is an emerging expert in human-wildlife interactions, with a focus on the preconditions that enable coexistence. She serves on a wolf conflict mediation panel in Spain and is an external advisor to an EU Horizon project on co-creating coexistence. At the Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity, University of York, her current project builds on her previous work, expanding it to explore an Incentive Payment Scheme in northern Sweden. Her project adopts a transdisciplinary approach to evaluate the implementation of a new monitoring method for wolverines, its effect on the payment scheme, and its role in promoting trust and justice in carnivore management. She aims to combine her case studies in wildlife management with those on conflicts and just transitions in other systems, and to contribute to ongoing efforts by IPBES, the IUCN and others to embed social science into the development of coexistence programmes.

is a Bulgarian conservation biologist with over 16 years of experience in raptor research and conservation. He holds a PhD on the spatial ecology of Griffon Vultures and currently serves as Project Manager of the LIFE for Falcons project and Coordinator of the Egyptian Vulture restocking program in Bulgaria. He is a member of the IUCN Vulture Specialist Group and, since 2024, Editor-in-Chief of its journal Vulture News. As Flyway Conservation Officer under the Egyptian Vulture New LIFE project, he led the development of a methodology that mapped mortality risks across three continents. He also pioneered the evaluation of restocking methods (hacking, fostering, delayed release) for Egyptian Vultures in the Balkans, with findings now applied in practice and shared internationally through training programs he led. Volen’s conservation work is a brilliant example on how to integrate science, policy, and practice, grounded in innovation, evidence, and collaboration.