Filip van Depoele is an economist by training (University of Leuven, Belgium) and subsequently studied European Economic Integration (College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium) and International Relations (Johns Hopkins University, Bologna, Italy). He worked for a number of years in the private sector (banking) before joining the European Commission in 1997. Filip held several positions in the Directorate General for Employment and Social Affairs and the Directorate General for Competition before moving to the Directorate General in charge of Education, Youth, Sport and Culture. After having managed the Policy Coordination unit for 5 years, he is currently heading the International Cooperation unit.

Claire Morel is the Head of Unit in charge of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions for the skills, career development and mobility of researchers at the European Commission. Before that she was the Head of the Unit for international cooperation at DG Education, Culture, Youth and Sport of the European Commission, with particular focus on the international dimension of the Erasmus+ programme and international policy dialogues in higher education and youth with various partners of the EU in the world. She has worked several years with the countries neighbouring the EU. Before, she worked for the Tempus programme (for higher education modernisation), cooperating with Central Asian countries, and for the European Training Foundation, an agency of the EU based in Turin, on the reform of vocational education and training systems in the Eastern neighbouring countries and Central Asia.

Joerg Niehoff is Deputy Head of Unit for “ERA, Spreading Excellence and Research Careers” in the Research and Innovation Directorate General of the European Commission. The Unit is responsible for the design and implementation of the ERA policy agenda, coordinates the ERA governance, develops a policy for research talents and careers, and empowers higher education institutions. The unit is also responsible for promoting the Spreading of Excellence and preparing the Horizon Europe work programme on “Widening participation and strengthening the European Research Area”. Joerg has more than 15 years of experience with the coordination of national research policies and programmes and European Partnerships. Previously he was as head of the Brussels office of VDI The Association of Engineers in charge of VDI’s European representation. First experience in management of research programmes he gained as Technology Consultant in the VDI Technology Centre, Research funding organisation on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, with projects and programmes related to photonics research. He started his professional career as a researcher at the Fraunhofer Institute for Laser Technology. Joerg Niehoff holds degrees in engineering and in industrial engineering and a PhD from the RWTH Aachen. 

Gro Tjore is the President of the Academic Cooperation Association and the Deputy Director General at the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills (HK-dir). The Directorate is the executive agency for the Ministry of Education and Research within the higher education and higher vocational education sectors and is responsible for the national skills policy. Gro Tjore has been working in education since 2006. Her main focus has been on international cooperation in higher education, including programme administration, programme development and policy development. Since 2018 she has mainly been working with organizational development, managing large restructuring processes and developing new strategies. She previously worked within the field of humanitarian assistance and spent 9 years working for the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). She holds a degree in political science from the University of Bergen, Norway.

Adrien Olszak-Olszewski is a Policy Officer in the International Cooperation unit in DG EAC at the European Commission. In this role, he focuses on fostering education, youth, culture, and sports cooperation with Eastern Partnership countries, with a particular emphasis on supporting Ukraine and Moldova in their EU accession processes, capacity building, and regional integration. Before joining the European Commission in September 2024, Adrien served as an Education Policy Consultant at the World Bank, where he focused primarily on Ukraine, with additional work experience on Moldova, Central Asia, and Kosovo.

Irina Ferencz is the Director of ACA and has been working in international higher education since 2008. Irina has specific expertise in the area of international student and staff mobility in the European context (data collections, trends, policies), as well as in planning, monitoring and assessing internationalisation activities at institutional and national level. She also has a growing interest in widening inclusion in internationalisation activities. Currently, she is also a PhD candidate at Ghent University, CHEGG, and an occasional reviewer for two higher education journals. She has authored and co-authored multiple publications in the field. Irina holds an MSc degree in European Politics and Policies (KULeuven, Belgium) and a Bachelor's degree in International Relations and European Studies (Universitatea Babeş-Bolyai, Romania). She is a Romanian national, speaks several languages, and calls Belgium 'home'.

Gerhard Volz is Head of the Department for International Cooperation in Higher Education at the OeAD (Austrian Agency for Education and Internationalisation). He is responsible for national, European and international support schemes in higher education, including Erasmus+ and various global funding measures, as well as for additional initiatives such as Study in Austria, EURAXESS, Bologna support projects and activities of ENIC NARIC Austria. Working for the OeAD since 1998, Mr Volz was initially responsible for university cooperation programmes and funding schemes for Central and Eastern Europe as well as for development cooperation programmes worldwide. Between 2007 to 2020 he was Head of Section for Erasmus+ Higher Education. Mr Volz holds a Master’s degree in Political Sciences, History and Education (University of Vienna). He has studied and participated in work-related activities in Europe, the US, Asia and Africa.

Luis de Barutell is an Education Advisor at the Higher Education Unit of the Spanish Service for the Internationalization of Education (SEPIE; Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities). Before working for SEPIE, he held different research and teaching positions, both in Spain and the United States, where he got his PhD in Social Work (University of Illinois) and served as a Social Policy analyst, focusing on socioeconomic disparities, social cohesion, and predictors shaping European public opinion towards migrants. Originally from Asturias (right there, by the Bay of Biscay!), Barutell is very passionate about the European project, particularly on its social and cultural dimensions.

Hilde Haaland-Kramer has been the Head of the Department for Global Cooperation and Capacity Building at the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills since 2019. She has worked in international higher education since 1997. She holds a MA in International Relations from American University, Washington D.C. and a BA in Political Science from California Lutheran University. Hilde has extensive experience from both government and higher education sector, having served seven years as the Educational Attaché at the Royal Norwegian Consulate General in New York and worked with international education and quality assurance at the University of Bergen for almost 10 years. Before joining the directorate, she was the administrative head of the Center for Care Research at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences for five years.

Darwyn Bruelemans is an IT professional who combines his passion for technology and global engagement as Web Project Administrator, at Erasmus Student Network (ESN). Darwyn oversees ESN's websites and IT infrastructure, driving the organization’s digital transformation. He has been working at ESN since 2015, and is committed to simplifying mobility processes, ensuring a seamless digital experience, and making participation in mobility as easy as a click of a button. Darwyn also contributes to several Erasmus+ projects, fostering innovation and accessibility in international education.

Martin Bogdan is a policy and project officer at ACA where he first started as a trainee in 2019. While at ACA he has managed the CARe project, which deals with labour integration of refugee researchers in Europe, and the Internationalisation in Higher Education for Society mapping report. Before joining ACA, he completed a Blue Book Traineeship in the Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency of the European Commission in the unit working on Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degrees. In his pre-Brussels life, Martin worked for a number of NGOs in different capacities and briefly taught social sciences and history in an international school. He has a joint MA in European studies from Rijksuniversiteit Groningen and Jagiellonian University Krakow, as well as a MA in cultural anthropology and museum studies from the University of Zagreb and a BA in anthropology and information science also from the University of Zagreb.

Veronika Kupriyanova is Deputy Director at ACA. Before re-joining ACA in November 2020, Veronika worked for the European University Association (EUA) and several consulting companies specialising in higher education and research. Veronika spent two years in Berlin hosted by the Humboldt University of Berlin with the fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung and later worked as a researcher at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). She is experienced in a wide range of higher education and research topics and has a keen interest in policies and programmes supporting internationalisation at the institutional, national and European level. Veronika holds a joint Master’s degree in World Politics from the Moscow State Institute in International Relations (MGIMO) and the Paris Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po). She speaks three official languages of Belgium in addition to her mother tongue (Russian).

Angeliki Psychogyiou works in the ACA Secretariat as a Policy and Project Officer. She is an EU Funding and Grants specialist, with considerable experience in the Higher Education and Vocational Education and Training sectors. Her main focus within the Secretariat is digitalisation, conducting both project and policy related work in this area. She is also the co-chair of the Thematic Peer Group ‘New mobility formats’, exploring the intersection between digitalisation & sustainability. Angeliki’s main areas of professional and personal interest are international cooperation, mobility as a foster agent for European identity, digitalisation, inclusion and social responsibility of educational institutions.