Goran Bandov is the director of the International Relations and Sustainable Development Department of the University of Zagreb in Croatia, where he is professor of International Relations and Diplomacy. Professor Bandov spent the past 13 years in the management, advising and consultancy system, including 10 years as Vice Dean of the Dag Hammarskjöld Diplomatic School in Croatia, where he managed a private higher education organization with more than 500 students and employees, a number of international partners and European projects. During that time, he and his team started four study programmes (bachelor and master level) in the field of diplomacy and in the field of sustainable development and international cooperation with the support of European funding. Since 2010, Professor Bandov has been the co-director of the World Academy of Art and Science (WAAS) postgraduate course at the Inter-University Centre Dubrovnik in Croatia, which gathers participants from all over the world twice a year for discussions on key challenges to the global community. Professor Bandov is also actively working as a science diplomat and represents the University of Zagreb in a number of international organizations such as the OSCE Academic Network, Dialogue in Peace Education, the International Universities Council, and the Varieties of Peace Research Network. Moreover, in recent years, he has been active in science outreach and the popularization of science through public lectures, interviews, and appearances in the media throughout Southeast Europe. He has also been an advisory member of the Foreign Policy Committee of the Croatian Parliament for the past four parliamentary terms, where he regularly advises members of the Croatian Parliament on international and European relations, diplomacy, international public law and foreign policy. Professor Bandov’s interest to establish a national young academy in Croatia connects him well to both the young and senior researchers in Croatia, and has made him a respected voice among the European and the worldwide networks of young academies.