Thomas Gries is a Professor of International Growth and Macroeconomics at Paderborn University, Germany. He holds a Ph.D. from Kiel University, Germany, and previously (2008) was a visiting scholar at UNU Wider in Helsinki, Finland. He has coordinated several international projects with cooperating partners in various countries. One of the most important characteristics of his research is its interdisciplinarity. His more than 100 publications cover a wide range of subjects. Topics range from growth, macroeconomics and finance, labor market, entrepreneurship, innovation dynamics, and AI, to development and regional economics, climate change, conflict analysis, terrorism, and social psychology.

Carina Burs is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Economics at Paderborn University, Germany.  She received her Ph.D. in Economics at Paderborn University, Germany. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on theoretical work regarding the role of information in decision processes, ideologies, and financial bubbles.

Veronika Müller is an innovation manager who identifies innovation trends, helps companies secure funding for research and development (R&D), and facilitates research collaborations among potential partners. Her interdisciplinary research interests include individual decision-making, socio-economic transformation, conflict, psychological well-being, and belief systems. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Paderborn, where she developed an interdisciplinary framework that examines the interrelation between need deprivation, ideologies, and extremism. She also was a Visiting Researcher at the Chair of Political Psychology, at New York University, USA, funded by the Fulbright Commission, and a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Johns Hopkins University (SAIS) in Washington, D.C., USA.