Dr. Paraskevi Boufounou is Associate Professor of Developmental Finance at the Department of Economics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She holds a Ph.D. in Banking and Strategic Planning, an M.Phil. in Econometrics and International Finance, and a B.A. in Economics. With over 30 years of academic and policy experience, she has held teaching and research roles at leading Greek institutions and collaborated with international organizations. Dr. Boufounou has also served in senior advisory and executive positions in government and finance, including the National Bank of Greece and the Ministry of Economy, contributing to strategic reforms and investment policy. Her research focuses on sustainable finance, financial governance, and innovative development mechanisms. She has published extensively and participates in EU-funded projects and international conferences. She is an active member of scientific committees and advisory boards, promoting policy-relevant economic research.
Email: pboufounou@econ.uoa.gr
Dr. Elias G. Carayannis is a Full Professor of Science, Technology, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship at the George Washington University School of Business. He co-founded and co-directs the Global and Entrepreneurial Finance Research Institute (GEFRI) and serves as Director of the European Union Research Center (EURC). His research and teaching focus on strategic partnerships among government, universities, and industry in R&D, technology road-mapping, transfer and commercialization, international science and technology policy, and regional economic development. Dr. Carayannis is widely recognized for introducing the Quadruple and Quintuple Innovation Helix frameworks and the Mode 3 Knowledge Production System, which have shaped thinking around innovation ecosystems and sustainable development. His work bridges theory and practice, offering insights into how collaborative innovation can drive economic and societal progress.
Email: caraye@gwu.edu
Dr. Vasiliki–Eirini Dimakopoulou is Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She holds a PhD in Economics from the Athens University of Economics and Business, an MSc in Finance from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and bachelor’s degrees in mathematics (University of Athens) and Banking and Financial Management (University of Piraeus). Her research focuses on macroeconomic theory and policy, economic growth, and business cycles. Her recent work has been published in peer-reviewed journals including European Economic Review, Economic Modelling, and Open Economies Review.
Email: dimakopv@econ.uoa.gr
Georgia Kaplanoglou is Professor of Public Finance and Social Policy at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, where she also directs the MPhil in Economics. She holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge, supported by a Marie Curie Fellowship and the UK Economic and Social Research Council. Before joining academia, she worked at the Bank of Greece’s Economic Research Department and represented the Bank in ECB and OECD working groups on public finance. Her research focuses on taxation, inequality, and the impact of economic crises, with publications in, among others, Review of Income and Wealth, International Tax and Public Finance, Kyklos, Economic Modelling, and Fiscal Studies. Her work has twice received first prize at the European Parliament’s Progressive Economy Forum, in the categories “Inequality and the Crisis” and “Rethinking Economic Policy,” chaired by J.-P. Fitoussi and J. Stiglitz. She regularly contributes to the social dialogue on taxation and inequality issues, including an 1.5-hour podcast on taxation which has attracted more than 14k views.
Email: gkaplanog@econ.uoa.gr
Pantelis C. Kostis is Assistant Professor of Economic Development in the Department of Economics at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He serves as the academic coordinator for the Erasmus+ and CIVIS student mobility programs, as well as for Erasmus+ internships. His research has been published in leading international journals, and he is the author of several books on economic development and growth. He is currently the Scientific Coordinator of a HORIZON EUROPE project (2025–2027) and holds editorial roles as Editor of the Palgrave Studies in the Future of European Societies and Economies and Senior Associate Editor for three academic journals.
Email: pkostis@econ.uoa.gr
Professor Sunil Mani (PhD in Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi) is a development economist specialising in the economics of technology and innovation. He is an Associate Professorial Fellow at IEDL. He has completed postdoctoral research at the University of Oxford as a Ford Foundation Fellow. He was formerly Director and RBI Chair Professor at the Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India and is currently a visiting professor at CDS and Ahmedabad University. His career includes appointments at UNU-MERIT (Maastricht) and visiting professorships at Bocconi University, GRIPS (Tokyo), and the University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès. With an H-index of 27 (Google Scholar) and 10 (Scopus), his research is widely cited. He serves on editorial boards, reviews for leading international journals, and has contributed to India’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy (2020). His forthcoming book, India’s High-Tech Leap: Industrial Policy and the Future of Innovation, will be published by Edward Elgar in January 2026.
Email: mani@cds.edu
Prof. George Mavrotas (DPhil Economics, Oxford) is an Associate Professorial Fellow and a development economist with over 35 years of experience in international development. His research spans development finance, aid effectiveness, food security, nutrition, and urbanization. He is currently a Visiting Full Professor at the Institute of Development Policy, University of Antwerp; a Senior Fellow at FERDI (France); and an Associate Research Fellow at UNU-CRIS (Belgium). He has held senior roles at IFPRI, UNU-WIDER, and the Global Development Network, and previously taught at Oxford and Manchester. He has also served as Visiting Professor at universities in Helsinki, Clermont-Ferrand, and Beijing. Prof. Mavrotas is widely published in development economics, with over 150 peer-reviewed papers and 10 books.
Email: george.mavrotas@uantwerpen.be
Phyllis Papadavid is Associate Senior Fellow at IEDL. Phyllis serves as Senior Research Fellow in international macroeconomics at ODI Global in London and is expert in macroeconomic shocks, financing economic transformation and the economics of exchange rates. For two decades, she held leadership positions in the Global Foreign Exchange and Global Economics Teams at BNP Paribas, Société Générale CIB and Lehman Brothers where she advised institutional clients globally. She has also served as Associate Faculty at Columbia University and has been featured in the Financial Times, Bloomberg, The New York Times and CNN, among others. Phyllis is a graduate of Columbia University, The London School of Economics and Political Science and SOAS, University of London.
Email: p.papadavid@odi.org
Dr Sanfey is Senior Research Fellow at IEDL. Dr Sanfey is Deputy Director, Head of Country Economics, in the Department of Policy Strategy and Delivery at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). From 2017 to 2020, he was a Visiting Senior Fellow at the European Institute of the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has a Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University and, prior to joining the EBRD, he was a lecturer in economics at the University of Kent at Canterbury. Peter has published extensively in international peer-reviewed journals, focusing primarily on transition economics, macroeconomics, and labour economics. He is the co-author of two books and numerous articles examining economic policies and reform processes in south-eastern Europe.
Email: sanfeyp@ebrd.com
Dr. Foteini Thomaidou is an Associate Research Fellow at IEDL. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics, an MSc in Applied Economics and Finance, and an MPhil in Economic Theory from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. In recent years, she has developed a strong interest in environmental and sustainability issues, which has led her to pursue post-doctoral research in energy economics at the Department of Environment, University of Thessaly. From 2007 to 2019, she served as a research associate in the Macroeconomic Analysis and Policy Department at IOBE (Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research). Since 2019, she has been a Senior Research Economist in the Economic Research Division of Alpha Bank, where she leads sectoral studies.
Email: fothomaid@outlook.com
Dr Tomai is Associate Research Fellow and Postdoctoral Researcher at Virginia Tech’s System Performance Laboratory, specializing in socio-technical systems, human–automation interaction, and sustainability transitions. In 2025, she completed her PhD at UNU-MERIT in the Netherlands, where she conducted extensive field research on circular economy and urban environmental management in developing-country contexts. Her work integrates systems thinking, participatory modeling, and policy analysis to examine how innovation and institutional dynamics shape sustainable development outcomes. Maria has collaborated with international organizations and research networks, contributing to interdisciplinary studies on global development, technology adoption, and bottom-of-the-pyramid innovation.
Email: tomai@vt.edu
