Giovanni Allegretti is an architect, planner and senior researcher at the Centre for Social Studies of the Coimbra University, Portugal, where he coordinates the Ph.D. “Democracy in the XXI century” and the "PEOPLEs' Observatory on Participation, Innovation and Local Powers". Habilitated as associate professor in Town Planning and Urban studies, he has previously been assistant professor of Town Management at the University of Florence, where he got his Ph.D. in Town, Territorial and Environmental Planning. He studied in Brazil, Denmark and Japan with scholarships of the Ministry of Foreign affairs. As a consultant and trainer about participatory processes, he was invited to hold professional courses by several Local Authorities (in countries such Italy, France, Spain, Greece, Sweden, Portugal, Senegal Reunion Island), Universities (Harvard Design School in United States, King Saud University in Saudi Arabia, International Islamic University in Malaysia, Institute of European Studies in Vietnam), NGOs (TI in Morocco and Indonesia, TNI in India), and International Institutions (in Canada's 2006 UN/World Urban Forum, in Kenya's 2006 Africities Forum and in two continental courses on Participatory Budgeting organised by the World Bank in South Africa and Senegal). Since January 2008 he coordinated the scientific training of the EQUAL-funded project "Participatory Budgeting in Portugal" which trained more than 600 local authorities and municipal technicians in Portugal on the issue of Participatory Budget. He also coordinated the scientific outputs of the EU-funded project "PARLOCAL" (led by Malaga Province in Spain) and the three-year study on Participatory Budgeting called "OPtar", funded by the FCT of Portugal. At present, he is co-chair of the Independent Authority for Promoting participation of the Tuscany Region (Italy), for the mandate 2014-2019. He is also consultant to the World Bank within the national strategies for participatory budgeting in Mozambique, and to the Council of Europe for four pilot-experiments of participatory practices at municipal level in Armenia.

Ana Raquel Matos is a researcher at the Centre for Social Studies (CES) and member of the research group on Science, Economics and Society (NECES) since 2007. She holds a PhD in Sociology - doctoral program on "Governance, Knowledge and Innovation" from the School of Economics/CES, University of Coimbra (2012). Her current research interests focus on the relation between "public participation and democracy", "social movements and collective action", "citizen participation in health", and "science and Knowledge(s)". She is particularly interested in the analysis of protest events as participatory mechanisms, and in the assessment of protest impacts on the (re)formulation of public policies.

Paolo Spada, male, graduated as an Economist in Italy, holds a Ph.D. in Political Science obtained at Yale University (USA) on issue related to participatory budgeting (2012). He has been junior visiting fellow at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard Kennedy School (Cambridge, MA, USA), and Democracy Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions, University of British Columbia. Specialized in comparative politics, public policies and governance, he has skills in Qualitative and Quantitative Methods, randomization and similar techniques. His last publications are devoted to issues relating Participatory Budgeting with the impact of ITC on Democratic Innovations. Since 2013, he was involved in supporting the development of the “Participedia” wiki project. Has been consultant to the World Bank ICT4GOV projects in Brazil, Congo, Cameroon and Dominican Republic. He is a member of the steering committee and the evaluation team of Participatory Budgeting in New York City (PBNYC).

Josh Lerner is co-founder and executive director of the Participatory Budgeting Project. He has over 15 years of experience developing, researching, and working with leading community engagement programs across North America, Latin America, and Europe. His work on participatory budgeting has been recognized by The White House as a model for open government, and by the Brown Democracy Medal as the best practical innovation advancing democracy around the world. He completed a PhD in Politics at the New School for Social Research and a Masters in Planning from the University of Toronto. He is the author of Making Democracy Fun: How Game Design Can Empower Citizens and Transform Politics (MIT Press, 2014), Everyone Counts: Could Participatory Budgeting Change Democracy? (Cornell University Press, 2014), and over 20 articles. joshlerner.net

Ernesto Ganuza researcher at CSIC (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas-Spanish National Research Council), Institute for Advanced Social Studies - Instituto de Estudios Sociales Avanzados (IESA), Faculty Member,. He holds a PhD in Sociology “Sociological theory and participation. Spanish Comparative Study of Participatory Budgeting”, Complutense University of Madrid (Spain