International Program Committee

Members:

Chairs of Main Conference Theme: From Policy Design to Policy Practice

Martin Potucek, Charles University, Czech Republic 

E-mail: potucek@fsv.cuni.cz

Martin Potůček, Professor at Charles University in Prague, guarantor of Master and doctoral programs of Public and Social Policy there.
His research focuses on processes of policy formation and implementation in the Czech Republic, on the regulatory functions of the market, government, civic sector and media, on the European context and global dimension of policy making, and on the problems of Czech public administration, social policy, and pension reforms.
He acted as an adviser to the Czech Ministers of Labour and Social Affairs (1998–2006) and to Czech Prime Ministers (2002–2004, 2014 – 2017).  In one of his recent public engagements, he served as the Chairman of the Expert Committee on Pension Reform to the Czech government (2013 – 2017). Several of its reform proposals were recently accepted and embodied in laws.
President of the Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe (NISPAcee), Bratislava, Slovakia (2000-2002). Holder of the Sri Chinmoy International Honour "Lifting Up the World with a Oneness-Heart" (2003) and the NISPAcee Alena Brunovska Award (2004) for teaching excellence in public administration.

Tiina Randma-Liiv, Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance, Faculty of Social Sciences, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia 

E-mail: tiina.randma-liiv@ttu.ee

Tiina Randma-Liiv is Professor of Public Policy at Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia, where she currently also acts as Vice Dean for Research of the Faculty of Business and Governance. She previously served as Professor of Public Management at the University of Tartu, and as Visiting Professor at the Catholic University of Leuven, the University of Gdansk, Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration, and Florida International University. She has been a member of the Steering Committees of the European Group of Public Administration (EGPA), and of the Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe (NISPAcee). Tiina is currently a member of the Advisory Board to the Estonian Minister of Public Administration. She is also a co-founder and a board member of the biggest Estonian think-tank – PRAXIS Centre for Policy Studies. Her research interests include the impact of fiscal crisis on public administration, public sector organization, transitional public administration, civil service reforms, policy transfer and small states. 

Chairs of the General Session

Marius Profiroiu, Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania 

E-mail: profiroiu@gmail.com

Professor Constantin Marius Profiroiu teaches public policy and good governance at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies where he is the Dean of College of Administration and Public Management. He is Fulbright Senior Alumnus 2010-2011 at Martin School of Public Policy and Administration, University of Kentucky. Since May 2014, he is the President of the Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe (NISPAcee). Also, he is member of European Statistical Governance Advisory Board (ESGAB) since 2015. He was Director-general of the European Integration Department in Romania from 2001 to 2002 and also held the post of State Secretary within the Ministry of Public Administration and Interior between 2002-2004. He was in charge of the coordination of the public administration reform and responsible with the Phare program in the field of civil service reform and decentralization process in Romania. Marius Profiroiu is author of numerous publications in the field of civil service, decentralisation, governance, strategic management. 

Eka Akobia, Caucasus School of Governance, Caucasus University, Georgia 

E-mail: eakobia@cu.edu.ge 

Eka Akobia is Dean of the Caucasus School of Governance and a Director of the Institute of Peace Studies (IPS) at Caucasus University. She is also an Associate Professor at Tbilisi State University (TSU). She teaches theories of international relations (MA and PHD), international organizations, EU external relations and UN Peacekeeping Operations courses. She has published a number of academic articles as well as contributed to three edited volumes in the European Union series. She also regularly contributes news analysis to such media platforms as civil.ge and the Clarion.
Eka Akobia obtained her PHD in International Relations from Tbilisi State University. She acquired her MA degree in International Relations from Baylor University, USA and her BA degree in Political Science from Hartwick College, USA. She has participated in several senior level non-degree programmes, such as the Qualitative Research Methods Course (ICQRM) from Syracuse University, USA (2011); the Summer University on "Federalism, Constitutionalism and Conflict Transformation in Multiethnic Societies” University of Fribourg, Switzerland (2005) and the NATO Senior Executive Master Course, Bucharest, Romania (2004).
Besides academia, Eka Akobia has extensive public service experience. She worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia from 2005 until 2016 and has a broad experience in Georgia’s foreign policy. She holds a diplomatic rank of Counselor. Amongst other positions, she has worked as the Deputy Director of the Department of the Americas (2009-2010), the Deputy Director of the Political Department (2010-2012) and as the Director of the Asia, Africa, Australia and the Pacific Department (2012-2016).

I. Working Group: Local Government

Ilona Pálné Kovács, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences 

E-mail: palne@rkk.hu

Professor Ilona Pálné Kovács is a lawyer, political scientist, elected as a corresponding member of Hungarian Academy of Science HAS in 2013. She is a full time research professor and the head of PhD programme in political science at the Department for Political Studies of University of Pécs.  Her fields of interest are regional policy, regional governance and local governments, European multi-level governance, cohesion policy, Europeanisation. She conducted many domestic and international projects, participating in several FP, ESF, INTERREG, TEMPUS, ESPON, UNESCO, EC DG Regio programmes.

Michiel S. de Vries, Institute for Management Research, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands 

E-mail: m.devries@fm.ru.nl

He holds the chair in Public Administration at the Radboud University of Nijmegen and is visiting professor at the Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. He is president of IASIA, full member of the Group of Independent Experts on the European Charter of Local Self-Government of the Council of Europe and member of the editorial board of numerous journals on Public Administration. His research concentrates on local government, public sector reform, policy evaluation, policy change and comparative public administration.

Daniel Klimovský, Comenius University in Bratislava, Faculty of Arts, Department of Political Science 

E-mail: daniel.klimovsky@gmail.com

His research and educational activities focus on public administration, as well as political issues linked to sub-national levels. He is the Regional Studies Association Ambassador for Slovakia and a member of both the Management Committee and the Steering Committee of the COST IS 1207: Local Public Sector Reforms in Europe led by Professor S. Kuhlmann and Professor Geert Bouckaert. He is the main coordinator of the POL-LOC initiative, which includes more than 20 universities from 15 European countries. Aside from his academic activities, he cooperated with the Social Watch (2008-2011) and was a member of the Steering Committee of the Open Society Foundation in Slovakia (2012-2014), as well as an independent/external expert of the Council of Europe. Furthermore he has cooperated with central government in Slovakia and with several local governments and their associations.

II. Working Group: E-government

Robert Krimmer, Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn, Estonia

E-mail: Robert.Krimmer@ttu.ee

Robert Krimmer is Full Professor of e-Governance within Ragnar Nurkse Department of Innovation and Governance at the School of Business and Governance, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia. Robert’s research is focused on the transformation of the public sector, electronic participation and democracy, as well as e-voting, and all issues contributing to developing a digital society. Robert is Associate Editor of the international scientific journal Government Information Quarterly (GIQ), where he is in charge of participation issues. Further, Robert coordinates TOOP, the EU H2020 large-scale pilot on exploring and demonstrating the feasibility of the once-only principle involving 50+ partners from 21 countries inside and outside the European Union. He was member of the group of experts to the Council of Europe Ad-Hoc Committee on Electronic Voting (CAHVE) which had the task to update the CoE's recommendation on legal, technical and operational standards for Electronic Voting. Also, he was one of the lead experts for the Council of Europe Ad-Hoc Committee on Electronic Democracy and drafted Annex 1 of the CoE Recommendation (2009) on e-Democracy. Before returning to academia, Robert was OSCE/ODIHR's first senior adviser on new voting technologies. In the past he advised CoE, OSCE/ODIHR, UNDP, WHO, ITU, the European Commission and AWEB on various matters.

Nicolae Urs, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

E-mail: urs@fspac.ro 

Nicolae Urs, a vice-dean of the college, is interested in everything related to technology. More specifically, he has been studying and researching the way in which public institutions employ new technologies, the changes that the new social networks brought about in communication, the opportunities provided by "big data" and the way in which visualising statistical data can help decelerate social trends. He has a PhD in online communication, to which he added an internship in the United States. He teaches courses related to e-Government, to the use of new technologies, and to online communication. He is actively involved in public institutions' digitization projects, both at the level of the city of Cluj-Napoca, as well as at a national level.

III. Working Group: Public Administration Reform in CEE and CA

Dr. Diana-Camelia Iancu, Faculty of Public Administration, National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, Bucharest, Romania 

Dr. Veronica Junjan, Department of Public Administration, Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences, University of Twente,  Enschede, The Netherlands 

Lyubimka Andreeva - Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski”, Sofia, Bulgaria 

Alexey Barabashev – National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia

Annika Jaansoo, University of Twente, The Netherlands 

E-mail: a.jaansoo@utwente.nl

Annika Jaansoo is a PhD student in University of Twente, The Netherlands. Her research is about cross-border cooperation of subnational governments (regions and local governments) in service provision: "Provision of Services Across International Borders: Factors driving Cooperation of Subnational Governments in Europe". In addition to her academic research interest, through her work experience as an Expert in international organizations (AEBR, AER) (2015 to date), Auditor (2012-2014), Development Manager (2010-2012) and Partner/Senior Consultant (2001-2010), Annika Jaansoo has expertise in subnational governance in practice.

V. Working Group: Public Finance and Public Financial Management

Lucie Sedmihradska, Lecturer, Department of Public Finance, University of Economics, Prague, Czech Republic E-mail:sedmih@vse.cz
Lucie Sedmihradska is a Lecturer at the Department of Public Finance, University of Economics in Prague. Aside from teaching she has been involved in several local and international research projects focusing on public budgets, local government finance and inter-municipal cooperation. She has published approximately two dozen journal articles and book chapters. She has been involved in NISPAcee since 2000, and since 2007 has been one of the coordinators of the WG on Public Sector Finance and Accounting and the WG on Fiscal Policy. She has also edited (co-edited) three books on local government finance issues in transition countries which were the outcome of the activities of the WG on Public Sector Finance and Accounting.

Juraj Nemec, Professor of Public Finance and Management, Masaryk University Brno, Czech Republic and Matej Bel University Banska Bystrica, Slovakia 

E-mail: juraj.nemec@umb.sk

He holds an MBA in Business Administration, a Ph.D. in Public Sector Economics and is a Professor of Public Finance and Public Management, with more than 33 years’ experience in teaching in public sector management and procurement. He has published over 400 books and scientific articles in this field and held several academic posts, including the position of "Dean of the Faculty of Finance". During his academic and professional career he has gained immense experience in the political and administrative situation in the European integration process and EU enlargement.

Aleksander Aristovnik, Associate Professor, Faculty of Public Administration, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
E-mail:aleksander.aristovnik@fu.uni-lj.si
Aleksander Aristovnik is employed at the Faculty of Public Administration (University of Ljubljana) as an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics and Public Sector Management. In addition, he is an Associate Professor in the Department of International Economics at the Faculty of Economics (University of Ljubljana). He has actively participated in around sixty international conferences and has recently performed as the head or a member of a few international and domestic research projects financed by the Slovenian Research Agency (SRA). He has also published and reviewed many professional and scientific articles in domestic and international (ISI-cited) journals. He is a member of editorial board of numerous international journals (e.g. International journal of knowledge and learning, Journal of applied economic sciences, etc.) and various international associations/organisations (e.g. EEA, INFER, ATINER, etc.).

VI. Working Group: Evidence-Based Public Policy Making 

Lesya Ilchenko-Syuyva, National Academy of Public Administration, Office of the President of Ukraine, Kiev, Ukraine 

E-mail: lesya.ilchenko@gmail.com
Associate Professor, Economic Policy Department at the National Academy of Public Administration, Office of the President of Ukraine. She worked as an adviser in policy analysis and financial policy for various technical assistance projects provided by USAID, CIDA, and UNDP and participated in training projects provided by Wales University, World Bank etc. in CEE and Balkan countries. She has wide experience in designing and delivering training courses for multi-ethnic groups. She has more than 100 publications which include monographs, articles, and research and policy papers.

Jaroslav Dvorak, Klaipeda University, Klaipeda, Lithuania 

E-mail: Jaroslav.dvorak@ku.lt
Dr. Jaroslav Dvorak is Head of the Department of Public Administration and Political Sciences and has longstanding research experience in public service delivery and performance evaluation of public organisations. He has also prepared and published scientific publications on these subjects. Jaroslav Dvorak is the coordinator of the two study programmes: Bachelor in Public Administration and Master in Regional Governance. Jaroslav Dvorak contributed to the preparation of the Inventory of the Public Administration profession for the Study Quality Assessment Centre in Lithuania. He was visiting researcher at Uppsala University (2017), Institute of Russian and Eurasian Studies, Sweden and visiting professor at Bialystok Technical University (2017), Poland. Jaroslav Dvorak is involved in the editorial board of international scientific journals. He has conducted research in Poland, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Lithuania, Belarus, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Australia on different issues relating to evidence based policy. Currently he is working with different projects on e-participation in Baltic states.

Mihaela Victoria Carausan, National School of Political Sciences and Public Administration, Bucharest, Romania 

E-mail: mihaelacarausan@gmail.com

Mihaela V. Cărăuşan held positions in the government; in the nongovernmental sector; and in academia. Presently, she is Vicedean at the Faculty of Public Administration, National University of Political Studies and Public Administration and Executive Director at the Association Centre of Academic Excellence.
Her professional development includes trainings followed at the Centre International de Formation Européenne from Nice, France (1998), Venice Commission – Council of Europe (2001 and 2007), the Romanian Institute of Diplomacy (2010) and Complutense University of Madrid (2013).
Carausan has published widely in the areas of administrative law, street-level bureaucracy, regulatory impact assessment, citizens’ participation and public integrity. Her recent research has focused on monitoring and evaluation of public procurement, and she authored more than 50 articles and books in the areas of interests. She collaborates with different journals as member of the scientific committees or as reviewer. Dr. Carausan received her PhD from the University of Craiova in European Union law and her Master’s from the University "NicolaeTitulescu”. She coordinated different Romanian and European research and educational projects, and she is a member of the American Society of Public Administration, American Evaluation Association and European Law Institute.

VII. Working Group: Public Administration Education

Calin Hintea, Babes-Bolyai University, Department of Public Administration, Cluj-Napoca, Romania 

E-mail: hintea@fspac.ro
Calin Emilian Hintea is a Professor at Babes Bolyai University, Romania and Adjunct Professor at Michigan State University. He teaches Public Management and Strategy courses. Professor Hintea is the Dean of the College of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences at BBU. He is also a former Secretary of State, Head of Strategy Unit, the Prime Minister's Office (2009-2011) as well as a former Chair of the Public Administration Department at BBU (2004-2012). He is the Senior Editor of the Transylvanian Review of Administrative Sciences (ISI Journal).

Roger Hamlin, Michigan State University and Babes-Bolyai University 

Michael Brintnall, Montgomery College, US

Gyorgy Hajnal, NISPAcee President / Professor, Head of Department, Corvinus University of Budapest / Senior Researcher, Institute for Political Science, Center for Social Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (IPS CSR HAS), Hungary 

E-mail: gyorgy.hajnal@uni-corvinus.hu

Gyorgy Hajnal is a Professor in the Department of Public Policy and Management, Corvinus University of Budapest and Senior Researcher at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Institute for Polictical Science. Prior to his current positions he worked as a Senior Researcher/ Head of Department for 15 years at the Hungarian Institute of Public Administration and its successor organisation. Besides his full-time academic positions he has been and contiues to be extensively involved in international research cooperation projects in topics relating to comparative public management reforms. He has also served as a consultant to various international academic, governmental and business organisations. He has been serving as a NISPAcee President since May 2018.

Iga Kender-Jeziorska, Corvinus University of Budapest, Hungary
Iga Kender-Jeziorska is a PhD student in the Doctoral School of Political Science at Corvinus University of Budapest. Her main research areas include non-governmental organisations and their involvement in policy-making and public service delivery, especially in the area of drug policy. She has been actively involved in the third sector since 2011. She is a member of the Board of Advisors and a coordinator of the international network Youth Organisations for Drug Action. Since July 2018 she has been serving as a Chair of the Working Group on EU Drug Strategy and Action Plan in the Civil Society Forum on Drugs - an advisory body to the European Commission.