Dani Sandu is an Aspen Romania Young Leaders program fellow and currently a Researcher at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, and a Postdoctoral Fellow at TU Chemnitz in Berlin, Germany. His professional profile is both academic and policy-oriented. His academic research features using advanced quantitative methods to study the effects of social identity on political behavior and voting for populist or radical-right parties, with a focus on former authoritarian countries in the CEE. He has published multiple research articles and papers on the topic in major specialized publications. His policy-oriented work leverages his academic training to offer guidance for projects regarding resilience to disinformation, social capital development and social inclusion. His work experience includes work for the World Bank Group, the Open Government Partnership, the European Commission, the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, the Global Focus Center and multiple other international and national think-tanks and civil society organizations in Romania.

Dani has also been featured in Romanian national and international media, mostly written and television, and has delivered public presentations for the Die Zeit Stiftung, TEDx Bucharest, Aspen Romania and other national and regional venues. He is also active in Romanian civil society, being one of the founding members of Romania first fact-checking organization and the first data-illustrating initiative.