Richard Filčák is Head of the Institute and Senior Researcher at the Slovak Academy of Sciences/CSPS-Institute for Forecasting. He has extensive experience as a researcher, as well as development and social projects coordinator; working in Slovakia, Central Europe, West Balkan, Turkey, Ukraine and Georgia. In general, his work and research interests are focused on environmental and social policy development and trends in the transitional countries of Central and Eastern Europe - with particular attention to the EU economic and social cohesion policies vis-à-vis industrial development and the environmental trends. Principal research interests involve poverty/environmental justice, and access to resources (e.g., energy, water, safe environment), climate change and implications for economic and social policies. He was a team leader/team member in several forecasting studies, including Megatrends and Implications for Slovakia, or climate change and socio-economic scenarios 2020+. He is an author of numerous books, professional peer-reviews articles and research reports and has worked as consultant and expert for the Slovak government, European Commission, United Nations Development Programme, UNEP, World Bank, and NGOs.