Olimpia Orlandoni is a Research Project Manager at the Florence School of Regulation, Robert Schuman Centre, where she coordinates European and international research, training, and capacity-building projects in the fields of energy, sustainability, and public policy.

She brings over 15 years of experience in EU affairs, international cooperation, and project management. Before joining FSR, she worked in Brussels as Project Director of the EU-funded VCA4D programme at Agrinatura and as an International Cooperation Officer at the European Commission (DG INTPA), contributing to the design and implementation of cooperation and research initiatives in agricultural development and sustainability. She also gained experience in consultancy, programme management, and energy policy through positions at ADE and the European Commission’s DG Energy.

Olimpia holds a Master of Arts in EU International Relations and Diplomacy from the College of Europe in Bruges. She is fluent in Italian, English, French, and Spanish, and is passionate about building partnerships between academia, policymakers, regulators, and industry to support evidence-based policy solutions.

Since 2015, Lenka has managed and coordinated international projects for organisations including the Council of Europe, UNDP, and the University of Gothenburg, working across education, social inclusion, and human rights-related policy areas. In her current role at the Florence School of Regulation, she supports the management of primarily EU-funded projects. She holds a Master’s degree in International Human Rights and Social Work from the University of Gothenburg.

Melina joined the Florence School of Regulation as a trainee in June 2026. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economic and Regional Development from Panteion University, Athens. Before joining the European University Institute, she worked for two years at HEDNO (Hellenic Electricity Distribution Network Operator) in the Preventive Financial Review Department.

Pippo Ranci has been Professor of Economic Policy at the Università Cattolica in Milan. His research interests are in regulation and industrial and energy policy.

Until 2008 Pippo was director of the Florence School of Regulation at the European University Institute in Florence.

Before that, he was president of the Italian regulatory authority for electricity and gas (1996 – 2003), co-founder and vice-president of the Council of European Energy Regulators (2000-2003), and often a consultant to the Italian government (1972-1993).

He has advised the SESSA project on energy (in the “Scientific Support to Policies” series) promoted by the European Commission.

He has also worked on non-profit organisations, setting up the Italian partner in the Johns Hopkins Comparative Non-profit Sector Project (1989-1994).

Professor Mario Ragwitz is Executive Director of the Fraunhofer Institution for Energy Infrastructures and Geothermal Systems (IEG) since December 2019. Before that, he was Deputy Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI in Karlsruhe. Between January 2012 and January 2019, Professor Ragwitz was Deputy head of the Competence Center Energy Policy and Energy Markets at the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI. From January 2008 to December 2018 he was Head of the Renewable Energies Business Unit in the Competence Center Energy Policy and Energy Markets at the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI. As scientific director of the Fraunhofer Cluster of Excellence “Integrated Energy Systems” he coordinates the joint research of eight Fraunhofer Institutes in the field of energy system transformation, since 2019. He was also appointed as speaker of the Fraunhofer Hydrogen Network in April 2020, which coordinates the work of 29 institutes in this field.

He holds a Doctorate degree in theoretical physics and his current scientific work focuses on energy policy analysis and modelling energy systems, it extends to include problems of innovation research, financing of renewable energies, the derivation of R&D strategies and strategies for the market integration of renewable energy technologies. His duties include in particular the derivation of EU objectives and policy strategies for renewable energies and the development and evaluation of EU guidelines for renewable energies and the German Renewable Energy Act. He has coordinated more than 50 research projects on renewable energy policy development at global, EU and national levels and authored 60 peer reviewed scientific articles. He worked as a researcher at the Max Planck-Institute for Physics of Complex Systems and as a visiting researcher at the University of Texas in Austin, and at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Professor Ragwitz acts as an expert to the German Bundestag and to the European Parliament and advises among others national governments, the European Commission, the World Bank and the IEA. Since 2014, Professor Ragwitz hold a position as an honorary professor at the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg. Since 2017, he has been a part-time professor at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute in Florence.

Christopher Jones is a Part-time Professor at the Florence School of Regulation (European University Institute).

Christopher is Adviser ‘Hors Classe’ and former Deputy Director General at DG Energy.

He has a background in Law (University of Reading; Colledge of Europe) and he has been serving in the European Commission for more than thirty years.