Professor of Political Science, Sciences Po Grenoble–UGA Director
Sciences Po Grenoble
Simon Persico
Simon Persico is a Professor of Political Science and Director of Sciences Po Grenoble–UGA, affiliated with the Pacte laboratory. He co-founded the Master's Program in Ecological Transitions. His research focuses on the transformation of party systems in Western Europe, the impact of parties on public policies, the fulfillment of electoral promises, and the evolution of political ecology in party competition, public opinion, and social movements.
After studying at Sciences Po Paris, Delphine worked for 20 years within NGOs, both in international solidarity (with Colombia) and at Monde Pluriel, an association she co-founded in 2006. The association has raised awareness among thousands of young people across Europe on climate issues and organized several European youth meetings in Brussels and Lisbon on ecological transition.
In 2022, she joined the Grenoble European Green Capital team within the City of Grenoble as Project Manager for Youth and Ecological Transition. She then organized several meetings between high school students and Indigenous leaders from Latin American communities.
In 2025, she founded the association NaturaMundis to "explore our connections to the living world" and work, both locally and internationally, on the voices and paths of nature.
Myriam Ouddou supports public and non-profit organizations in the co-design and implementation of transformation projects through participatory and democratic approaches. She intervenes at all stages of the process, from diagnosing needs and identifying the root causes of issues to developing strategies and innovative projects, all the way to their experimentation and implementation in the field. To this end, she designs tailored workshops that foster stakeholder collaboration in the search for concrete and transformative solutions. Since 2021, she has been exploring practical and sensitive methods to integrate the needs and interests of non-human living beings into public policies and organizations. She co-founded the association Le Lichen and co-designed the "Concertation with the Living" method. Myriam is also a member of the cooperative Oxalis.
Alisa is a seasoned expert in participatory democracy, citizen engagement, and strategic governance, with over a decade of experience in supporting cities across Europe in enhancing democratic processes. As a validated URBACT lead expert and trainer for the Council of Europe’s Leadership Academy Programme, she has guided municipalities in designing Integrated Action Plans, multi-stakeholder engagement strategies, and participatory budgeting initiatives. With a background in public administration and project management, Alisa brings a hands-on approach to fostering inclusive decision-making.
Currently managing capacity-building activities for the Nets4Dem project at Coglobal and People Powered, she is dedicated to strengthening democratic innovation across Europe.
Sahib is a researcher and practitioner focused on just democratic futures, global governance, and systemic approaches to democratic innovation. With a background in international law and political economy, he has worked on issues of structural injustice through advocacy, practice, teaching, and writing. Before joining Demos Helsinki, he taught and conducted research at the Universities of Cambridge, Helsinki, and Tilburg and worked on international human rights cases, advising UN entities and representing states before international tribunals.
At Demos Helsinki, Sahib leads work on democratic futures, drawing on radical egalitarianism and structural transformation. Passionate about fostering critical and strategic thinking in governance, he explores new modes of alliance-building for a more just world.
Zoë leads the participatory climate democracy work at People Powered, a global hub for participatory democracy. This includes the Climate Democracy Accelerator, which supports civil society and government to design together plans for climate action. Her background is in participatory policy research and co-design on climate initiatives both in the UK and internationally working with a range of public bodies on programmes from multi-stakeholder engagement on policy design to climate assemblies. Zoë is excited to share the tools of participatory democracy to increase accessibility of decision-making on how we navigate the climate emergency.
