Américo Mateus is a lecturer and researcher at ISMAT-Lusófona Group, Portimão, and integrated senior researcher at CIAUD-Research Center in Architecture, Urbanism, and Design, FAUL-COFAC. His research focuses on participatory design, nature-based solutions, circular economy, biodesign, and innovation, with extensive involvement in European research and innovation projects. He serves as an expert in Taskforce 6-Co-creation of Nature-Based Solutions of the European Commission and is a director of the Nature-Based Solutions HUB Portugal, appointed by the EU NetworkNature. With more than 60 applied research projects implemented, his work embodies a strong vision of "Science for the Market" and is widely recognized in the fields of design and innovation facilitation. He is a frequent national and international speaker on design, creativity, circularity, biodesign, and nature-based solutions. Gabriel Patrocínio is an associate professor of Design (2019-), co-director of the Master's in Design for Circular Economy, and researcher at ISMAT-Lusófona Group (Portugal), and integrated senior researcher at CIAUD-Research Center in Architecture, Urbanism, and Design, FAUL-COFAC; adjunct professor at UERJ, the (Brazil, 1993-); and former director of ESDI/UERJ School of Design.Gabriel Patrocínio has done Ph.D.

in Design Policies from Cranfield University, UK (2013).Gabriel Patrocínio is a co-publisher/author of Design and Development: Leveraging Social and Economic Growth through Design Policies (Blucher, 2019). Gabriel Patrocínio is an author of Design Policies and Intellectual Property: Demands for a New Era (Sebrae, 2018). Susana Leonor is a professor at ISMAT-Lusófona Group where she directs the Bachelor's in Communication Design and Creative Technologies. She holds a Ph.D. in Design from the University of Aveiro (2016) and her research focuses on participatory processes, co-design, and pedagogical innovation. She has coordinated and participated in several European projects, including COCOON, EURIDICE, CECAM, and BiomaterialKIT, and in Horizon 2020 projects URBiNAT and Co-Create, where she led tasks on participatory design and co-creation.

Her main research interests include speculative and critical design, biodesign, and sustainable futures.