Ranita Hisham is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Library and Information Science, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Universiti Malaya. Prior to joining academia in December 2023, she served for 15 years as a Senior Librarian at the Universiti Malaya Library, where she was primarily based at the Medical Library. During her tenure, she actively contributed to the Medical Librarian Group (MLG) of the Librarians Association of Malaysia, serving as Secretary from 2020 to 2023. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Library Science and a Master’s in Information Management from Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), and obtained her PhD from the Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya, in 2019. Her doctoral research explored the views and experiences of primary care physicians regarding evidence-based medicine in Malaysia, offering a new paradigm for how librarians can support and engage with evidence-based medical research. She has published in reputable journals and collaborated with researchers from various disciplines. She is trained in evidence-based medicine (EBM) searching skills and has conducted numerous workshops and talks on literature searching for systematic reviews. She also provides consultation services to students and academics on systematic review search strategies. Her current research interests include evidence-based practice support in libraries, medical librarianship, information literacy, user needs and information-seeking behaviour, hospital library services, health information services, systematic reviews, and academic librarianship.

VGR Chandran is Professor of Industrial Development at the Department of Development Studies, Faculty of Business and Economics at University of Malaya. He has also worked as Principal Analyst of Economic and Policy Studies with Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT), Prime Minister’s Department, Malaysia. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics and his research interests are mainly on innovation, technology development, trade and globalization that relate to industrial development. His field research covers sectors such as electrical and electronics, automotive, food, chemical, oil palm, machinery, iron and steel, ICT, and the newly emerging sector - renewable energy. He had extensive fieldwork covering the Asian region that includes countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, India, China, Thailand, and Malaysia. In recent years, his research interest expanded into investigating newly emerging enterprises within the context of social innovation and social enterprises, as well as open innovation. His interest has also expanded in studying the issues of NTMs, mainly regulatory and procedural requirements that serve as a barrier for firms to integrate into the Global Value Chain. He has also worked as a consultant for international organizations such as UNCTAD, UNIDO, UNESCO, UNEP, ERIA, OECD as well as governmental organizations in Malaysia. He has published articles in international journals - Economics of New Technology and Innovation, Policy Modelling, as well as book chapters and books on industrial development and innovation. He is the recipient of various national and international grants – to name a few - European Union Horizon 2020 and IDR, Canada, among others. His work is widely quoted in government policy documents contributing to numerous policy changes. He has contributed to the Malaysian regulatory reform efforts, STI and Industrial policy development at national as well as state level. His work via Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Economic Planning Unit, Academic of Sciences, Ministry of International Trade and Industry, MIGHT, Prime Minister’s Department, Malaysian Productivity Corporation and Institute Darul Ridzuan (state level) was instrumental in making the policy changes. His engagement with the industry are mainly in the form of undertaking studies and providing expert opinions. He has received various awards, e.g., excellence in teaching award and outstanding paper award from Emerald and Elsevier. Details of his current projects as follows: (1) Catching-up along the GVC: https://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/214786/factsheet/en (2) Regional Economic Corridors: http://www.crisea.eu/researchers/chandran-vgr

Dr Vairavan Narayanan is the Head of Neurosurgical services in University Malaya Medical Centre and the Head of Internationalisation Unit in the Faculty of Medicine, UM. He is a Professor and Consultant Neurosurgeon in University of Malaya. He did his basic medical degree as well as Masters degree in Surgery in the National University of Malaysia (UKM). He completed his Neurosurgical training in Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge in 2012, acquiring the FRCS (Neurosurgery) Fellowship from the Intercollegiate Board of Surgery in UK. He spent a further 6 months in 2012 doing an Honorary Fellowship in Epilepsy in University College London. He was recognised as a Malaysian National Specialist Registry (NSR) gazetted consultant Neurosurgeon in 2013. His clinical interest lies in Neuro Oncology, Epilepsy and Traumatic Brain Injury. He works closely with the adult and paediatric Neurologists in UM and has built up a successful Epilepsy surgery Unit which screens an average of 50 patients a year, of whom about 20 undergo surgery. With his fellow neurosurgeons and neuro-oncologists, he also runs a dedicated Neuro Oncology Unit which provides the highest standards of care for brain tumour patients. His research interests include genetic polymorphisms and mutations in primary and secondary brain tumors, traumatic brain injury and its sequeala, innovations in surgery and training. He has numerous publications in these fields. He is also actively involved in academic teaching and supervision of both undergraduate and post graduate Masters and PhD students. Dr Vairavan is a member of various National and International organisations including the Malaysian Medical Association, Neurosurgical Association of Malaysia, Malaysian Society of Neurosciences, General Medical Council of UK and a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.