Head, Bioinformatics Unit, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale (IZS) dell’Abruzzo e Molise (IZSAM), Italy  
Adriano Di Pasquale has a PhD in Computer Science. He has a long experience on the design of information systems for the Italian Ministry of Health and international research projects. He is currently the head of the Bioinformatics Unit at IZSAM. He coordinates the development of the bioinformatic platform of the Italian National Reference Centre for WGS of microbial pathogens called GENPAT. He is currently managing the GENPAT platform extensions to Tunisia and Portugal. 

Specialist in Food Quality and Safety, Head of Department, HCDOA, Zouhair Kallel Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology (INNTA), Tunisia 
Veterinarian specialized in Food Safety, with extensive experience in microbiological and toxicological risk assessment. She completed a research internship at the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) and the National Veterinary School of Alfort. She also contributes to postgraduate education through the Veterinary Advanced Certificate in Food Hygiene, Quality, and Safety. Currently, she heads the Department of Hygiene and Control of Animal-Origin Food Products at the National Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology (INNTA) in Tunisia. Her work focuses on evaluating chemical residues and microbiological hazards in food, managing research projects, and supporting regulatory and policy development. She collaborates closely with national and international institutions to promote risk-based approaches in food safety. 
This expertise contributes to strengthening Tunisia's risk analysis system, particularly in aligning national food safety standards with EU regulations and enhancing regulatory capacity. 

Digital Agriculture and Innovation Specialist, FAO
Erik van Ingen works as an innovation specialist on digital agriculture through frontier technologies such as AI, blockchain, IoT and remote sensing in the FAO Office of Innovation. He co-leads the AI and blockchain communities of practice in FAO. He coaches innovation projects in FAO on agile and design thinking methodologies. Erik has a special interest in digital sustainability, digital public goods and private sector collaboration for the agrifood value chain on topics such as climate and child labor. Before joining FAO, he worked for 10 years in the private sector in the Netherlands and Sweden as a software architect and project leader. Erik holds a bachelor in Telematics and obtained in 2020 a master’s degree at the Open University in the Netherlands in Business Process Management and IT with a specialization in data science. 

Science Leader (food safety) New Zealand Institute for Public Health and Forensic Science 
Nicola King has worked in the areas of food safety and risk assessment for more than 20 years. She works on a range of projects for New Zealand’s food and health ministries and food companies. Most of this work is focussed on the risk of foodborne hazards to human health and is used to help organisations to identify where they need to focus their attention. Nicola leads an Emerging Risk Identification System that serves industry members of the New Zealand Food Safety Science & Research Centre. 

Associate Professor of Food Microbiology and Safety, University of Ghana 
Angela Parry-Hanson Kunadu is an Associate Professor of Food Microbiology and Safety at the University of Ghana. She has experience in microbial stress adaptation, nanoencapsulation technologies, and translational food safety. Her research integrates molecular science with public health application, leveraging international collaborations to optimize food safety interventions across diverse value chains. Angela’s current work explores nanoencapsulation strategies, microbial risk modeling, and the use of predictive analytics in emerging nutrition platforms. 

Senior Researcher, Data Science, Wageningen Food Safety Research, the Netherlands 
Floor van Meer works as a Senior Researcher Data Science at Wageningen Food Safety Research. With a broad background in nutrition, multivariate statistics and neuroscience at the University Medical Center Utrecht and Leiden University, her current work is at the junction of food safety, health and data science.  

Head Knowledge Innovation and Partnership management Unit KNOW, EFSA 
Didier Verloo is Head of the Knowledge, Innovation & Partnership Unit at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). With a background in evidence-based risk assessment and regulatory science he has led over the last 20 years in EFSA transformative initiatives to modernize how scientific knowledge is generated and applied while driving the integration of artificial intelligence into regulatory science, advancing automation of evidence synthesis and horizon scanning. His focus is on harnessing AI to strengthen foresight, transparency, and preparedness in food safety and One Health. Beyond EFSA, he contributes to EU and worldwide collaborations on AI and innovation in risk assessment and public health decision-making.