Marianne Penker, professor of rural sociology and rural development at the Institute of Sustainable Economic Development, is dedicated to sustainability science. Her focus lies in fostering transformative solutions for rural areas in Europe and beyond through inter- and transdisciplinary research and teaching. Her research, which largely builds on Ostrom’s Social-Ecological-Systems framework, has changed the way people think about agri-food governance and the integration of diverse types of academic and stakeholder knowledge. Via the network of European Academies, she contributed to the SAPEA report on a sustainable food system for the EU and presented its key-results in front of the European Parliament. She chairs the UNESCO Man & Biosphere National Committee at the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

Manfred Max Bergman is Chair of Social Research and Methodology, Director of the Social Transitions Research Group, and Affiliated Professor of European Global Studies at the University of Basel. He also serves on the Board of the Center for Philanthropy Studies (CEPS) and the Executive Board of the Swiss Academic Society for Environmental Research and Ecology (saguf). Internationally, he is Senior Advisor at India’s Centre for Responsible Business (CRB), as a Member of the Uganda National Academy of Sciences, and as a contributor to the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN).

His research focuses on socio-sustainable transitions, particularly through the Proof of Transition Concepts (proTract) program, which studies real-world examples of successful sustainability transitions. The goal is to generate actionable, replicatable insights for fostering such transitions across various contexts.

In addition to this substantive research, he works on methodological development in the social sciences, specifically in advancing qualitative and mixed methods research methods and designs. He regularly teaches research methods workshops in Europe and Asia.

Current projects are based in India, Singapore, and Europe and involve international, cross-sectoral
collaborations.Through scholarly contributions, they aim to support the integration of social transitions,
methodological innovation, and societal impact.

Martina Schäfer studied biology and holds a doctorate in technical environmental protection and sociology from TU Berlin. She has been Scientific Director of the Center for Technology and Society at TU Berlin since 2010. Her research focuses on sustainable land and food systems, sustainable consumption, sustainable regional development and methods of inter- and transdisciplinary research. In recent years, she has been particularly concerned with the social impact of transdisciplinary research and is also active in the Society for Transdisciplinary and Participatory Research (GTPF) on this topic.

Basil Bornemann is a senior researcher and lecturer at the Department of Social Sciences, University of Basel, and at the Center for Religion, Economy and Politics, University of Zürich, Switzerland. As a critically engaged social scientist, his work explores the interplay between sustainability and democracy in contemporary societies, with a particular interest in how democratic processes can enable collective responses to social-ecological crises. In addition to the TLFC project, his current research focuses on the role of the state in sustainability governance, sustainability transformations in urban food systems, and the structure and dynamics of transformation conflicts. Basil holds an interdisciplinary background in environmental sciences, a doctoral degree in political science, and a venia legendi in political science and sustainability research. He serves as co-speaker of the Standing Group on Environmental Policy and Global Change of the German Political Science Association (GPSA) and as co-president of the Swiss Academic Society for Environmental Research and Ecology (saguf).

Antonia Kaiser is a sustainability researcher and currently works as a postdoc in the Social Transitions Research Group at the University of Basel and as scientific collaborator in Rural Sociology at the Berne University of Applied Sciences. Her inter- and transdisciplinary research focuses on sustainability and democracy in alternative global food value chains and on agri-food system transformations more broadly. At the University of Basel, she is also a lecturer in the Master's program in Sustainable Development.

Antonia holds a PhD in Sustainability Research from the University of Basel and previously conducted research on farmer behavior, pesticide reduction, biodiversity conservation and agricultural policy measures at Agroscope. Her background also includes a Master's degree in Sustainability Economics and Management from the University of Oldenburg, Germany, a semester at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia and a role as a board member with an NGO in Tanzania.

Marta López Cifuentes holds a doctorate from BOKU University (Austria) in sustainable food systems. In 2022, she was awarded an Erwin Schrödinger Fellowship by the Austrian Science Fund, which enabled her to work as a visiting researcher at the Centre for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Surrey (UK). Currently, she is based at the Institute for Sustainable Economic Development (BOKU University), where she serves as the principal investigator for the Austrian component of the "Trans-Local Food Coalitions" project. Her research addresses key issues in sustainability transformations, with a particular emphasis on democracy and justice within food systems. She has extensive experience in inter- and transdisciplinary research. In addition to her academic endeavours, she is an active member of the Viennese Food Policy Council, where she engages in shaping the local food system.

Benjamin Hennchen is a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Technology and Society at the Technische Universität Berlin. Before joining the TLFC project, he worked on inter- and transdisciplinary research projects in Berlin and Freiburg, where his focus was on food system transitions, social innovations and practices.

His primary motivation in the TLFC project is to better understand how, and whether, TLFCs—based on new social practices—can transform global food chains to mitigate associated negative impacts on living standards, human health and the environment. This also raises the question of how transparent and supportive social relationships can be formed between producers and consumers, despite vast geographical distances.

He also is eager to closely collaborate with the practice partners, seeks ways to incorporate their perspectives into the research process, learn from them, and generate practice-relevant knowledge with a lasting impact.

Fabienne Erni is currently enrolled in the Masters programme in Sustainable Development at the University of Basel. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Social Sciences and supports the project as a Student Research Assistant.