Ricard Ramon
Since 2016, Ricard Ramon is the Deputy Head of Unit in charge of strategy and policy perspectives within the Directorate General of Agriculture and Rural Development in the European Commission. He has had an active role in the design and negotiation of the last two reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Recently, he was a member of the support team that assisted the Chair of the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU agriculture (2024). He is currently involved on the analysis and policy discussion to ensure the long-term competitiveness and sustainability of the farming and food sector in the EU, including the CAP for the period post-2027.
In his previous assignments in the European Commission he participated in the negotiation, approval and management of the national and regional Rural Development Programmes as well as in the implementation of the previous CAP reform (Health Check) and the reform of the wine sector.
Before joining the European Commission, he was a policy advisor at regional level and taught European policies at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the École supérieure de commerce de Dijon-Bourgogne (ESC Dijon-Bourgogne). He graduated on Political Science and public policies at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (BSc and MPhil) and the London School of Economics (MSc).
Krijn J. Poppe
Krijn J. Poppe is a senior economist and chief policy advisor. Before his retirement at Wageningen University and Research, he managed a department of Wageningen Economic Research and various research programs for the European Union covering the food industry, information technoglogy and several studies to innovate the Farm Accountancy Data Network. For several years, he co-led the European Union’s Standing Committee on Agricultural Research’s Strategic Working Group on Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems.
The Dutch government appointed him as a member of the Netherland’s Council for the Environment and Infrastructure. He previously served as secretary-general of the European Association of Agricultural Economists, of which he is a fellow. Until last year he was involved in managing its journals the European Review of Agricultural Economics, Q Open and EuroChoices. Poppe has served as chief science officer of the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture. He was a board member of SKAL, the Dutch Inspection Organization for Organic Farming. He holds an M.Sc. in business economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam.
Paul Webb
Since 2021 Paul Webb is the Head of the “Green Europe” Department at the European Research Executive Agency. This Department is the European Commission service responsible for the implementation of Cluster 6 of the Horizon Europe Research Framework programme (Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment), as well as the Research Fund for Coal and Steel and the Agricultural Promotion programme. These programmes and funds support the major changes needed in a transition to a low-carbon, resource-efficient circular and sustainable economy.
Previously he worked in different positions within the European Commission, including in the Directorates General for Research and Innovation, for Budget, and for Agriculture and Rural Development.
Joost Dessein
Joost Dessein is Associate Professor at the department of Agricultural Economics (Ghent University, Belgium), and an affiliated member of the Centre for Sustainable Development (Ghent University). He holds an Msc in Agricultural Engineering and a Msc and PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology. From 2019 till 2023, Joost has been President of the European Society for Rural Sociology. With colleagues of the research group INSPIRA ( Institutional, Socio-economic and Political Issues in Rural-urban Areas) he focuses on the governance of local food systems, and related themes such as social and environmental justice and food democracy. He also studies the political and epistemological context of agro-ecology and the role of different knowledge systems in the transitions of the food system. His research has a strong though not exclusive focus on the Global South.
Sebastian Goerg
Professor Sebastian Goerg is a behavioral and experimental economist. He investigates how incentives, information, and (legal) institutions influence actual human behavior. Together with co-authors from the social and natural sciences, he pursues an interdisciplinary research agenda.
Sebastian Goerg studied economics at the University of Bonn, where he also obtained his PhD under the supervision of Nobel Laureate Professor Reinhard Selten. From 2009 to 2012, he worked at the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods. After research stays at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the University of Michigan, he joined Florida State University as an Assistant Professor in 2012 and was granted tenure there in 2018. In 2018, Professor Goerg joined the Technical University of Munich as an Associate Professor. He heads the Professorship of Economics at TUM Campus Straubing for Biotechnology and Sustainability. At the campus, he is the academic program director for the study programs focusing on the Bioeconomy.