Angela Moriggi, Italian, will obtain her PhD title in Rural Sociology, at Wageningen University and Research, in June 2021 – funded by a Marie Curie ITN Fellowship (SUSPLACE project) and by a Kone Foundation working grant. Angela is a social scientist working for sustainability since 2013, as part of inter- and trans-disciplinary projects. Her research has focused on various dimensions of social change (e.g. public participation and civil society environmental activism, social entrepreneurship, gender-related climate change adaptation, etc.). She has extensive fieldwork experience in Finland, China, and Italy. She is an expert in participatory, visual, and arts-based methodologies to engage different societal stakeholders, and to promote transformative learning approaches in academia. She is the co-founder of the collective Re.imaginary, and the co-author of the children's book and science communication project 'Once Upon the Future: Everyday Adventures that Change the World'. Angela's MSCA IF project 'VERVE' will be carried out at the Dept. of Land, Environment, Agriculture, and Forestry under the supervision of Prof. Laura Secco. VERVE aims at exploring and enabling transformative social innovation in European rural areas. It will test a novel methodology to shape future regenerative sustainability pathways for local governance processes, by employing an action-oriented approach and empowering youth and women. It will do so in partnership with a Local Action Group acting as a social innovation catalyst in the case study area of Belluno (Italy).