Mariana Zikou is a PhD candidate in the Department of Cultural Technology and Communication at the University of the Aegean. Her thesis is on the semantic integration of intangible cultural heritage through digital crowdsourcing systems and open participatory infrastructures. She is staff member of the Master Programme Folk/Popular Culture and Modern Cultural Heritage of the Hellenic Open University.

She has a BA and MA in Art History/Theory and Curating from the Department of Fine Arts and Art Sciences at the University of Ioannina, and a M.Sc. in Digital Humanities from the Department of Computer Science of KU Leuven. She has been trained in the digital curation of intangible, documentary and audiovisual heritage in Egypt, Belgium, and Germany as grant recipient of the Leonardo da Vinci European Commission programme.

She has worked as a project manager, researcher and professional staff in over 10 national and European programmes in the field of cultural heritage, with a focus on the Balkan area. She is co-founder of the Biennale of Western Balkans and an active certified member of the international organisation Creative Commons. She has published in journals and conferences and has curated exhibitions with a long-term research interest in the field of intangible cultural heritage and topics such as open data, participatory design and digital documentation.