Luigi Fusco Girard is an emeritus professor at University Federico II of Naples, Italy. He is associate at National Council of Research (CNR- IRISS) and the Scientific Coordinator of the Horizon 2020 CLIC project (www.clicproject.eu) on innovative business, financing and governance models for the adaptive reuse of cultural heritage in the perspective of the circular economy and circular city model. As ISCEC-ICOMOS President, he has participated at the Stakeholders’ Committee meetings for the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018, contributing with inspirational and scientific papers on the role of cultural heritage as “connective” infrastructure of European cities and regions. He is the Director of International Laboratory on Creative and Sustainable City that has been recognized by UN-Habitat (from 2011) and UN-Habitat Universities (from 2015) as coordinator of Universities Research Hub on Urban Regeneration.Karima Kourtit isa researcher at the Open University, Heerlen, The Netherlands. She was lab-owner at the Jheronimus Academy of Data Science (JADS) in the division Smart Cities & Data Analytics (owned by the Eindhoven University of Technology and Tilburg University), ‘s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands. She has worked in the Department of Urban Planning and Environment at the Center for the Future of Places (CFP), at the School of Architecture and Built Environment at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, and at Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland. She holds two Ph.D.s, in both economics and geography (with distinction), and has a particular interest in regional and urban topics. Her research focuses on the emerging ‘New Urban World’. She has also been involved in the implementation of several national and international research projects and initiatives. Furthermore, she has been an editor of several books and guest editor for various international journals, and has published a wide array of scientific articles, papers, special issues of journals and edited volumes in the field of geography and the spatial sciences. She is also managing director of The Regional Science Academy. In summary, her academic profile is characterized by a deep involvement in evidence-based urban and spatial research on smart city policy and data metrics and by a strong commitment to educational support for young researchers. She also participates in numerous international scientific and managerial activities.Peter Nijkamp is an emeritus professor of regional and urban economics and of economic geography at the VU University, and is also associated with The Open University of the Netherlands (OU), Heerlen (The Netherlands); Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Iasi (Romania); KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm (Sweden), the University of Technology, Benguérir (Morocco) and A. Mickiewicz University, Poznan (Poland). He serves on the editorial/advisory boards of more than 30 journals. According to the RePec list, he is one of the top 30 best-known economists in the world. He is also a fellow and former vice-president of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences. He has served as president of the governing board of the Netherlands Research Council (NWO). In 1996, he was awarded the most prestigious scientific prize in the Netherlands, the Spinoza award. He is co-editor of the Handbook of Regional Science published by Springer.
