Dr Abel Polese, Senior researcher, author of 10 books on the post-Soviet region and leading specialist on informal economies. He has been a Marie Curie Fellow at the Technical University of Dresden, Germany (2006-2008) and the University of Edinburgh, Scotland (2008-2011). In 2012-2013 he worked as a policy analyst for the European Commission (DG Research). In the past seven years, Abel has been awarded funding for nearly 10 million euro and has worked as a consultant for a the governmental and non profit sector in Europe, Asia and Latin America (Austrian and Finnish Agencies for Erasmus+; Estonian Research Council; Rustaveli Foundation; SALTO; YouthForum; WAGGGS; UNOPS). His project “Sustainable Development in Cultural Diversity” received the Global Education Award by the Council of Europe in 2011. He is a member of the Global Young Academy, gathering scholars from around the world active in research policy and dialogue with non-academic institutions and has been a visiting fellow to the University of Toronto, Harvard University, Renmin University of China, Tbilisi State University, Jawarlahal Nehru University, Tezpur University, Corvinus University, University of Cagliari and the Moscow Higher School of Economics.He is co-editor of STSS, an open access journal indexed in SCOPUS focusing on governance and social issues the non-Western world.