Katre is a labour and social policy analyst in Think Tank Praxis. She has a long term experience in policy making in the area of social security. She has initiated and implemented major reforms in this area. She has also been engaged in various projects in social welfare, including service development for older people and integrating health and social services. Katre is a member of International Network of Leave Policies and Research.

Triin Lauri is an associate professor of public policy at Tallinn University’s School of Governance, Law, and Society. Welfare policies have Triin’s research focus throughout her academic career, with a particular interest in comparative social policy and educational inequality. More recently, Triin has also concentrated on the politics of inequality and the role of beliefs and perceptions in shaping it. This also involves examining the implementation of policies and the role of ‘street-level bureaucracy’ in shaping our everyday experiences and these experiences’ shaped fairness beliefs and policy preferences.

With a robust experience spanning more than two decades, Tauno´s professional journey has been dedicated to non-profit organizations focused on advocating for the rights of disabled individuals. His educational foundation lies in the fields of social work, as well as information and knowledge management. These diverse realms of expertise converge to form the tapestry of his commitment to fostering positive change and inclusivity.

Erika Gubrium has a PhD in sociology and history of education from the University of Florida (2006), a master´s in international social Welfare and Health Policy (MIS) from OsloMet (2009) and is Professor of Social Work and Social Policy at Oslo Metropolitan University, Department of Social Work, Child Welfare and Social Policy. She teaches qualitative methods at the master’s level and Social Work in a Global Perspective at the bachelors level. Gubrium has led education-research collaboration projects with National Law School University, Bangalore, Higher School of Economics, Moscow, and Beijing Normal University, in China. Her research expertise lies within the fields of international and comparative anti-poverty policy, with a focus on the social psychological aspects of poverty; temporality, space, policy and belonging processes experienced by immigrants; the intersection between social work and social policy in theory and practice; and qualitative research methodology, especially sense-based ethnographic methods. She is currently Associate Editor of the journal, Nordic Social Work Research.

Håvard Aaslund is an associate professor of social work at Oslo Metropolitan University. He holds a PhD in Social Work and Social Policy. He is experienced in participatory action research, participatory practices and fieldwork, especially in the fields of housing, poverty and homelessness.

Kjetil A. van der Wel holds a PhD in sociology and is a professor of social policy at Oslo Metropolitan University. His research and teaching interests focus on social inequality in health, welfare and living conditions over the life course, social exclusion and poverty, health-related inequalities in labour participation and exclusion, and comparative health- and social policy. He primarily works with register data and surveys.

María is part of the country team lead by Inés Calzada. She works on experiences of inequality and vulnerabilisation with qualitative methods. She is interested in the possibilities of building solidarity and reversing stigma and suffering by social movements. She is currently Lecturer in Sociology at at the University of the Balearic Islands and tries to teach sociology with a sensibility towards historical processes.

Inés has a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and another in Audiovisual Communication from the University of Salamanca. Her Master’s degree is in Research Methods for the Social Sciences (specializing in Statistics) from the London School of Economics and PhD in Sociology from the University of Salamanca. Her research has always focused on the Welfare State from a comparative perspective, with a particular focus on citizens’ attitudes towards social policies. She is also interested in Social Sciences methodology and the new techniques applicable to this field. Currently, Inés is a member of the Methodology Unit and the Internship Coordinator for the Master’s program in Methodology for the Social Sciences at Complutense University of Madrid. She has recently coordinated two projects related to the Social Services: one focused on the use of Social Services by European seniors who come to live in Spain; the other examined the impact of the pandemic on Social Services.

Zsuzsanna works as a lawyer for the National Federation of Associations of Persons with Physical Disabilities (MEOSZ) in Budapest. She deals with regulatory issues concerning cash benefits provided under social security system, such as disability benefits and nursing care allowance. Zsuzsanna also advises people with disabilities on matters related to cash benefits.

Dorottya Szikra is a sociologist, who has taught social policy and social work for over a decade at Eötvös University of Sciences, Budapest. In 2017 she switched to research and since then she is working at the Institute for Sociology at the (former) Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Meanwhile, since 2019, she has been a Visiting Professor of the Central European University in Budapest and (now) Vienna, Dept of Gender Studies. Between 2015 and 2020 Dorottya acted as a co-chair of the European Social Policy Analysis Network (ESPAnet). Her recent research has focused on autocratization, populism and social policy.

Adrienn is a Post-Doctoral Researcher and she advances interdisciplinary research and innovative qualitative research methods to study social inclusion, welfare state developments and welfare attitudes. Recently, she has focused on the comparative analysis of autocratising welfare states. Following her PhD research adopting participatory methods to analyse welfare attitudes, she is engaged in developing and implementing the qualitative research in close collaboration with the local co-production partners in Hungary.

Gergő has always been interested in the social field. He studied sociology at the University of Szeged and has since been working in different NGOs of disabled persons. Gergő has mentored young people with disabilities as a youth coordinator, he was a rehabilitation mentor and employment counsellor. Gergő has worked in MEOSZ for six years; he is a coordinator of national and international projects and leads a domestic mentoring programme for disabled people.

Melinda Faragó holds a LL.M. in comparative constitutional law from Central European University (CEU). She works as a lawyer for the National Federation of Associations of Persons with Physical Disabilities (MEOSZ) in Budapest, focusing primarily on strategic litigation in a number of areas, including non-discrimination and independent living. She is also involved in the research and legislative advocacy activities of the organization.