Dr. Javier Matías works at the Scientific and Technological Research Center of Extremadura (CICYTEX) as a researcher. He belongs to the GAIRBER (Research Group for the Valorization of Biomass) of the University of Extremadura. He graduated in agricultural engineering (with a specialty in phytotechnics) from the Polytechnic University of Madrid. He obtained a Doctorate in Sciences at Extremadura University. Throughout his research career, his activity has focused on arable crops, especially alternative crops, and agricultural by-products in studies related to the agronomy, chemical characterization, and valorization of by-products.

Dr. María José Rodríguez is an agri-food practitioner at the Scientific and Technological Research Center of Extremadura (CICYTEX). She was a quality manager and the head of the Pesticide Residue Analysis Section at the Extremadura Agri-Food Laboratory. She obtained a postdoctoral in sciences at the University of Lisbon and a Doctorate in chemical sciences at the University of Extremadura.

Dr. Antonio Carrillo Vico has a B.S. in biology from the University of Seville and a Ph.D. in cellular and molecular biology from the University of Seville in 2005 (distinction). He has held several positions as FEBS postdoctoral fellow, lecturer, and associate professor. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Immunology and Infection Research at the University of Edinburgh. He is a full professor in the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Immunology at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Seville and heads the Molecular NeuroInmunoEndocrinology research group at the Institute of Biomedicine of Seville (IBiS). The long-term goals of Dr. Carrillo Vico´s research program are to evaluate melatonin as a therapeutic tool in inflammatory pathologies and to determine the immunoendocrine actions of bioactive plant compounds. He has participated in more than 25 competitive research projects in the fields of biomedicine science and food technology. He has a publication record of 70 JCR articles with 4212 citations and an h-index of 31 (WoS, February 2024). He is also the author of books, book chapters, scientific popularization articles, and more than 50 communications at national and international congresses. He is also the supervisor of 10 doctoral theses. He is a member of the editorial boards of 3 journals and a reviewer of more than 30 journals.

Dr. Joan Casals is a lecturer and Serra Hunter fellow of the Agri-Food Engineering and Biotechnology Department at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. He is also the scientific director at the Miquel Agustí Foundation. He obtained a PhD in Agri-Food Engineering and Biotechnology at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia.

Dr. Sara Fondevilla is a tenured scientist at the Institute of Sustainable Agriculture, Spanish National Research Council. Her line of research focuses on the genetic improvement of herbaceous crops, mainly legumes and quinoa. Her studies include classical breeding, marker-assisted breeding, and the identification of pathogen resistance mechanisms at the molecular and cellular levels through transcriptomic and histological studies.

Claudia Monika Haros, a chemist, graduated from the School of Exact and Natural Sciences, University of Buenos Aires (UBA), Argentine in 1990. She also has an MSc in bromatology and food technology (1992) and an MSc in biology analysis (1997) from UBA. She has a Ph.D. in chemistry (UBA-1999), officially approved by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport from Spain. From 1991 to 2003, she worked as a university professor in the Organic Chemistry Department, Food Science and Technology Area of UBA. From 1991 to 1999, she was a research assistant in the Cereals and Oilseeds Group, Department of Industrial Chemistry, UBA. From 2000 to 2002, she worked in Spain as a visiting professor in the Cereal Group of the Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology (IATA-CSIC). In 2003, she was a postdoc fellow at the Department of Food Microbiology, Institute of Animal Reproduction and Food Research (CENEXFOOD-EU), Polish Academy of Science, Olsztyn, Poland. From 2003 to 2004 she received an award for working with Prof. Sandberg of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Life Science Division, University of Chalmers, Gothenburg, Sweden. In 2005, became a research associate of the Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC-MINECO). Since 2008, she has been a permanent staff of CSIC and continues her investigation in the Cereal Group, Department of Food Science of IATA. Since 2015, she has been the coordinator of International Chia-Link and la ValSe-Food Networks.

Dr. Justo Pedroche is a researcher of Food and Health at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). He obtained his doctorate in biology at Sevilla University. His research interests include electrophoresis, SDS-PAGE, cell culture, antimicrobials, chemical Analysis, liquid chromatography, biochemistry, antioxidant activity, antioxidants, and chromatography.

Dr. Nieves Aparicio Gutiérrez is a researcher of Herbaceous at the Agrarian Technological Institute of Castilla y León. She worked at the National Institute of Agrarian Research (INIA) before. She obtained a doctorate at the University of Lleida, ETSEA, and a master of science in plant breeding at the CIHEAM Zaragoza, Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Zaragoza.

Dr. Nieves Fernandez-Garcia is a tenured scientist at CEBAS- CSIC, Murcia, Spain. She obtained her Ph.D. degree at the University of Murcia (Spain). Her Ph.D. work contributed to understanding the tolerance of tomato plants to abiotic stress. She was a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Crop Performance and Improvement, Rothamsted Research (BBSRC) under the supervision of Prof. Peter Hedden in London (UK), where she studied the role of GA20-oxidasse genes in plant development. In recent years, her research has focused on the interaction between phytohormones and abiotic stresses. Gibberellins and DELLA proteins have been the main focus. These studies have been developed in model systems such as tobacco cell cultures and Arabidopsis and in plants of agronomic interest such as tomatoes. Moreover, in recent years she has begun to work with new emerging crops with high salt tolerance and nutritional value.

Dr. Ingrid Aguiló Aguayo is a researcher of the Postharvest Programme at the IRTA Institute of Agri-Food Research and Technology. She obtained her postdoc at the Food Research Centre, TEAGASC—The Agriculture and Food Development Authority, and her PhD in food technology at the University of Lleida. Her research interests include food processing and engineering, food processing, food quality, food chemistry, food preservation, and food analysis.

Dr. Cristina Soler-Rivas is working at the University of Madrid teaching undergraduate students who want to obtain a degree in careers related to food science or nutrition and graduated students who are studying for master's degrees and supervising young scientists to obtain their Ph.D. degrees. She obtained her degree as a biologist (specialist in biochemistry) at the University of Valencia (Spain) and her Ph.D. degree in biochemistry (European Doctorate) at the University Claude Bernard of Lyon (France). Her main expertise includes the study of edible mushrooms; therefore, she developed many research projects to improve their quality, to study their beneficial properties for human health, and to use them as organisms able to secrete interesting degradative enzymes, for instance, to valorize polluted residues or to improve the life support cycle designed for astronauts (in a Mars mission).

Dr. Pedro A. Caballero is an associate professor of the Food Technology Area at the Universidad de Valladolid, Palencia, Spain. He holds a BSc in agricultural engineering, a BSc in food science and technology, and a PhD in engineering applied to the environmental management of natural resources, for which he received three extraordinary awards. His current research activity focuses on the study of novel food ingredients (mainly minor cereals and pseudocereals) from a physicochemical, functional, and nutritional point of view, to determine their suitability for the development of nutritionally improved cereal products suitable for populations with special needs such as celiacs. He is part of the PROCEREALtech research group, recognized as a Consolidated Research Unit by the Junta de Castilla y León, Spain. At present, the researcher heads the Food Industry Technology Research Group: Cereals and Derivatives (recognized by the Universidad de Valladolid) and is the vice president of the Association of Food Scientists and Technologists of Castilla y León (ACTA/CL).

Dr. Asunción Morte is a professor of botany at the University of Murcia (UMU), where she directs the Mycology–Mycorrhizae–Plant Biotechnology research group. She is also the founder of Thader Biotechnology, a spin-off of the UMU, specializing in cultivating desert truffles and biofertilizers based on fungi and bacteria. Her research focuses on the study of the biodiversity of ascomycete fungi called “desert truffles” and the biological meaning of their mycorrhizal symbiosis, what factors control it, and what underlies the plant–fungus interaction to make it more effective at the ecosystem level and against climate change.

Dr. Daniel Rico currently works atatio the Agrarian Technological Institute of Castilla y León in the area of Innovation and Process Optimization. He has a Ph.D. in food science and technology from the Dublin Institute of Technology and a bachelor's degree in biology from the Complutense University of Madrid. His research experience has been developed mainly in the field of food processing, both as a graduate researcher, doctor, and senior doctor at the Dublin Institute of Technology and as a doctoral researcher at the Agrarian Technological Institute of Castilla y León.

Dr. María Reguera is a Ramon y Cajal researcher in the Department of Biology, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain. She received her bachelor's in environmental sciences and completed her Ph.D. in plant biology at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), earning the Doctoral Excellence Award in 2009. Her Ph.D. work contributed to the understanding of the role of boron in symbiotic nitrogen fixation in legumes. Later, her postdocs at the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California Davis (UCD, Davis, US) and the Juan de la Cierva Fellow at UAM (Madrid, Spain) focused on the impact of abiotic stress on mineral nutrition in crops. Her main research line focused on studying the biological mechanisms underlying plant responses to changing environmental conditions and their impact on seed quality in emerging crops such as quinoa, while she keeps working on plant boron nutrition. Altogether, her research experience gives evidence of her knowledge working on a diversity of crops and plant model systems and her achievements in understanding the regulation of key agronomic traits (including grain yield or seed quality under various abiotic stresses), and she has proven results extending basic research findings on applied agronomic research.