Rocío Nogales Muriel is the Director of the EMES International Research Network since 2004. She is responsible for the preparation and coordination of international research projects and conferences, PhD training schools and international partnerships. She earned her PhD at the University of Barcelona in 2017 on the topic of social innovation in cultural and artistic social enterprises and is currently adjunct professor at the University of Zaragoza. She was a member of the Experts Group on Social Enterprise of the European Commission (GECES) from 2013 to 2017 and currently represents EMES as Observer member in the UN Task Force for Social and Solidarity Economy. In 2020 she was the rapporteuse of the Toledo Declaration for the Social Economy, which was signed by 19 Member States. She is a member of the Board of Culture Action Europe (CAE), the Council of the Spanish SMart cooperative, and the Spanish Network of Community Culture Entities and Agents (REACC).