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Mirrakhim Oposh is the founder of the “Sherden” brand, a member of the intellectual and creative union "7 Heaven", a designer and a researcher of traditional knowledge. Currently, he is developing his clothing brand and a creative studio, at the same time he participates in and organizes creative exhibitions, festivals, and fashion shows. The base for each of his new collections is philosophical ideas, concepts, and traditional knowledge of the Kyrgyz people. He got into art through philosophy and studying the traditional worldview of the Kyrgyz people. As a student, and later a researcher at the Department of "Philosophy and Methodology of Science" of the Kyrgyz National University named after Jusup Balasagyn, he was very interested in the creative manifestation of certain ideas, phenomena, and concepts through applied art. After graduating from the university, for about 5 years he taught philosophy in the universities in the capital. He has higher education in philosophy, as well as in art management. He has participated in the UNESCO training on strengthening the capacity of the active youth of Kyrgyzstan to safeguard and promote intangible cultural heritage. Since then, he started promoting the ICH in his artworks and collections.

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Ms. Gulnara Ibragimova is the manager of the “International Education Center” at the Educational Complex “Ilim” a UNESCO Associated School. She is also the focal point for the UNESCO Associated Schools Network in Kyrgyzstan. Educational Complex “Ilim” was established in 1993 and has a long institutional history. Since 1995, it is part of the UNESCO Network of Associated Schools (ASPpnet). Currently, it coordinates the network activities in Kyrgyzstan among its 15 members. The Complex itself includes primary, secondary and high schools as well as kindergarten. The school aims to ensure that students have a full conceptual understanding of the subjects they study and helps them to develop new skills that can be applied in real life. Since “Ilim” joined the ASPnet schools Network it also became a key promoter of UNESCO values in the country. It implements multidisciplinary projects related to intercultural learning, human rights, sustainable development, etc. Gulnara is responsible for maintaining international communications, implementing supplementary education programs, and cultural exchanges, and developing academic mobility - attracting foreign teachers, with the aim of convergence educational standards, improving the quality of education as well as the organization and implementing of international cooperation projects with UNESCO. She is also responsible for maintaining contacts with the National Commission of the Kyrgyz Republic for UNESCO in the realization of joint activities and reporting. In 2020-2021 she has supported a pilot project of UNESCO “Integrating the Living Heritage into Education in Asia and the Pacific Region” in Kyrgyzstan, by identifying schools for the project and monitoring their work progress. From 2013 to the present, she is also the director of the “Koldo Shop” Public Foundation, which work is aimed at supporting people from socially vulnerable segments of the population, and these are people with disabilities, single mothers, pensioners, and large families with financial difficulties. The Foundation created a trading and educational platform for artisans from this target audience.

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Aidai Asangulova is one of the famous craftswomen in Kyrgyzstan and the head of the “Kiyiz Duino” Public Foundation. The goal of PF “Kiyiz Duino” is to revive and safeguard traditional knowledge and skills related to crafts and the cultural space around it. “Kiyiz Duino” aims to draw general public attention to Kyrgyz traditions and customs; show people how a person can coexist with the surrounding nature in harmony, use its gifts without causing it harm; explain how important it is to take care of nature and preserve its purity for future generations. The Foundation holds various community-based events, such as workshops on making Kyrgyz traditional clothing, or festivals to popularize traditional rituals and practices from local to national levels. They also actively cooperate in the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage with governmental and nongovernmental institutions, participate in field trips, conduct research, and document ICH elements. “Kiyiz Duino” has contributed greatly to the preparation of nomination files as “Ak-kalpak craftsmanship, traditional knowledge and skills in making and wearing Kyrgyz men’s headwear” and “Elechek, Kyrgyz female headwear: traditional knowledge and rituals”.

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Aida Alymova is an anthropologist and a director of the Public Foundation "Consortium of Museums". She has a Ph.D. in History and her research topic was about the life and culture of the peoples of Central Asia in the late XIX - early XX centuries. For her work on the development and popularization of museums in Kyrgyzstan, she was elected as president of the National Committee of ICOM in Kyrgyzstan in 2019. Aida Alymova is also awarded a diploma from the Ministry of Culture of the Kyrgyz Republic for outstanding achievements in the field of culture. She also acts as a Museum expert at the Turkic Academy based in Nursultan, Kazakhstan. Currently, as a director of the Consortium of Museums, she promotes museum development activities, with an aim to ensure the social purpose of museums as institutions for cultural, educational, and scientific functions. She coordinates and implements museum activities to solve professional and social issues and problems in the museums of the Kyrgyz Republic.

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Keneshbek Almakuchukov is a researcher at the National History Museum of the Kyrgyz Republic. He is a Doctor of Economics (economics of culture). The topic of his doctoral dissertation was dedicated to “Marketing management in the sphere of culture”. Dr. Almakuchukov has published a total of 36 scientific papers, including 7 monographs, and 3 textbooks. He is also the head of the Public Foundation "Central Asia - Arts Management" which implements projects to support and develop bio-cultural diversity in Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia. His Foundation is well know for the organization of annual International Jazz Festivals since 2006 in Bishkek, the capital city of Kyrgyzstan. In total, the foundation has organized about 17 International Jazz Festivals. In 2021, Dr. Almakuchukov was in charge of the First Biennial (Forum) of Cultural Initiatives. The Biennale included an exhibition of the results of projects of 20 public organizations in the socio-cultural sphere, more than 20 creative events (master classes, performances, etc.), as well as a business program (panel sessions, open lectures, etc.). Currently, he is engaged in museum activities and continues his research of cultural heritage-related topics.

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Aibek Baiymbetov graduated from the Kyrgyz National University named after Jusup Balasagyn with a Master's degree in International Relations. He also studied at the University of Tsukuba in Japan as an exchange researcher. Besides, he studied the Chinese language and oriental culture in Guangzhou, China. Aibek Baiymbetov has been working in the field of cultural heritage and journalism for more than 10 years, with a focus on safeguarding the intangible cultural heritage, popularizing the traditional knowledge and practices of nomadic culture, as well as creating a value-oriented, modern creative network in the field of traditional music, journalism, animation, film, and theatre art. Recently, he has been actively working on preserving the biocultural diversity, adapting the cultural meanings to modern perception - through digital and creative products. Aibek Baiymbetov is a co-founder of the musical project "Kyrgyz Kairyk" which focuses on the safeguarding and popularisation of traditional music, he also acted as a consultant in several projects on the restoration and popularisation of Kyrgyz traditional art. He took part in many research expeditionary initiatives to study the traditional culture of the indigenous people of the Tian Shan, Pamir, Himalayas, and Altai. He is a founder of the Public Fund "Peace Dialogue and Holistic Development", which has been working for more than 5 years in the field of safeguarding ICH, as well as creating a network of expert councils in the fields of climate, ecology, philosophy and traditional cultural and spiritual practices. He is an author of a short documentary anthology film "Man - Universe". At the moment, he is a researcher at the Department of Cultural Heritage and Humanities at the University of Central Asia. Aibek Baiymbetov's academic and research interests lie in the area of the religious and cultural heritage of Kyrgyzstan/Central Asia - traditional Islam and traditional practices of the nomadic ideology. In the field of biocultural diversity and traditional cultures of indigenous people. Traditional art - Kyrgyz folklore, epic heritage and music. He is the winner of the UNESCO 2021 “Silk Road Youth Research Grant” competition among the young researchers, as well as the winner of international and local film festivals in the field of documentary films about ICH.

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Dr. Aijarkyn Kojobekova has been participating in a series of Training of Trainers on different aspects of ICH organized by the UNESCO in Central Asian region since 2016 which helped her to step forward in this field. Since then, she has been conducting a series of workshops on safeguarding ICH and implementing of the 2003 UNESCO Convention in Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan). In 2018 she was actively involved in a regional research project on ICH in the TVET system and also coordinated the research project on ICH in TVET in Central Asia. In 2020 Dr. Aijarkyn Kojobekova worked on the national manual on safeguarding sacred sites, rituals and practices related to sacred sites in Kyrgyzstan. During the work, she has explored the challenges and opportunities local communities and individuals face in practicing worship on sacred sites and what safeguarding measures need to be taken by the communities themselves, local authorities and state bodies. She has facilitated an online meeting and conducted face-to-face training on intangible cultural heritage (ICH) community-based inventorying along the Tian Shan Corridor of the Silk Roads in Kyrgyzstan. She has been also involved in research on the Inventory of ICH elements in Kyrgyzstan in the framework of the community-based inventorying along the Tian Shan Corridor of the Silk Roads in Kyrgyzstan within the framework of the EU/UNESCO Project: “Silk Road Heritage Corridors in Afghanistan, Central Asia, and Iran – International Dimension of the European Year of Cultural Heritage”. In 2022 she developed a manual for school teachers on ICH in Kyrgyzstan. Dr. Aijarkyn Kojobekova has: - 10-year collaboration experience with different local and international organizations: Open Society Institute, UNDP, UNESCO, IFES, SaferWorld, IWPR, Soros-Kyrgyzstan Foundation, Aigine Cultural Research Center and others. - 15-year expertise in revealing the content of different types of reading materials by the means of critical discourse analysis, narrative analysis, in expert interviewing, working with massive of literature, processing collected data by MAXQDA programme, conceptualizing complicated processes and sociocultural phenomena. - 19-year teaching of social sciences (sociology, political science). Courses: Qualitative Social Research Methodology, Past in Present: Memory, Culture and Politics, Nation-building in Central Asia, Social Stratification. Publications: 5 manuals, 1 monograph in co-authorship, more than 70 articles (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Singapore, Russia, Turkey, USA)

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Dr. Jyldyz Doolbekova is an anthropologist, researcher, and consultant with a background in traditional ecological knowledge, place-based education, and local development to support and preserve the biocultural diversity and the well-being of mountain local communities in Kyrgyzstan. She participated in the research within the project "Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) Contribution to SDGs - Community Education and Development" initiated and supported by International Research Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in Asia-Pacific (IRCI, https://www.irci.jp/). The results of the study entitled "Visionary Local Communities in Promoting Intangible Cultural Heritage in Kyrgyzstan" (2020), and "The Evolving Role of Community Museums in Intangible Cultural Heritage Preservation: A Case Study from Kyrgyzstan" (2021) were presented at the International Symposium in Tokyo (online). She has 15 years of experience with the Christensen Fund Central Asia Program (California, San Francisco) as a Special Advisor, Program Manager, and Regional Coordinator. Before joining The Christensen Fund, she was the University Projects Officer for the Aga Khan Humanities Project (AKHP), based at project headquarters in Dushanbe (Tajikistan), where she developed and implemented programs in conjunction with Central Asian universities to promote pluralism in ideas, cultures, and people through innovative humanities curricula rooted in traditional arts and knowledge. She received a Ph.D. in anthropology, ethnology, and ethnography with a thesis on "Traditional ecological culture of the Kyrgyz (on the example of the Murghab Kyrgyz in the mid-19th and early 20th centuries)" at the Institute of Cultural Heritage of the National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic; received the equivalent of her MA from Kyrgyz National University Department of History and also earned a Master’s in International Relations from the International University of Kyrgyzstan.

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Aibek Samakov has been involved in the participatory research of human, social, and cultural dimensions of natural resources management since 2011. From 2011 to 2018, Mr. Samakov participated in the documentation of sacred natural sites and traditional ecological knowledge in various regions of the Kyrgyz Republic. From 2015 onwards, Mr. Samakov has focused on the social and cultural dimensions of transboundary rivers in Central Asia, with the main focus on Naryn and Syr Darya Rivers. Mr. Samakov holds a Master’s Degree from the University of Manitoba and is expected to receive his Ph.D. in environmental anthropology from the Eberhard Karl University of Tuebingen. Mr. Samakov is a proponent of participatory approaches in research and is keen on involving local (and indigenous) communities in the co-production of knowledge.

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Mr Sayidafzal Mallakhanov obtained a Bachelor’s Degree (2000) and a Master’s Degree (2002) from the Tashkent State Institute of Oriental Studies. Since 2002 he is working at the National Commission of the Republic of Uzbekistan for UNESCO (Senior Expert/Deputy Secretary-General). He was the coordinator for preparation following multinational and national nominations to the Representative List of ICH and Good Practices for ICH Safeguarding: “Katta Ashula”, Askiya”, “Navruz”, “Palov Culture and Tradition”, “Margilan Crafts Development Center: Safeguarding of the Atlas and Adras Making Traditional Technologies”, “Khorazm Dance – Lazgi”, “Miniature Art”, “Bakhshi Arts”, “Telling tradition of Nasreddin Hodja”, “Art of crafting and playing Robāb/Rubāb/Rubob”, “Traditional embroidery of Central Asia”, “Traditional folk games of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan”, “Sericulture and Traditional Production of Silk for Weaving”. Moreover, Mr Sayidafzal Mallakhanov was also coordinator of the Uzbekistan -ICHCAP Cooperative Project: Publishing an ICH Inventory Booklet (2015-2017) and the ICHCAP Project on Conducting ICH Video Documentation in Uzbekistan (2015-2018).

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Born in the Great Cold Mountains, Sichuan, Dr Qubumo Bamo originates from the Nuosu, a subgroup of the Yi people. She obtained her Ph. D. in Folkloristics at Beijing Normal University in 2003. She is Senior Fellow and Director of the Oral Traditions Research Center at the Institute of Ethnic Literature (IEL), Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS). She also acts as Vice President of the China Folklore Society (CFS), an accredited NGO and a member of the Evaluation Body of the Committee. Concentrating on the links between the written and oral traditions of the Yi, she has conducted long-term targeted field study on various aspects of Bimo (ritualists) scripture culture and Yi oral narratives. She is the author of The Golden-Eagle Spirit and Poetic Soul: A Study of Archaic Poetics in the Yi's Scriptures (2000), Spirit Picture and Ghost Board: A Survey of Incantation Epos and Ritualized Paintings in Nuosu Yi Area (2004), and more than 130 articles. Her translation of Gregory Nagy’s Homeric Questions was published in 2008. Her newest book, entitled Verbal Dueling and Epic Performance, is in press, and is a revised edition of her dissertation, based on a targeted field study carried out in her hometown. She has recently been working as a principal expert on the National Key Project for Developing Metadata Standards for Documentation of China Ethnic Minority Oral Traditions. Dr Bamo teaches courses on oral tradition, folkloristics, and ICH studies at University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (UCASS) for the PHD and MA graduate students. Topics of current research include epic tradition, oral poetics, ICH safeguarding and cultural policy. Her essays on ICH is in print (Beijing: Culture and Art Publishing House, 2021). Since 2004, she has been extensively engaged in the field of Intangible Cultural Heritage at local, national, and international levels, possessing competence and consulting expertise in policy-making, training design, lecture delivering, as well as programme evaluation for governmental organs, professional institutions, centers of communities, and universities. Since 2007, she has been active in the China Delegation to statutory meetings and events under the 2003 Convention. As one of the ICH Team (CFS4ICH) leaders in the China Folklore Society, she plays a central role in annual tasks.

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Mr. Keum Gi Hyung had been working as the Director-General of ICHCAP since January 2019 until December 2021. Before joining ICHCAP, he served as the Director-General of Tourism Policy Bureau from 2017 to 2018 and Public Communication Policy Bureau from 2016 to 2017 at the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Korea. He also served as the Director of Korean Cultural Center in Vietnam from 2009 to 2012. He also worked as a Senior Programme Specialist at the UNESCO Bangkok Office from 2005 to 2007. His academic background is in media and communication with Master's degree in University of Leicester in the United Kingdom.