Prof. Fulvio Franchi received his PhD in Earth Sciences in 2013 from the Università degli Studi di Bologna with a study on “Comparative geomicrobiology of the mounds in the Moroccan Sahara: implications for Mars astrobiology”. After his PhD, he pursued a career at the crossroad between planetary science and carbonate sedimentology with a clear interest for biogeochemical pathways and astrobiology. He is currently holding the position of Associate Professor in Sedimentology at BIUST (Botswana International University of Science and Technology), in Botswana and he is the Coordinator of FAST4Future and of the Pan African Planetary and Space Science Network (www.papssnmobility.org); both EU-funded projects promoting research and education in the field Planetary and Space Science in Africa. In the past 3 years, he has successfully participated in two NERC projects and led his institution into the Europlanet 2024 Research Infrastructure funded by INFRAIA under Horizon2020. Dr Franchi is coordinating the planetary field analogue Makgadikgadi Pans in Botswana as part of the Europlanet2024 Transnational Access and successfully organized more than 20 field trips in Central and North-Western Botswana, Namibia, Angola, South Africa and Zimbabwe. He has successfully supervised 18 undergraduate students, 8 MSc students (4 completed) and 2 PhD candidates (ongoing). In January 2023, he became member of the Editorial Board of the jounral Planetary and Space Science (Elsevier). He is also a Council member of the International Association of Sedimentologists and of Europlanet 2024 Research Infrastructure AND participant of the Advisory Group on R&I for Africa-Europe Cooperation of the European Union. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0313-5624