Dr. Sotiris Petropoulos holds a bachelor in Management, an MA in International Political Economy and a PhD in International Economic Relations. He is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science and International Relations of the University of the Peloponnese. His work is related, among others, to Civil Society and Non-Profits in Greece and beyond. He has led various research projects related to the civil society development. Since 2012 he has acted as director and key lecturer at the capacity building seminars titled “Planning, Implementation and Evaluation of Developmental Programs”, which were organized by the University of the Peloponnese, with the support of the Stavros Niarchos’ Foundation, and were attended by more than 230 NGO executives around Greece. In addition, he is the co-founder of HIGGS, a Greek Non-profit focusing on supporting the NPOs across Greece and the Balkans through capacity building seminars and consultancy and networking support. He sees his participation in the workgroup as a great opportunity to support both bottom-up and top-down initiatives from youth organizations and other civil society organizations for enhancing North Macedonia-Greece relations.