Integrating Critical Raw Materials into Life Cycle Assessment of Electric Mobility: Sustainability, Supply-Chain Risk, and Resource Security Beyond Carbon Metrics

Prof. Francesco Romagnoli is a tenured professor at the Riga Technical University, Institute of Energy Systems and Environment. Over the last 18 years, he has carried out research, teaching, and applied engineering activities at the interface of energy systems, bio-based technologies, environmental sustainability, and system resilience assessment. He holds a degree in Environmental Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Turin and a PhD from Riga Technical University.

He works with life-cycle–based and system-oriented approaches to support robust, evidence-based decision-making for sustainable development, including Life Cycle Costs and Social LCA. His research focuses on the integrated environmental assessment of bio-based, energy, and infrastructure systems, with particular emphasis on micro- and macroalgae-based systems, bioenergy pathways, and circular bioeconomy solutions.

A substantial part of his scientific work addresses the application of Life Cycle Assessment, system modelling, and multi-criteria analysis to evaluate climate impacts, energy efficiency, resource use, and system resilience. His peer-reviewed publications extensively explore the sustainability performance of bioenergy and biogas systems, including algae-based anaerobic digestion, as well as urban and regional energy systems and their response and recovery under extreme stress and climate-related risks.

Prof. Romagnoli has developed recognised expertise in the LCA of micro- and macro-algae bio-based value chains, with a strong focus on the valorisation of seaweeds and microalgae for biorefinery applications, biofuels, nutrient recovery, and CO₂ mitigation. His research integrates experimental data, ISO-compliant LCA modelling, and process simulation to optimise circularity, environmental performance, and techno-feasibility across emerging biomass-based systems, including novel microalgae cultivation technologies in the Baltic region.

Since 2020, he has led applied LCA and eco-design activities supporting Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) studies for industry and infrastructure projects. He has delivered numerous EPDs and industrial LCA studies, collaborating with major engineering companies to embed life cycle thinking into design, planning, and management processes.

He has served as a reviewer for several international peer-reviewed journals in the fields of sustainability, energy, and environmental assessment, and as Guest Editor for Energies. His interests include: Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Life Cycle Costing (LCC), Social LCA, Eco-design, Circular Bioeconomy, Bioenergy and Biogas Systems, Micro- and Macroalgae Biorefineries, Anaerobic Digestion, System Dynamics Modelling, Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation, Sustainable Energy and Infrastructure Systems, Urban and Critical Infrastructure Resilience, and Nature-Based Solutions.

Dr. Latifa Yousef is a climate and energy specialist with over a decade of experience advancing applied climate services, renewable energy research, and international scientific collaboration. She currently serves as a Project Manager at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in Geneva, where she leads WMO’s contributions to EU Horizon projects on climate resilience—CROSSEU and CARMINE—and supports global efforts to strengthen climate-informed energy services and the integration of AI into weather and climate applications.

Prior to joining WMO, Latifa was a Senior Researcher at the Technology Innovation Institute’s Renewable and Sustainable Energy Research Center in Abu Dhabi, where she managed interdisciplinary projects on climate-informed renewable energy systems and the Water-Energy-Food nexus, delivering technical insights to policymakers and national partners. She previously spent seven years at the UAE National Center of Meteorology, serving as Program Officer for the UAE Research Program for Rain Enhancement Science, where she coordinated high-impact international research, led global expert networks, and organized flagship scientific forums.

Latifa holds a PhD in Interdisciplinary Engineering focused on environmental and climate sciences, an MSc in Water and Environmental Engineering—both from Khalifa University—and a BSc in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Sharjah. She is the author of multiple peer-reviewed publications on renewable energy, cloud climatology, and atmospheric processes, and serves on the American Meteorological Society’s Renewable Energy Committee.

AI and robotics for crop health

Spyros Fountas is Professor and Dean in the School of Environment and Agricultural Engineering at the Agricultural University of Athens. He has been Editor-in-Chief in the journal Smart Agricultural Technology (2021-today), while he was Editor-in-Chief in the journal of Computers and Electronics in Agriculture (2014-2021). He holds a BSc in Agricultural Sciences from Greece, an MSc from Cranfield University, in the UK, and a PhD from Copenhagen University in Denmark. He was also Visiting Scholar at Purdue University, USA. He has been Keynote speaker in several conferences among others in the FIRA Conference on Agricultural Robotics in France 2021; International Horticultural Congress in Turkey in 2018, 17^th European Weed Research Society (EWRS), in France in June 2015; European Conference on Precision Agriculture (ECPA) in Spain in 2013. He has coordinated 7 H2020 and Horizon Europe projects, Smart-AKIS, GATES, OPTIMA, BEATLES, ICAERUS, Oper-8, SmartDroplets, while he has participated in several other European, national and industry-based projects. He has more than 250 papers, including book chapters, journal papers and conference papers and 12,500 citations (Google scholar, January 2026). He is also Visiting Researcher at Vytautas Magnus University Agriculture Academy in Lithuania.

Rethinking Working Conditions and Social Sustainability in European Family Farming

Dr. David Meredith is a Senior Research Officer at Teagasc, Ireland’s Agriculture and Food Development Authority, where he leads the Department of AgriFood Business and Spatial Analysis. He serves as Principal Investigator for the Horizon Europe SafeHabitus project (2023-2026) and previously led the Irish RENEW2050 and BeSAFE projects, developing evidence-based interventions to improve farmer safety, occupational health, and mental wellbeing. His research examines the social and economic factors that influence farmer behaviour and safety practices, translating findings into actionable policy recommendations and practical resources for agricultural advisors and policymakers at national and EU levels. Dr. Meredith has published extensively on farm safety and rural occupational health, and currently supervises a team of PhD and Post-Doctoral researchers in these fields. He holds a PhD in Human Geography from Maynooth University and a Higher Diploma in Statistics from Trinity College Dublin, enabling him to combine rigorous quantitative analysis with applied social research to address critical safety and wellbeing challenges in agriculture.

Sustainability crisis and our responsibility as scientific community

Franz Faupel is Chairman of the North European Initiative Nanotechnology (NINa SH e.V.) and founding member of the International Alliance of Societies for a Sustainable Future (SFS). Until March 2025, he held the Chair for Multicomponent Materials at Kiel University and published over 400 research papers, inter alia, on metallic glasses, functional nanocomposites, magnetoelectric sensors, photocatalysis, plasma deposition, and memristive devices for bioinspired neuromorphic computing. After a research stay as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the IBM Research Center in Yorktown Heights, he completed his habilitation at the University of Göttingen in 1992. For more information, please visit https://www.tf.uni-kiel.de/matwis/matv/en?set_language=en and https://scholar.google.de/citations?user=YnVgzIoAAAAJ&hl=de.

How science can help us produce more biogas at lowest social costs

Biljana Kulisic, PhD, policy officer at the Unit C2 Decarbonisation and sustainability of energy sources within European Commission Directorate-General for Energy:

Biljana has over 20 years of experience in concerted policy and assessing socio-economic aspects of bioenergy. She is involved in IEA Bioenergy TCP since 2005 and was contracted as an independent expert for bioeconomy, bringing in the spirit of EU15 to the group, to the European Commission Directorate-General Research and Innovation 2020-2021. Since October 2022, she works as a policy officer at the European Commission, Directorate-General Energy: Decarbonisation and Sustainability of Energy Sources Unit, with biomethane, GHG emissions from biofuels pathways and general role of bioenergy within the energy and bioeconomy.

Before going to Bruessels, Biljana was a researcher, guest lecturer and assistant professor at the Faculty of Food Science in Osijek, Croatia, establishing the first bioeconomy specialist MSc in the country.