. Prior to this, Chris was the Social Science and Humanities Lead at Oxford University Innovation and worked at FutureLearn, an Edtech start-up founded by the Open University.

Ivana is the Deputy Director of the knowledge transfer office of Charles University in Prague where she supports academia-business/public sector/NGO collaboration. She also guides individual scientists through the process of finding appropriate uses for their research results. In the past, she had managed several large EU-funded research infrastructure projects in biomedicine and biotechnology and worked as a research analyst/property consultant at Jones Lang LaSalle.

Frida is the Deputy Director of the ARC Accelerator and helps researchers build innovative and sustainable ventures that deliver impact at scale. She oversees the ESRC/AHRC SHAPE Catalyst, a new programme designed to equip researchers from the social sciences, arts and humanities with the skills they need to bring their ideas to market. Before this, Frida worked in business development for two EdTech start-ups with a social impact focus in Germany and the UK. She holds an MSc in Evidence-Based Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation from the University of Oxford, where her research focused on applications of AI in healthcare.