Keynote Speakers
Mhairi Aitken
Ours Collective
Mhairi Aitken
Dr Mhairi Aitken is an internationally recognised expert in AI ethics and responsible innovation, with a focus on participatory research and inclusive practice. She leads groundbreaking research on child-centred AI, and in 2025 she organised the world’s first Children’s AI Summit.
Mhairi is a Co-Founder and Director of Our AI Collective and a Visiting Senior Lecturer at the Digital Environment Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London. Previously, between 2020 and 2026, Mhairi was Senior Ethics Fellow at The Alan Turing Institute (the UK’s national institute for AI and data science), where she led a groundbreaking programme of research on Children and AI and worked across a range of topics including public voices in AI, data justice, ethics of Generative AI, and emerging AI policy and regulation. Mhairi co-developed the Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law Impact Assessment (HUDERIA) tool that was formally adopted by the Council of Europe in 2024.
Mhairi is passionate about public engagement with AI, including performing shows about her research at festivals and in stand-up comedy clubs. She is a frequent contributor to media discussions around AI and data and was included in the international list of "100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics."
Elena Korosteleva
University of Warwick
Elena Korosteleva
Elena Korosteleva is Professor of International Politics and Director of the Institute for Global Sustainable Development (IGSD) at the University of Warwick. In 2024, Elena was appointed Chair for the Sustainability Spotlight, a Warwick-wide interdisciplinary research network established to address sustainability challenges collectively, and was elected to serve on the Scientific Council for COP29. Elena is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford and Jean Monnet Chair, an honour she has been awarded twice by the European Commission in recognition of her research and teaching excellence.
Professor Korosteleva's research is situated at the innovative intersection of Complex IR, Politics and Governance Studies, with a focus on resilience and democracy. Her GCRF UKRI COMPASS+ (2017–2023, PI, £4+ million) project received a Higher Commendation for Best International Collaboration at the 2021 Times Higher Education (THE) Awards, despite the challenges posed by COVID-19. In 2026, Elena received a research award from the University of Warwick for her leadership in fostering research culture. She is the founder of four cross-disciplinary research centres on European, Eurasian and Global Studies, including the award-winning ECR Sustainability Training School at Warwick. Elena works closely with His Majesty's Government (particularly the FCDO), Parliament, EU institutions, and regional and national governments. She is the author of more than 100 publications, including her Oxford University Press single-authored book Complexity and Community in IR: Nurturing Resilience in Central Eurasia (2025, Open Access).
Elena Korosteleva also contributed the paper "Democracy Support in an Age of Complexity: A Central Asian Perspective" as part of the forum Global Perspectives on Democracy Support in Light of the Wars in Gaza and Ukraine (May 2025), published in International Studies Perspectives.
David Mair
European Commission Joint Research Centre
David Mair
David joined the European Commission in 1995 and the Joint Research Centre (the Commission's science and knowledge service) in 2011.
He is currently Head of Unit responsible for the JRC’s work on democracy, public governance and public administration ("JRC.S.2 Science for Democracy, Public Governance and Administration").
Evidence-Informed Policy Making
Community of Practice on Democracy (CoP Demos)
Between 2011 and 2016, he was Head of Unit responsible for the JRC work programme, science advice to policy and foresight. From April 2015 to December 2015, he was Acting Director.
From 1998 to 2011, he worked in DG Health and Consumers on consumer policy strategy, regulatory enforcement, and research, data and statistics. Between 2007 and 2011, he served as Head of Unit for consumer market monitoring and analysis, the Consumer Markets Scoreboard, and work on consumer behaviour. Before that, he worked for DG Taxation, the UK Treasury, UBS, and the British Army. He studied History at Cambridge University.
Philippe Vandenbroeck
shiftN
Philippe Vandenbroeck
Trained in engineering, philosophy and urban planning, Philippe Vandenbroeck has spent over 30 years working at the intersection of systems thinking and strategic inquiry, helping organisations across business, civil society and public administration make sense of complex challenges and act under deep uncertainty. He is co-founder of shiftN, a strategy practice built around foresight, systems-thinking-in-practice and the design of collective learning processes, with clients ranging from the UK Government Office for Science and the UN Foundation to civil-society networks and public agencies internationally. His work sits at the intersection of systems thinking and collective inquiry: how groups make sense of complexity, revise their assumptions, and build the trust that allows them to act together. He is currently completing doctoral research at the Chair for Architecture and Urban Transformation (Institute for Landscape and Urban Studies) at ETH Zürich and serves as a Trustee of the International Futures Forum and on the advisory board of the European Public Health Alliance.
