• Bruno Arnaldi | Professor, INSA Rennes
Bruno Arnaldi earned his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Rennes. He previously worked as a research fellow in computer science in India before becoming Professor of Computer Science at INSA Rennes. From 1992 to 2006, he headed the SIAMES research programme focusing on image synthesis, animation, modelling and simulation. He presided over PERF-RV, France’s national virtual reality platform, formerly served as Director of the Computer Science Laboratory at INSA Rennes and Vice President of AFRV (French Association for Virtual Reality).
• Lise Boudreault | Professor, University of Ottawa, Canada
Full Professor at the Department of Communication, University of Ottawa, and Associate Professor at MosaiC – Centre for Research in Creation Management affiliated with the Société de l’Innovation du Montréal Métropolitain. Her research centres on integrating cultural knowledge with emerging publishing models for creative works. She explores how communication fuels knowledge production and innovative practices within the creative industries. Her research analyses collective memory and knowledge construction via new digital media including digital collections, online museums, digital opera, interactive cinema, digital storytelling and innovative publishing formats.
• Jean-Paul Lafrance | Professor, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Canada
Former holder of the UNESCO Bell Chair in International Communication and Development and founding faculty member of the Department of Communication at UQAM. Author of numerous academic monographs on media studies.
• Giuseppe Richeri | Professor, Università della Svizzera italiana (USI), Lugano, Switzerland
Leading specialist in media policy and media economics with an extensive publication portfolio across Italy and internationally. Since 2014, he has been Honorary Professor and former Dean of the Department of Communication Sciences at USI Lugano. He headed the Institute for Media and Journalism and oversees the China Media and Communication Observatory. He has collaborated with UNESCO, the European Commission, Council of Europe and IAMCR, and sits on the scientific boards of key research foundations including Fondation de France and Fondazione Bordoni. He has held visiting appointments at Communication University of China (Beijing) and Fudan University (Shanghai).
• Indira Thouvenin | Professor, Université de Technologie de Compiègne (UTC), France
Graduate engineer from École Polytechnique Féminine and PhD in Biophysics from UPMC. She filed an INSERM patent in 1989 before joining Institut Image at Arts et Métiers Cluny to research synthetic imagery and virtual reality, later joining the CNRS Heudiasyc Laboratory at UTC. Her research focuses on informed interaction within virtual environments. She is an expert evaluator for France’s ANR research agency, former President of AFRV (French Association for Virtual Reality) and board member of GDR IGIV (French National Research Group for Interactive Digital Creation). Author of over one hundred peer-reviewed papers, she has contributed to public cultural broadcasting and mainstream media publications across France.
• Li Yifan | Professor, Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication (BIGC), China
Former Dean of the School of Art & Design and Director of the Digital Art & Multimedia Research Centre at BIGC. Part-time Associate Professor at the Multimedia Department of National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts and the Art Communication Department of Beijing Dance Academy. Founder and Director of an interdisciplinary multimedia academic lab bringing together 14 top national art academies across China. Board member of the Virtual Reality Association of China Film Academy and member of Chinese Artists Association; Deputy Director of Zhongguancun Wireless Network & New Media Industry Alliance. He acts as academic consultant for the Internet Science Association under China Academy of Science and the national game designer training base for China’s multimedia industry, and serves as a specialist consultant on digital copyright protection and creative industry project accreditation for Beijing municipal cultural sectors.
• Xiao Yun | Professor, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), China
Director of the Center for Internet Science Communication, CAS; Secretary-General of the Internet Education Federation under American College of Physicians & Science; Executive Council Member of Beijing Association for Science and Technology Popularization. He has presided over dozens of key research projects funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China, national science infrastructure programmes, CAS key research grants and Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission. He spearheaded the pilot development of China National Science Resource Network and the CAS Public Science Literacy Platform, and is the founding creator of Virtual Science Museum of China (VSMC).
• Zhang Xiao | Associate Professor, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, China
PhD in Information and Communication Sciences from University of Paris. A specialist in cultural mediation, his doctoral thesis addresses new paradigms of cultural representation and mediation via Chinese museum digitalisation: a socio-technical framework for deploying digital equipment and interfaces within cultural and science museums.
• Chen Yan | Professor, Beijing Institute of Graphic Communication (BIGC), China
Director of the New Media Research Institute at BIGC; Permanent member of International Interior Design Federation (IDF); Council Member of National Association for Audiovisual & Digital Education of China; Deputy Director of China University Higher Education Alliance; Director of Center for Innovation, Art and Digital Design and Director of Beijing Key Laboratory for Digital Media. Part-time Associate Professor at Beijing University of Technology and Beijing Municipal University of Civil Engineering and Architecture. Permanent jury member for China National University Student Advertising Design Competition. Recipient of Möbius International Multimedia Award, China Government Publication Award and National Higher Education New Media Award; author of multiple monographs focusing on new media and digital innovation.
• Michel Agnola | Specialist in Technological Innovation, France
Independent researcher and consultant in digital creation & innovation; former part-time Lecturer at Department of Information & Communication Sciences, Université Paris 13 with accredited teaching qualification. Ex-CEO of an augmented reality R&D enterprise and certified expert for France’s national AR innovation scheme sponsored by the French Ministry of Research. He has acted as scientific coordinator for multiple R&D consortia and innovative industrial projects, authored/co-authored numerous books on new media and digital transformation, and regularly delivers keynote speeches exploring technological progress, future foresight and associated humanistic challenges.
• Stéphanie Corbière | Legal Manager & Industry Expert, NextRadioTV Group, France
Qualified lawyer with cross-border professional experience spanning the UK, India and China. She oversees cross-cutting legal affairs for NextRadioTV Group (nearly 1,000 employees), drafting unified legal frameworks covering television, radio, print and digital subsidiaries. Co-founder and managing partner of a contemporary art photography gallery and member of Association for Law & Art.
• Jean-Pierre Dalbéra | Expert, Lead for Digital Cultural Mediation, France
A pioneer of France’s public cultural internet ecosystem, he headed Mission Recherche et Technologies (MRT) under the French Ministry of Culture from 1989 to 2004, representing France in EU bodies coordinating pan-European digital culture policies and managing landmark international cultural digitalisation projects. From 2005 to 2008 he served as research and IT consultant for MuCEM (Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations), followed by cabinet advisor to France’s Minister of Culture until 2011. He leads the thematic strand of Digital Cultural Mediation under the UNESCO Chair.
• Samuel Da Silva | Cross-media Developer & Lecturer, Université Paris 8, France
Part-time Lecturer at Université Paris 8, providing technical support and development guidance for digital creators. He has run applied experimental projects on interactive tabletops, web platforms and mobile phones within the LEDEN research programme. Delivers technical tutoring for ITEN (UNESCO International Art Research Centre) and defines technical specifications for postgraduate digital creation projects.
• Hélène Desprez | Art Director & Associate Professor, Université Paris 8, France
Associate Professor at Université Paris 8 teaching cross-media design; supervises graphic development for innovative student works under the Master’s programme in Digital Creation & Publishing. Her ongoing research develops intelligent document interfaces leveraging AI to reorganise multi-format archives (audio-visual assets, images, texts) from Gallica, Europeana and global digital collections. Her research interests include ergonomics, information archiving and research-led innovative pedagogy for creative projects.
• Clément Larrivé | Educational Technology Advisor, Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
Project manager for France’s national in-service teacher training portal plus Eduscol and Educasite official education platforms. Core teaching member of the Master in Digital Creation & Publishing and inaugural Digital Production Manager for IDEFI CréaTIC national innovation project.
• Arnaud Laborderie | Project Manager & Senior Expert, Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF)
Publications Project Manager at BnF, designing and developing virtual exhibitions, interactive e-books and museum mobile applications including the award-winning Candide app co-produced with Orange and BnF. Currently leads Gallica digital library outreach programmes targeting K12 teachers and student readership for the flagship project Essence of Literature, and conducts R&D into innovative mediation models for national digital heritage collections. PhD holder in Information & Communication Sciences with doctoral research on enhanced e-publishing and editorial transformation; part-time Lecturer at Université Paris 8 delivering postgraduate modules on emerging book forms within the Digital Humanities & Digital Creation Master track.
• Rénan Molen | Regional Digital Transformation Specialist, France
Since 2005 he has collaborated with the LEDEN research consortium (Université Paris 8 / MSH Paris-Nord) to produce science-focused cross-media documentaries and design regional digital cultural mediation systems for Île-de-France regional authorities, Seine-Saint-Denis Council and local public development agencies including Plaine Commune and Est-Ensemble. He earned his PhD funded by Seine-Saint-Denis on socio-technical digital infrastructure enabling territorial social innovation and local economic development. Since 2015 he has taught Information & Communication Sciences at Université Paris 8 and held an academic teaching post at Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines for the INA postgraduate programme in audiovisual creation. Board member of AFNOR ISO TC268 (Sustainable Cities & Smart Communities), Pellmedia Group and Seine-Saint-Denis Regional Digital Council (CDNUM).
• Henri Hadrich | HDR Accredited Lecturer, Université Paris 8, France
Research fellow at a Université Paris 8 lab focusing on social acceptance of digital technologies, e-learning, multilingual ontology coding and digital image archives. Active contributor to ESAV (European Audiovisual Research Institute, Toulouse) memory research group on film and new media; accredited ISO-IEC JTC1 SC36 expert under AFNOR & AUF since 2000 for e-learning standardisation and TEI-based digital humanities textual encoding research.
• Mokhtar Ben Henda | HDR Accredited Lecturer, Université Bordeaux Montaigne, France
Research fellow at MICA Laboratory, Université Bordeaux Montaigne and member of the UNESCO Chair expert panel. His research covers automated language processing for digital environments including graphical, grammatical and semantic modelling; multilingual terminological networks (English, French, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Arabic); interoperability standards for digital communication systems and international specifications for e-learning multimedia. AFNOR & ISO-IEC JTC1 SC36 expert since 2003 and ISO Working Group Coordinator for e-learning terminology from 2010; core member of CNRS/ISCC international Digital Humanities research consortium starting 2012.
• Christine Bouissou | Senior Lecturer, Université Paris 8, France
Background in psychology and education sciences with research focusing on individual career development, organisational transformation and gender studies in professional pathways. Scientific advisor for France’s Higher Education & Research Evaluation Authority and leads research design on individualisation, academic mobility and creative pedagogy within postgraduate curriculum reform. Former Vice President of Université Paris 8 University Board and certified institutional strategy specialist; core member of CIRCEFT research team.
• Valérie Gouranton | Associate Professor, INSA Rennes, France
Completed her Computer Science PhD at Sorbonne Université Paris 1, previously taught at University of Orléans before joining INSA Rennes. Her research develops collaborative virtual environment frameworks, immersive simulation platforms for team training, collision detection algorithms and VR tools tailored for archaeological field research.
• Hakim Hachour | Senior Lecturer, Université Paris 8, France
Senior Lecturer of Information & Documentation Sciences; co-programme lead for Master in Digital Usage Analysis & Valorisation and co-chair of Frontières Numériques annual conference; institutional lead for innovation strategy at IDEFI CréaTIC. Teaches data modelling, digital ethnography, data mining, information visualisation and knowledge management alongside supervising graduate creative projects across Paris 8 and regional media clusters. Core research topics: digital boundaries, techno-society interaction, creative innovation methodology and collective collaborative design.
• Raoul Leroy | Senior Lecturer, Université Paris 8, France
Mechanical Engineering graduate from Brussels Institute of Technology, specialised in virtual reality. Earned his doctorate on stereoscopic immersive interfaces at Mines ParisTech, followed by postdoctoral research into VR-assisted cognitive rehabilitation. Current teaching post at Université Paris 8 researching sensory conflict reduction within visual and gesture-based virtual interfaces; leads the Virtual Reality research axis of the UNESCO Chair.
• Marc Verrath | Lecturer, Université Savoie Mont Blanc, France
Specialist in art and art sciences, leads lab sessions for IDEFI CréaTIC cross-border workshop hosted in Malta themed Hypermedia & Art Creation and contributed to the open-access educational encyclopaedia 100 Notions.com. A practising contemporary artist, creator of ongoing interactive digital artwork project U-rss (http://u-rss.eu).
• Sébastien Alain | Postdoctoral Researcher, Université Paris 8, France
Innovation consultant helping enterprises design interactive digital communication, training and assessment solutions. PhD in Education & Information-Communication Sciences with teaching portfolio covering interactive design, immersive storytelling and documentary production across multiple higher education institutions. His research explores perceptual cognition, experiential learning within interactive narratives and competency evaluation frameworks. Member of the UNESCO Chair expert group, associate researcher at LLSETI Multimedia Lab and Observatory for Digital Human Societies (OMNSH).
• Odile Falchi | Postdoctoral Researcher, Université Paris 8, France
PhD in Information & Communication Sciences; her research spans digital publishing, creative software tooling and digital cultural heritage across computer science, fine arts, literature and social sciences, adopting critical socio-cultural analysis of authoring technologies. Since 2015 she has been research fellow under the UNESCO Chair and project lead for Digital Humanism research initiative.
• Sylvain Martin Desges | Postdoctoral Researcher, Université Paris 8, France
PhD from Université Paris 8 on remote music education and the founding of LA MUSADI research lab; holds professional certification in music pedagogy from Conservatoire de Musique du Québec. Project coordinator for MEI/TEI digital encoding within the GENOMM monody archive at CRTM Research Centre and joint lead of MEI Æ NORMA academic project between Université du Québec à Rimouski and UQAR Canada.
• Alain Vauchel | Postdoctoral Researcher, Université Paris 8, France
Former professional broadcast journalist with long-term assignments for NHK and Asahi Shimbun (Japan). Ex-production manager at New York-based Symah Vision and lead creator of the W7COM & Vestigo digital series. Research Engineer and adjunct faculty at Telecom Paris and MSH Paris-Nord; since 2013 in charge of digital transformation strategy for Plaine Commune public territorial agency.
• Edmond Alban | PhD Candidate, Université Paris 8, France
Joint doctoral programme between Université Paris 8 and Concordia University (Canada), researching content reuse and repurposing practices across hybrid multi-platform media ecosystems.
• Audrey Defretin | PhD Candidate | Cultural & Territorial Policy Advisor, DRAC Île-de-France, French Ministry of Culture | Musée de Cluny (National Museum of the Middle Ages)
PhD candidate in Information & Communication Sciences (Université Paris 8) under dual supervision, researching digital-driven transformation of cultural and scientific heritage mediation. Over 13 years of professional heritage practice as member of the UNESCO Chair team, having managed multiple augmented heritage digital projects for LEDEN, Palace of Versailles, French Ministry of Culture and Musée de Cluny. Visiting instructor at École du Louvre, INP France, École des Chartres, Université Paris III and Université Paris 8.
• John Motta | PhD Candidate, Université Paris 8, France
Doctoral candidate supervised at Université Paris 8 researching digital identity construction, personal branding and emerging immersive consumer technologies. Professional background as art director, graphic designer and interactive prototype designer for public and private creative projects across France and Colombia. Visiting part-time tutor on postgraduate media courses and academic liaison coordinating exchange programmes between Universidad del Cauca (Colombia) and the UNESCO Chair.
• Bianca Rutherford | PhD Candidate, Université Grenoble Alpes, GRESEC Lab, France
Journalism graduate with postgraduate diploma in multimedia production from INA France, over ten years working in digital communication sectors. Core research focuses on safeguarding endangered Indigenous cultural heritage via ICT deployment among Inuit communities aligned with UNESCO’s intangible heritage protection framework; previously international development officer for French NGOs coordinating global oral heritage preservation initiative World Dialogues. Editorial board member of peer-reviewed bilingual journal Información: Revista Iberoamericana de Comunicación published under UNESCO Chair in Communication, Universidad de Málaga.
• Alexis Souchet | CIFRE Industrial PhD, Université Paris 8, France
Industry-linked doctoral research partnered with Manzalab (specialist studio for serious games and immersive VR design). After undergraduate Computer Science studies he spent two years with Hachette Livre publishing group and joined the interdisciplinary IDEFI CréATIC cross-institutional research cluster during his Master’s in Digital Creation. His cross-field PhD bridges psychology, engineering and communication science focusing on visual fatigue optimisation and user-centric immersive environment design for educational serious games.
• Yang Yang | PhD Candidate, Université Paris 8, France
Doctoral student in Information & Communication Sciences, based in France for over 16 years pursuing fine arts research following three years of research work at Sorbonne University. Graduated from the Master of Digital Creation & Publishing programme, her doctoral dissertation analyses collaborative development models linking Chinese physical museums and international digital museum ecosystems. She serves as academic exchange coordinator facilitating educational cooperation between Chinese universities and European higher education institutions.
