Dr. L.G. (Ina) Horlings holds a PhD in Policy Sciences and studied Environmental Geography at the Radboud University in the Netherlands. She worked at the Ministry of LNV (now ELI), the Telos research center for sustainable development and at Cardiff University in Wales. Currently she is Assistant Professor at the Rural Sociology Group of Wageningen UR. Her research focuses on sustainable place-based rural and regional development in Europe. She published on topics such as sustainability, food security, regional development, governance, leadership and vital coalitions, and is involved in several European networks, e.g. the RSA research network ‘Place Leadership in Urban and Regional Development’, the COST Action on Cultural Sustainability and the Interreg IVB project on Rural Alliances.