Biography

Tibor Navracsics is the European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport for the Commission of President Jean-Claude Juncker (2014 – 2019).

Before this mandate, he served as Head of the Prime Minister's Office in Hungary, member of the Hungarian Parliament, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Public Administration and Justice, and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade. 

In the 1990s, Tibor Navracsics started to teach at the University of Economics in Budapest. From 1997 until taking up office as European Commissioner, he taught at the Eötvös Loránd University’s Faculty of Law and Political Sciences in Budapest, where he became an associate professor in 2001.
 

Commissioner's web page

Biography

Themis Christophidou has been the Director-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture of the European Commission since March 2018. She is a civil engineer with 35 years of experience in private and public sector management.

After having worked in the private sector for 15 years, she joined the European Commission in 2001. During the last 20 years, she has held various positions, including in the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy, as Head of Cabinet of the Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries and as Head of Cabinet of the Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management.

Themis Christophidou is an alumna of the civil engineering faculty of the Metsovio Polytechnic University of Athens. Born in Famagusta, Cyprus, she is trilingual, being fluent in Greek, French and English.

Twitter account

Biography

Alexandre Affre is Director for the Industrial Affairs, entrepreneurship & SMEs department at BusinessEurope, the leading advocate for growth and competitiveness at European level. In this role since 2013, Alexandre is responsible for coordinating the organisation’s positions on industrial policy, energy, climate, environment, research and innovation, as well as entrepreneurship and SMEs.

He joined BusinessEurope in 2007 as advisor in environmental affairs. Prior to that, he worked at the wildlife trade monitoring network of WWF and IUCN. Alexandre is a trained scientist and holds a Master in Ecology from the Université Pierre et Marie Curie. A French national, he is married and has two children.

Since 2018, Alexandre is managing the corporate Advisory and Support Group (ASG) of BusinessEurope. The ASG offers particular services to a selection of companies in all sectors of activity.

Biography

Dr Ana Trbović is co-founder and COO of Grid Singularity, a green energy blockchain venture named 2018 World Economic Forum Tech Pioneer.

She serves as a Governing Board Member of the European Institute for Innovation and Technology (EIT), and the Energy Web Foundation, which strives to unleash blockchain's potential to accelerate the transition to a decentralised, democratised, decarbonised, and resilient energy system. In prior roles, she consulted on public administration reform and competitiveness policy and led economic development projects for international organisations such as the EU, USAID, and the World Bank.

She has been deeply involved in Serbia’s economic reforms and the EU accession process, both as a political high government official and senior advisor, and as professor at FEFA, Belgrade and an NGO activist with Intersection, NALED, Serbian Association of Economists, etc.

Ana holds a PhD and MALD from the Fletcher School (including a semester at ScPo Paris) and an MPA from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. She is currently based in Berlin.

Biography

Borhene Chakroun is an Engineer and has a PhD in Education Sciences from Bourgogne University in France. Borhene worked, during the 1990s, as a trainer, chief trainer and project manager. He has also worked as short-term consultant for the EU, the World Bank and other international organisations before joining the European Training Foundation (ETF) in 2001. 

At the ETF, Borhene worked as a Senior Human Capital Development specialist. He is now Director of the Policies and Lifelong Learning Systems division at the UNESCO headquarters. 

Borhene has conducted a range of policy reviews and skills systems diagnosis in different contexts. He has authored and co-authored various articles and books in the field of skills development and lifelong learning. Much of his most recent work focuses on global trends in reforming education and training systems, and the global agenda for skills development in the context of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.
 

Biography

Markku Markkula is currently the First Vice-President of European Committee of the Regions after having served as President from 2015 to 2017.

He is a member of the National Coalition Party in Finland. A member of Espoo City Council since 1980, he held its presidency in 1990-92 and 2010. He is currently the Chair of the Board of Helsinki Regional Council and the Chair of Espoo City Board.

Mr Markkula is a former member of the Finnish Parliament (1995-2003). During this time he served as a member of 2 permanent parliamentary committees: the Committee for Science, Education and Culture, and the Committee for the Future, as well as the President of the European Parliamentary Technology Assessment EPTA network.

As a tribute to his achievements he was elected to the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame in 2008.

Biography

Matίas Rodrίguez Inciarte is an Economist at the University of Madrid in Spain and studied Business Management at the M.I.T. in Boston, United States. 

He has participated, as a member of Spanish delegations, in many international trade negotiations with GATT (now the World Trade Organization) and the European Union. For instance, between 1979 and 1981, he actively took part in negotiations enabling Spain to join the European Economic Community (EEC), now the EU. 

Between 1981 and 1982, Matías acted as a member of the Spanish Government in the role of Minister of the Presidency. In 1984, he joined Banco Santander, where he was a member of the Board of Directors from 1988 to 2017 and has been Vice-Chairman since 1994. Matías is now Chairman of Santander Universities and Vice Chairman of Universia. 

Biography

Monika Skadborg is a member of the Executive Committee of the European Students’ Union. Her portfolio includes sustainability, public responsibility of education, and quality assurance. She holds a BSc. in Environmental Engineering and is a UN Youth Delegate.

Biography

Natacha Lopes is from Aveiro, Portugal. At 23 years old, she is already a dedicated entrepreneur. After 2 years as Marketing Consultant for IJS, she joined the executive board as Internal Vice President in 2018, where she managed 76 students and their workload besides her studies.

After completing her business management degree, she became Vice President of Junior Enterprises Europe, a network of over 30,000 students. As Vice President, she is now responsible for 4 departments and fosters entrepreneurship among students in Europe, increasing entrepreneurial and sustainable education.

Biography

As group and science director, Pascal Métivier manages all shared laboratories and infrastructure – focusing on leveraging group capabilities and delivering innovations to the various partner businesses.

Before this, he spent 10 years in Asia where he set up the group research & development footprint, developing research activities in China, Korea & India. From 2000-2007, he directed research and innovation in group businesses.

Pascal Métivier received his Phd from University Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, and spent 18 months as a visiting scientist at Purdue University (USA), working on Computer assisted organic synthesis using heuristic models. Before this he studied at “Ecole Europeenne des Industries Chimiques” in Strasbourg.

Pascal Métivier received group internal awards recognising many of his key achievements: these include the Rhone-Poulenc 1996 research prize, Rhodia Customer sustainable innovation award in 2010, and Solvay breakthrough innovation prize in 2013. He has also been named professor “honoris causa” of Zhengzhou university (Henan, China) in 2009, is guest professor at East China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai and has received the Magnolia award from Shanghai for his contribution to research development outreach for the city.

Biography

Sabine Verheyen has been a Member of the European Parliament for the German Christian Democrats (CDU) since 2009. Since 2019, she has been Chairwoman of the European Parliament’s Culture and Education Committee, after having served as coordinator for the European People’s Party in this committee for 5 years. She focuses in particular on education and media policy as well as digital agenda issues. As former mayor of Aachen (1999 to 2009) she focuses additionally on issues that are of relevance to the local authorities.

She has been co-rapporteur for the Audio-Visual Media Services Directive and has been a Member of the European Parliament’s annual delegation to the Internet Governance Forum since 2009.

Sabine Verheyen studied architecture at FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences.

Biography

Snježana Prijić Samaržija, Ph.D., is a full-time professor at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Rijeka.

An expert in the fields of social philosophy, epistemology and applied ethics, she is the key founder and first director of the University of Rijeka Foundation, and has founded the Centre for Advanced Studies South East Europe, which she also directs. Prior to her rector’s mandate, she was the vice-rector for students and studies for 8 years.

Throughout fifteen years of active participation in university management, she has assumed the role of expert in numerous national and international committees, advisory boards and HE bodies in the domains of strategic management and leadership in HE, and social responsibility of HE and community-oriented learning and research; strategy for human resources in research and ranking policies; quality assurance and student-centred learning, and performance-based agreements.

Biography

Taru currently holds the role of Innovation Director at Tampere University, Finland's second largest university, where she is working to lead the development of innovation culture. In this position, she has notably worked to establish a new culture development programme after the fusion of the university with the Tampere University of Technology.

Prior to this, Taru held roles as Chief Development Officer at Goodio (2017-2019), Senior Vice-President for Innovation at Valio Ltd. (2011-2016), as well as various management positions at the company from 2007-2011. Taru holds a PhD from the University of Helsinki's Institute of Biomedicine, which she gained in 2008.

Biography

Since July 2012 Theun Baller has worked as dean of the Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering faculty at TU Delft.

Professor Baller had 25 years of experience at Philips Research: as Programme Manager Open Labs, Chief Operations Officer, Department Head Service Group Devices, Technology and Services, project manager and research scientist.

He was actively involved in developing the High Tech Campus Eindhoven – the creation of the commercial Open Innovation program for Philips – and the creation of a portfolio of 50 early-phase business initiatives, resulting in 25 spin-ups to Philips and 10 new start-up companies.

Prof. Baller has studied Chemistry and Physics at the University of Amsterdam and took his doctoral degree at the University of Twente on Laser assisted chemical etching.

Biography

Dr. Tome Antičić became in 2017 the State Secretary for science and EU funds at the Croatian Ministry of Science and Education. His main tasks are to reform the structural funds system in Croatia concerning science, and to implement new science bylaws that emphasise excellence, project success, mobility, and a much closer interaction between science and high-tech industry.

Before his post at the Ministry, Dr. Tome Anticic was the director of the Rudjer Boskovic Institute (RBI), the most prestigious and the largest research institute in Croatia in basic sciences, with 850 employees. He introduced an emphasis on transforming RBI into a much more competitive scientific institution. As a result, RBI, with 5% of Croatian scientists, now has 50% of Croatian Horizon 2020 projects.

Dr. Antičić is an experimental particle physicist who spent his career at CERN, receiving his Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University in 1997, Masters from Cambridge University, and B.Sc. from the University of London.

Biography

Geert Asselbergs is the coordinator of the EU STEM Coalition, an EU-wide network of national STEM platforms (secretariat based at the Dutch national STEM platform (PBT) in The Hague). He holds a master’s degree in European Politics and Policies of the University of Leuven (Belgium) and a master’s degree in American Studies of Utrecht University (Netherlands). After graduating he worked as a policy officer in the ministry of education based in the Dutch Caribbean where he focussed on primary and secondary education policy. He joined the Dutch national STEM platform in 2016.

Biography

Angelo Riccaboni is full professor of management control systems at the Richard Goodwin School of Economics and Management of the University of Siena. He was rector of the University of Siena (2010-16).

He is a member of the Leadership Council of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Solutions Network and chair of the Regional Centre of the SDSN for the Mediterranean since 2012.

Since 2017 he has chaired the PRIMA Foundation. Previously he was chair of the CRUI Foundation, the operating body of CRUI (the Association of Italian Rectors) (2014-16), member of the board of the International Association of Universities (IAU) (2012-16), and head of the IAU Working Group on sustainability (2012-16).

He was dean of the Richard Goodwin Faculty of Economics and Management (2005-10), chair of the Association of Deans of Italian Faculties of Economics, Management and Statistics (2008-2010), and president of SIDREA (Italian Society of Accounting and Business Administration Scholars) (2010-14).

He is currently member of the board of directors of Bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena (since 2017), member of the sustainability board of Edison Italia (since 2017) and member of the advisory board of Carrefour Italia (since 2018). He was a member of Bank of Italy’s Board of Auditors (2016-17).

His research focuses on governance and control issues and the role of organisations and universities to promote the implementation of Agenda 2030.

Biography

Dr. Adolfo Morais is the Vice-Minister for Universities and Research at the Basque Government. Among his responsibilities are the policy and strategy for the Basque University System, the strategic planning for basic research and innovation in the Basque Country, the promotion of university-business cooperative research and the transference of research outcomes to society.

He is Vice President of Ikerbasque, the Foundation for Science in the Basque Country, and is responsible for the Basque Basic Excellence Research Canters Network. He is also a contributor to the Board of the Basque National Science, Technology and Innovation Plan 2016-2020.

He has been a full-time lecturer at the Public University since 1989 and has occupied different management positions both at the Basque Government and at the University of the Basque Country. These positions include the Headship of International Relations at the Rector’s Office, the Dean’s position at the College of Engineering in San Sebastián and the Headship of the Careers Centre Office. He holds a PhD in Engineering in Business Studies and a BSc in Mathematics.

Biography

Anne Friederike Delouis is an Associate Professor in Social Anthropology at the University of Orléans, France, where she is also in charge of international study programmes in Applied languages and Management studies.

She currently serves as Vice-president for International Relations / European Affairs of the University of Orléans and as such is involved with the regional smart specialisation strategy.

Biography

Antoaneta Angelova-Krasteva has been the Director for Innovation, International Cooperation and Sport at the Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (DG EAC) of the European Commission since 1 October 2016. Her current work also includes responsibilities for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), part of Horizon 2020 - the EU's Research and Innovation programme (2014 – 2020).

Antoaneta joined the Commission in 2008, firstly in DG Justice, Liberty and Security, where she dealt with external relations and enlargement policy. Then she worked at DG HOME on internal security and police cooperation before becoming Head of Unit at DG CNECT where, from 2011 – 2016, she was responsible for cybersecurity, stakeholder relations and international affairs.

Prior to working at the Commission, Antoaneta worked on Bulgaria's accession to the EU in the field of justice and home affairs. A graduate in political science of Sofia University, Antoaneta has also acquired training and qualifications in democracy and governance matters, and European studies in Germany (Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung) and the UK (Sussex University).

Biography

Åshild Aarø is a coordinator for the course CET201 Sustainable Innovation at the University of Bergen in Norway. She also works as the Community Manager at StartupLab, and in both positions she focuses on building a community of people and companies eager to innovate and to build a sustainable future.

Biography

Atanas is an architect/designer and has over 5 years of experience in managing complex industrial-scale projects with diverse stakeholders, spread geographically, that require coordinating subcontractors and institutional partners. He is responsible for strategic planning and customer acquisition in the team.

Biography

With a background in Engineering, Bárbara works as a researcher in the area of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Aveiro, Portugal. Her work focus on the fields of Nano-engineering, related to Manufacturing for Circular Economy and Innovative Technologies for Intelligent Cities. She is currently Deputy-Director for Internationalisation and Cooperation, a strategic pillar of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, at the University of Aveiro.

Assuming education as one of the pillars of higher education institutions, Bárbara is the Coordinator of the Science and Engineering Education (SEE) Group, involved in research and development actions and projects dedicated to the profile of higher education teachers for society’s needs and demands.

Together with the Rectory, she is a member of the coordination team responsible for the development of an innovative PhD in Business Innovation. Following a disruptive approach, this programme shares and co-creates innovation around scientific and technical challenges coming from industry and business stakeholders, including the supervision of thesis work, whose results intend to have a strong and long-lasting impact on the companies involved, as well across society.

Biography

Begoña Arano is presently Head of Unit for “Innovation and EIT” at the Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture. She joined the European Commission in 1998 as Scientific Officer at the Directorate-General for Research, within the Unit for Marie Curie Fellowships (Improving Human Potential Programme).  From 2007 she served as Head of Unit in the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation where she was responsible for the units “Marie Curie Actions – Networks”, “External and Internal Communication” and “International Cooperation North America, Latin America and Caribbean”.

Begoña studied Biological Sciences at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid where she completed an MSc. In 1988 she obtained her PhD having been funded by the DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst) in Germany and by the Royal Society in the UK. She subsequently worked as researcher at the Spanish Research Council (C.S.I.C) and was awarded a Marie Curie Fellowship between 1996-1998.

Biography

Bert Jehoul is part of the Innovation team of the Digital Transformation Office of the Federal Belgian Government and also Board member of Open Knowledge Belgium.

He is convinced of the power of openness to reduce bureaucracy, increase trust and facilitate citizen-engagement and private-public cooperations.

He is a member of the International Open Recognition Alliance & Open Badges community, co-founder of Open Recognition Belgium and coach at Open Summer of Code.

Bert has a background in Psychology and Psychometrics and is an enthusiastic user of the statistical software R.

Biography

Brikena Xhomaqi is the Director of the Lifelong Learning Platform - European Civil Society for Education (former EUCIS-LLL) since 2016. She is a member of the Civil Society Europe Steering Committee since 2017 and the Advisory Board member of Association Hub Belgium, and is the former Head of Office of the European Students’ Union (ESU) and Director of the Erasmus Student Network (ESN). She has been active in civil society from an early age as an elected representative of different school and university student bodies.

Biography

Ms. Guyonnet is a graduate in learning and HR development, engineering and employment policy training.

Currently, she heads the innovation, business services and assets department at Opérateur de Compétences pour la Coopération agricole, l'Agriculture, la Pêche, l’Industrie Agroalimentaire et les Territoires (OCAPIAT).

She is completing her training in Neurosciences and lifelong learning. Her career motivations include understanding the transmission of ideas from vision to application from an education perspective.

Her immediate topics: educational innovation and HR, the impact of digital and AI and the contribution of cognitive neurosciences.

Biography

Chad Pasha is currently Senior Adviser for Global Government Partnerships at Coursera, where he works with heads of state and senior ministers to design and launch national skills transformation programmes in partnership with industry and academia. Much of this work is focused on developing critical skills needed at scale for the 4th Industrial Revolution.

Prior to joining Coursera, Chad was a Data Scientist with the UK Cabinet Office, embedding the use of machine learning in government digital services and digital transformation across central departments. Chad has worked with sovereign wealth funds globally, including Mubadala, where he set up the Abu Dhabi Advanced Technology Intellectual Property Office and Khazanah, where he established a new city in southern Malaysia.

He also launched the world’s largest education transformation project in Pakistan, funded by the World Bank, aimed at enrolling millions of school children. Chad first started his career in Washington, D.C., where he worked for Senator John McCain's International Republican Institute, supporting transparency and capacity building in governments globally. He obtained his BA from the University of Oxford, an MA from the University of Chicago, and his MBA from London Business School.

Biography

Christina Weber is a passionate researcher and an innovation networker. Her main areas of professional experience are research and teaching entrepreneurship, qualitative methods of social science, cultural entrepreneurship, and development cooperation. She managed global rehabilitation projects after Tsunami 2004 under private and EU funding. At SCE gGmbH (Munich University of Applied Sciences) she heads the research department with a focus on quadruple helix (Q4) innovation processes and entrepreneurship education.

Biography

Christoph Meng is Coordinating senior researcher at the Research Centre for Education and the Labour Market (ROA). He is in charge of different projects related to Tracer studies. He currently leads an international consortium carrying out a Pilot Tracer study in 8 European countries. His main research interests are the transition from school to work, determinants of drop-outs, the acquisition and role of competencies and gender-based wage-gaps.

Biography

Colin de la Higuera is Professor In Computer Science at Nantes University (France). He has been involved in a number of research themes, including algorithmics, formal language theory, pattern recognition and artificial intelligence.

He has also served the community as chairman of conferences, expert, reviewer, editor. He has co-organised workshops and given tutorials at many conferences and settings.

He has been the founding president of the SIF, the French Informatics Society and is currently a trustee of the Knowledge for All foundation and is working towards the usage of technology for an open dissemination of knowledge and education.

In 2015, based on the project Class Code (training trough hybrid MOOCs of teachers to coding and computational thinking) he contributed to launch in France, UNESCO has created a Chair in Technologies for the Training of Teachers by Open Educational Resources at University of Nantes, which he is now holding. In 2019 an Academic Chair on Open Education and Artificial Intelligence was created by Nantes University to support his work.

Biography

Denis holds degrees from University College Dublin and Trinity College Dublin. He has worked at the European Commission since 1997, after an earlier career in the Irish public service. His work at the Commission has focused on social policy and, more recently, education and training policy. 

He is a Head of Unit within the Commission's Directorate-General for Education and Culture (DG EAC) responsible for country level analysis of education policies. Denis previously headed the Unit in charge of university-business cooperation.
 

Biography

Dr. Dieter Dohmen is the founder, owner and Managing Director of FiBS – Research Institute for the Economics of Education and Social Affairs, founded in 1993 and located in Berlin. Dr. Dohmen has been working as a researcher and consultant in education, socio-economics and labour market economics for over 30 years. His work spans the entire education system – from early childhood, to vocational,  higher and continuing education and training.  Dr. Dohman has researched the interaction between the labour market, innovation, demography and social affairs. His comprehensive understanding of lifelong learning also recognises the relationship between higher and further education in times of digitalisation and automation. His mission is the ‘enhance lifelong learning for all’.

Biography

Dries Vanacker is currently responsible for educational development and digital learning at Artevelde University of Applied Sciences (Office of Educational Development and Internationalisation) in Ghent, where he is part of the policy team. His educational interests include blended learning, open education, virtual and augmented reality and 21st-century skills in higher education.

Currently, Dries is working on the realisation of a City for Learning via Gentlestudent.gent, a platform for informal learning that uses Open Badges to valorise competencies. Dries is also actively working on the implementation of the Next Generation Digital Learning Environment. In addition, he is also involved in interdisciplinary international projects related to flipped classrooms and the co-creation of study materials through open-source initiatives.

Biography

Elzelinde completed her undergraduate studies in Industrial Design in Eindhoven, where she combined her passion for cooking with her interest in design. She graduated with the project Upprinting Food, which originated from her focus on the reduction of food waste, in combination with using new technology. Upprinting Food is about 3D printing food from residual food flows, to create new value from food which is otherwise thrown away. The project was well-received; she therefore teamed up with Vita Broeken. Upprinting Food is now continuing as their start-up. Elzelinde is also continuing her studies with a masters in Industrial Design.

Biography

Eskarne Arregui is a Scientific Officer at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. She holds a master's in Public Affairs from the London School of Economics (LSE) and a BsC in Economics from the Public University of Navarre. Eskarne has worked for 15 years supporting public and private practitioners with research and innovation strategies and projects.

As part of excellence initiatives at the University of the Basque Country and the University of Bordeaux, she worked to engage universities in their area and to boost their international strategy. Eskarne started her career at Zabala Innovation Consulting working on socio-economic research projects and interregional collaboration initiatives. More recently, she has been working on analysing the role of higher education institutions in Smart Specialisation Strategies and the synergies between funding programmes for research and innovation.

Biography

Eva Cendon is professor for University Continuing Education & Teaching and Learning at the FernUniversität in Hagen, Germany. She has been involved in research on lifelong learning in higher education with special focus on teaching and learning in the German speaking and European context for over a decade. Her current research focuses on ways of linking academic and professional knowledge in university teaching and learning, as well as the role of reflection in students’ learning in professional study programmes.

Biography

Fátima São Simão (Porto, 1981) is head of business development for the arts at UPTEC - Science and Technology Park of the University of Porto. She is also the public lead of Creative Commons Portugal (volunteer position), where she conceived and coordinated the CC Toolkit for Business and performance Copywrong. For 10 years, Fátima was also project manager of futureplaces.org - medialab for citizenship, at UTAustin-Portugal Colab (2008-2018).

Fátima completed her degree in Economics at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Porto and her Master of Arts in Cultural Policy and Management at City University of London. While in university. she was president of the City University theatre group (TUP), where she also participated as actress and producer, collaborating with various theatre, film and other arts productions. Fátima is currently a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto; her research investigates the relationship between copyright and artistic work.

Biography

Gabi Kaffka researches the cognitive development of entrepreneurs and lectures at the University of Utrecht (Netherlands). Before this, Gabi worked for the project HEInnovate, in which she examined and reported on best practices for entrepreneurial teaching and learning in higher education in Ireland and the Netherlands.

She has worked as a researcher for the Higher Education Authority (HEA) and the Department of Education and Skills in Ireland. Gabi has also led a Dutch project on the development of public-private learning communities in vocational and higher education and carries out studies for the accreditation of new educational programmes in higher education. Currently, she manages the EU project ‘Evaluation of Entrepreneurship Education Programmes in Higher Education’ (EEEPHEIC). 

Biography

George Ubachs is Managing Director of EADTU, the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities.

He is responsible for the development and support of the EADTU network, policies and execution of its goals in online, open and flexible higher education, and acts as coordinator of international academic cooperation networks on networked curricula, virtual mobility, QA in online education and the European MOOC Consortium.

Dr. Ubachs is coordinator of the E-xcellence movement on quality assurance in online, open and flexible education and leads the ICDE-UNESCO focal point for QA in online education in Europe. He further coordinates the EMPOWERing universities networ. As coordinator of these two dedicated networks he works closely with the EUA, ENQA, ESU, ICDE and Unesco.

Before joining EADTU in 2002, George Ubachs has been working on various European programmes in the public and private sector in the field of regional social economic developments and was coordinator of the European Network of E2C-Europe (Cities for Second Chance Schools). George Ubachs graduated at State University of Leiden and Erasmus University Rotterdam on Public Administration with specialisation in European Integration.

Biography

Gigliola joined the University of Macerata in 2016 after more than 15 years-experience as researcher and advisor in private and public organisations dealing with transitions from education to work and university-business cooperation. Her research interests include graduates’ employability and engagement of universities for regional development. She is currently involved in research projects related to pedagogy for employability and co-creation approaches for employment and entrepreneurship purposes.

Biography

Gregor Cerinsek is a lead project manager at the Institute for Innovation and Development of the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. He coordinates transitional university-business innovation projects, and leads interdisciplinary research groups.

Gregor is an external expert of the European Commission – assessing the quality, relevance and impact of EU projects in the field of higher education – and a member of the high-level expert panel on improving curricula and learning strategies for higher and non-tertiary vocational education. 

As a visiting lecturer, he transfers his knowledge and experiences to national and international students of the University of Ljubljana. He is a US Department of State Professional Fellow, alumni coordinator of the Catalyze – World Chicago Alumni network, member of the Slovenian Australian Academic Association and member of the Chinese 16+1 High-Level Academic Platform.

Biography

Hanne Smidt is a senior advisor at European University Association (EUA) and runs her own consultancy. She is also a member of the Governing Board at Borås University, Sweden. Over the past 30 years, she has worked in higher education at all levels (institutional, national and European) and has in particular followed the implementation of the Bologna Process and the EHEA.

She has actively participated in promoting of student-centred learning, widening participation and lifelong learning (LLL) and researched and written extensively on the implementation of the Bologna Process and the European Higher Education Area.

She is currently focusing her extensive knowledge of education policies and practices to support the further development of lifelong learning.

Biography

Henrik holds the position as Director of Research and Technology at GKN Aerospace Engine Systems - a world-leading supplier in the commercial, military and space propulsion industry.
Henrik leads the global team developing new technology for future propulsion solutions through integrated technology programs. This involves an integrated setup of collaborative work with academia to develop technology but more so also educate new people at different level.

Henrik has been working in a number of leading positions in GKN Aerospace and has broad experience in both national and international R&T activities.  He sits on the board for some of the Swedish government Strategic Innovation Areas, and is the Swedish representative in the European Aerospace and Defense organization (ASD).

Henrik received his master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Luleå University of Technology, where he also received his Ph.D. in computational mechanics.

Biography

Ibrahim Ouassari is the founder and CEO of MolenGeek, an inclusive tech ecosystem in Molenbeek, Brussels. Following an atypical, self-taught career in technology, Ibrahim established himself as an accomplished consultant in the sector. He went on to launch his entrepreneurial career as founder of Urbantech, a development company with some of Belgium’s biggest industries as clients. He is also the founder of Crowdfly, a recruitment platform for consultants and high-skilled professionals

Biography

Mr Tuomi is Founder and Chief Scientist at Meaning Processing, an independent public research organization located in Helsinki, Finland. He is an internationally known expert in organizational and technology-enabled learning and cognition, innovation research, and anticipatory systems theory. He has written five books, chapters in 25 books, over 60 scientific articles, and numerous scientific reports.

His recent publications include 'Vygotsky meets backpropagation: Artificial neural models and the development of higher forms of thought' (AIED 2018) and 'Dialogical ethics in AI: Towards an adequate theory of agency in the age of machine learning' (FTA 2018). At present, he leads the EC-JRC 'Artificial Intelligence with and for Teachers' project that co-designs future AI practices and policies with teachers and digital education experts.

Biography

Inese Podgaiska is the current Secretary General for the Association of Nordic Engineers.  She is a former Latvian diplomat with 18 years’ experience in stakeholder management, negotiation, advocacy and communication. Ms. Podgaiska has advocated for engineers’ role in advancing responsible Artificial Intelligence and achieving sustainable development goals. Promoting engineering profession, STEM competencies and lifelong learning opportunities for all in the society.

Her main areas of expertise are mobilising partners from countries, international organisations and business community in the cross-border cooperation, as well as promoting stakeholders’ interests in different topics, such as education, including STEM, research, space, environment and energy.

Her former work includes roles at the European Environment Agency, Baltic Development Forum, Permanent Representation of the Republic of Latvia to the EU, Parliament of the Republic of Latvia.  Inese has a master’s degree in diplomacy from Paris XI University, and speaks five languages: Latvian, Russian English, French and Danish.  She received the 2019 Women Economic Forum Award Women of the Decade in Science Leadership, and was included in the 2019 International open directory of Brilliant Women Working on AI and ethics.

Biography

Jan Lundell is a professor in chemistry at the University of Jyvaskyla. He is the director of the Central Finland LUMA Centre, and the chairman of the board of LUMA Centre Finland.

Jan's work focuses on educational development, science education in the ICT era and science teacher training

Biography

Javier Finez is a researcher at the department of Social Innovation at BiB S. Coop. His work consists on energising and coaching entrepreneurs, and work teams that are developing innovative projects to support and enrich social and business networks in his region.

Over the past 20 years, he has helped to develop skills, including integrated entrepreneurial start-up support and training, inclusive educational promotion and sensitivity towards the needs of socially excluded groups.

Biography

Julie Fionda has worked in the European Commission since 2002. She has a background in Economics, regional development and social inclusion and she is currently Deputy Head of Unit in the DG Employment, Skills and Qualifications Unit. She was in 2014-2018 Member of the Cabinet of Marianne Thyssen, Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility.

Biography

Keith Hermann is Director of Higher Education Research, the former Director of Employability and Careers, and Strategic Lead for Degree Apprenticeships at the University of Surrey. At the university, he acted as strategic lead on employability, careers and the university’s renowned student placement programme.

Keith was also previously Deputy Chief Executive at the Council for Industry and Higher Education (CIHE), where he led research about entrepreneurship education, innovation policy, university-business collaboration, career guidance and STEM education. Before this, he worked at Durham University Business School as Director of Programmes, where he led a team specialising in entrepreneurship education and economic policy.

Biography

Dr Koen Jonkers is Deputy Head of Unit of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre's Knowledge for Finance, Innovation and Growth Unit. This is the knowledge management unit for the Directorate for Growth and Innovation of DG JRC. In this directorate, the focus lies on socio-economic research to support the work of a range of Policy DGs dealing among others with the fields of Education, Research & Innovation, Employment, Industrial Policy and the Information Society. The unit is responsible for the Research and Innovation Observatory. 

Koen holds a PhD from the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, and master degrees in both engineering and the social sciences from different European Universities. He has made around 50 publications on among others Research, Innovation and Higher Education as well as highly skilled migration related policy issues. His present activities include the coordination of research on universities in Europe in support of the Knowledge Hub for Higher Education and the development of a regional innovation impact assessment framework for universities. The past year he was also involved in the editing of JRC flagship reports on China and the future of skills and work in the digital age.

Biography

Kristina Notz is part of the leadership-team at the Social Entrepreneurship Akademie and responsible for the team as well as SEA’s network. She is also board member of the Global Social Entrepreneurship Network (GSEN).

Before joining SEA in 2012, she gained multiple experiences as manager in a university-based Think Tank, in business consulting, as well as in the non-profit sector. Her career in social entrepreneurship started over 10 years ago, when she co-founded and ran a national idea competition for students in Germany. Kristina studied Political Science at the LMU in Munich and at SciencesPo in Aix-en-Provence.

Biography

As Director of Education for EIT Climate KIC, Line focuses on ensuring competence development opportunities for students, professionals and future entrepreneurs addressing climate change. She holds a PhD in University-Industry collaboration from Copenhagen Business School.

With a background as a senior consultant in the Copenhagen-based education think tank, DEA, Line has gained deep insight into the European educational landscape and its dynamics.
 

Biography

After a Bachelor degree in Foreign Languages for companies, Maria Farano gained a Master Degree in Marketing and Communication for companies. During her academic career, she developed skills in foreign languages (English and German), intercultural communication, communication for companies, marketing and international marketing, global economic and business research.

She currently works at Cluster Marche, dealing with the communication and operative tasks of the European Project Interreg MED Greenomed – along with other National and Regional projects.

Biography

Maria is currently working for the OECD’s Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Cities and Regions (CFE). As a policy analyst, she supports the directorate’s work on Higher Education Innovation and SME policy developments. Her assignment also includes engaging with countries in Latin America and the Caribbean regarding these policy issues. 

Prior to this, she collaborated with the OECD Public Governance Directorate, the OECD Development Centre and the International Energy agency focusing on governance, economic and energy policy trends. Her work at the OECD had allowed her to engage with OECD (non-)member and countries on a variety on policy issues, through in-depth policy analysis and capacity building activities. 

Before this, Maria worked for French digital energy Start-up, Selectra, where she assisted with the development of  digital marketing strategy in France and Latin America. Maria holds a master’s in International Economic Policy from Sciences Po Paris, and a bachelor’s in Political Science from the Torcuato di Tella University in Buenos Aires. A Spanish and Argentinean native, she is fluent in Spanish, French and English. 

Biography

Mark Majewsky Anderson is Director of Research and Innovation at Glasgow Caledonian University and has helped to embed social innovation as a core part of the University’s mission.

As well as overseeing the University’s research and innovation portfolio, he leads several international cooperation projects around the world, in Latin America, Southeast Asia, Africa, Central Asia. One of his main focal areas is setting up community-facing ‘Social Innovation Support Units’, specifically dedicated to helping universities engage with their local stakeholders in order to confront societal challenges.

Biography

Markus has an early background as a biologist and a bioinformatician. It was, therefore, a logical move to machine learning and data science to developing machine learning projects. While acquiring his master’s in Computer Science, he spent two years developing data analytics driven tools for personalized medicine applications.

Later, as a founder and data science lead at the machine learning solutions company MindTitan, he has also gained experience with deep learning algorithms, natural language processing, image recognition and how to apply these tools in the industry.

Biography

Martin connects great green innovation with decision makers. Having built one of the deepest and most extensive databases on green startups (more than 70% of green European startups mapped), his current mission is to leverage the data, connections and knowledge acquired to make sure the world-changing realities go from lab to lives and make a difference.

Biography

Paola Pittia is a full Professor of Food Science and Technology at the Faculty of Bioscience and Technology for Food, Agriculture and Environment and Deputy Rector for Internationalisation of the University of Teramo (IT).

She is a well-established scientist, with expertise on food technologies, qualitative and technological properties of food biomolecules and design of formulated foods with improved health and stability properties; Dr Pittia is a co-author of more than 100 papers published on peer-reviewed national and international journals.

Since 2005, she has been committed to cooperation, networking and knowledge transfer within Erasmus (Mundus and Thematic Network), Erasmus+ Knowledge Alliance and Capacity Building projects with main expertise in curriculum design and development, quality assurance, and innovative teaching tools in Food Studies. She is the coordinator of the Erasmus+ KA2 Knowledge Alliance ASKFOOD (2018-2020).

She is the President of the ISEKI-Food Association (www.iseki-food.net), an international non-profit organisation dealing with activities aimed to enhance and promote research-education-industry interactions.

Biography

Paula has been instrumental in the design of customised capability development programmes for senior executives within the Enterprise Ireland client portfolio for the last 13 years. More recently, she focussed on the design and delivery of tailored capability development programmes for early stage companies.

In June 2019, Paula took up the role of National Programme Manager for the New Frontiers Programme – Enterprise Ireland’s National Entrepreneurial Development programme which is run nationwide by the Institutes of Technology.

Biography

Ramojus is a research and Innovation policy expert with a track record of 10+ years in higher education, research and innovation systems. He has an extensive, practical knowledge of Smart Specialization, Research Excellence Framework, entrepreneurship and policy evaluation, and holds a PhD in Business Administration and Management. 

Ramojus is currently the acting director (2016-2019) and Head of the Innovation policy analysis unit (from 2012-present) at the Government strategic analysis center STRATA (former MOSTA), Lithuania.

Biography

Rebecca Allinson is a Managing Partner at the Technopolis Group and is responsible for projects and studies in the field of International, European and UK public policy, specifically related to the Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Enterprise Policy.

Rebecca’s work in the last few years has concentrated on issues of Higher Education reforms and the interplay between education, research and innovation - both in the European sphere and in international development. Rebecca has been involved in HEInnovate since its inception and has run numerous workshops, and presented on entrepreneurial and innovative higher education institution. 
 

Biography

Dr. Rima Dapous is the Director of Education at EIT RawMaterials. Rima holds a PhD from the University of Oxford. She has set up several public-private partnership ventures in education and innovation, including at the University of Oxford, the University of Frankfurt and the British Council.

Biography

Sara Arko, PhD is an anthropologist working as a researcher in industry. She is a member of the Sustainable Development research group at the Slovenian company Metronik, which is a provider of automation systems and IT solutions for digitalization of industry, smart buildings and critical infrastructure.

Sara is dedicated to bringing anthropology, and social sciences and humanities in general, into interdisciplinary R&D teams, energy research and technology development. She received her doctoral degree in anthropology at the University of Ljubljana; in her PhD thesis, she explored the role of anthropology in international development cooperation in (inter)governmental organisations.

Sara worked as a project manager at the International Center for Promotion of Enterprises, delivering training programmes for member states’ officials. She participated as a trainer in the Slovenian Ministry of Public Administration’s Training for innovation in state administration.

She is currently involved in two EU projects focusing on higher education – industry cooperation in curriculum development and implementation, through problem-based learning and with an interdisciplinary approach. In her free time, she is dedicated to improving her swimming techniques and gardening skills.

Biography

Sieglinde Gruber started to work for the European Commission in 1991, with different responsibilities in the area of Education and Training, Researcher's Careers, Higher Education and Research (including the European Institute of Research and Technology - EIT, International Cooperation and Marine Research and Innovation).

Prior to joining the European Commission, she worked in the public and private sector in Italy and Germany.

Biography

Slavica Singer is a professor in strategy and entrepreneurship and the head of the doctoral program Innovativeness and Entrepreneurship at the J.J. Strossmayer University in Osijek, Croatia. Her focus on entrepreneurship and SMEs intensified through and after the 1990-1995 war in ex-Yugoslavia, which she saw as an important vehicle for solving problems related to developmental setbacks.

Slavica is a member of Croatian Competitiveness Council. She significantly contributed to the development of entrepreneurship eco-system, with initiatives for establishing the Center for Entrepreneurship (in 1997) and the micro-finance institution, NOA, in Osijek (in 1998); as well as the CEPOR - SMEs Think Tank (in 2002). 

Her research and consulting activities are focused on entrepreneurship (education, social entrepreneurship, female entrepreneurship, 'intrapreneurship'), competitiveness, innovativeness, regional development and the Triple Helix concept of cooperation between university, the business sector and government. From 2002 onwards, she led the Croatian Global Entrepreneurship Monitor research team and, from 2015 onwards, she led the research group of the GEM consortium.

In 2008, Slavica was awarded with the UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurial Studies for her contributions to the development of university based entrepreneurship education, and in 2010 she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Turku School of Economics. 
 

Biography

Stefan holds a PhD in national economics and worked from 2007 to 2009 as a policy officer for the COM (DG Enterprise) in Brussels (SME policy and admin burden reduction). Since 2009, he has been working in the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi).

He is CDF for the EXIST 'University-Based Business Start-Up Program' that aims at improving the entrepreneurial environment in science. He is also in charge of the German Accelerator Program that empowers German Statups to scale globally. After the US coverage, he now oversees the expansion of the program towards Asia (Singapore, India and Greater China).

Biography

Stijn Donders completed his MSc at the University of Twente (The Netherlands) with a thesis on fault detection and identification for wind turbines. He then moved to Belgium, to take up an EC Marie Curie fellowship and start an industrial PhD trajectory, under academic supervision of KU Leuven PMA and based at the company LMS, active in simulation and test solutions.

He defended his PhD thesis on simulation methodologies for robust noise and vibration design of vehicles in 2008. Stijn currently works at Siemens (who acquired LMS in 2013) as R&D project manager in the area of 3D Simulation. He is active in EARPA and part of the Industrial Advisory Board of the EMMC.

Biography

Tamás Kersánszki has been working in the field of innovation and knowledge management at Óbuda University for 11 years. He has social politics (MA) and project manager specialist qualifications, and has been a manager and professional implementer of several research and innovation, national and international projects.

His research focuses on higher education and strategy development, knowledge management and STEM strategies. Currently, He is the innovation director of the Óbuda University and the head of the Hungarian STEM Platform.

Biography

Thomas Lans is an assistant professor at Education and Learning Sciences, Wageningen University, the Netherlands. His research interests include entrepreneurship education and (situated) entrepreneurial learning.

After finishing his MSc thesis in 2001 on the role of corporate training in strategic innovations in the greenhouse sector, Thomas continued his academic career with a PhD in the field of entrepreneurial competence. Thomas' work became more focused on learning for and through entrepreneurship during the last 10 years resulting in many publications in educational and entrepreneurship journals including a best paper award in 2008 (Journal of Workplace Learning) and 2017 (Human Resource Development Quarterly).

Thomas is involved in several European entrepreneurship education projects and academic coordinator of the entrepreneurship education tracks for Wageningen University.

Biography

Tomasz graduated management studies at the University of Gdansk, post-graduate studies at the College of Europe, Natolin Branch and completed an executive MBA at Donau University in Austria.
He holds a Ph.D in International Economics, defended in 2013 – dissertation titled: Global duopoly in manufacturing large civilian airliners based on the transatlantic competition between Boeing and Airbus.
1999-2001 worked as VP for development of the John Paul II International Airport in Krakow.

2001-2003 held a position of Deputy Director of PR Department of the National Bank of Poland where he was responsible for Public Affairs for the President of the Central Bank, Professor Leszek Balcerowicz and members of the Monetary Policy Council.  

2004-2005 managed Government and Public Affairs of public – private partnership project of construction of A-1 Motorway Gdansk- Torun.

2008-2010 worked as a National Coordinator for Infrastructure and Airports in Polish National Committee for preparations to UEFA EURO 2012 football tournament. 2010-2015 worked as a Board Member of Polish Erasmus Program National Agency (FRSE) being responsible for higher education and introduction of Erasmus + program.

From June 2017, Tomasz has worked as President & CEO of Gdansk Entrepreneurial Foundation – Starter Incubator, and continues to work as an academic teacher and lecturer in the fields of transport economics, logistics, transatlantic economic relations and innovation policy.

Biography

Ulla Engelmann is the Head of Unit for Advanced Technologies, Clusters, and Social Economy within DG GROW, the Directorate General being responsible for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs at the European Commission. Since the beginning of 2017, she covered European Cluster Policy, Social Economy as well as Women Entrepreneurship and Entrepreneurship education.

From October 2018, Advanced Technologies including Artificial Intelligence and Digital Transformation for industry have been added to her responsibilities. She previously worked for many years at the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the in-house science service of European Commission, having commenced her work with the JRC in Ispra (Italy) in 1993 as a post-doc in fusion research. 

She then moved on to manage various units (communication, international relations, and others) in Ispra and Brussels. Dr. Engelmann holds a PhD in analytical and radiochemistry completed at the National Research Centre in Karlsruhe.

Biography

Ursula is the Director of Education of EIT Health, where she is responsible for a portfolio of education and training activities for students, entrepreneurs, professionals and citizens who focus on both educating for innovation – and, thereby, innovating education. Ursula obtained her MSc at LMU Munich, afterwards completing her PhD via the London School of Economics, and University Bielefeld.

She has more than 15 years of experience of setting up, managing and directing programs in science, research and education - all of international and multi-stakeholder formats. By having worked both in leading organisations in the academic and private sector, Ursula has built strong networks of stakeholders that create true impact in health and education.

Biography

Vanessa Debiais-Sainton is Head of Unit B1, responsible for higher education policies and programmes at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (DG EAC).

The unit is the lead service for European policies on the reform and modernisation of higher education, the new European Universities initiative, the automatic mutual recognition of higher education qualifications, the creation of an EU student card, and the higher education strand of Erasmus+.

Vanessa previously worked at the Commission's Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD). Before joining the Commission in 2006, Vanessa spent eight years working for petroleum and chemical companies.

Biography

Vanya has over 5 years of experience in management, marketing and customer development. She has successfully coordinated international projects with various stakeholders across Europe as a project manager with one of the leading companies in the education sector under the Austrian Chamber of Commerce.

In addition, Vanya has developed foreign markets and managed key client accounts as part of a successful scale-up in the helth and science sector. Her main responsibilities are customer development and marketing strategy for Biomyc.
 

Biography

Dr. Victoria Galan-Muros is a leading consultant and policy advisor who has worked in the interface between universities, business and policy makers for a decade in over 30 countries and co-authored over 50 consulting reports.

Victoria is also a recognised researcher in higher education management and university-business cooperation, with over 40 publications. She has been invited to lecture at 12 universities and to deliver professional workshops and speeches in internationally.

Previously a policy analyst at the OECD, a senior consultant at Technopolis Group UK, Victoria co-created the UBC Ecosystem Framework and was the scientific and policy manager of the initiative ‘State of University-Business Collaboration in Europe’ for the European Commission.

Victoria is currently the research director at the Global Institute on Innovation Districts (GIID), the co-founder of the Innovative Futures Institute (IFI), and the director for Policy Affairs at the University-Industry Innovation Network (UIIN).

Biography

Vijoleta Šulcienė has more than 30 years of experience working in architecture, design and engineering companies as an architect and manager, university lecturer and administrative staff at the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Lithuania. 

Over the last 10 years, Vijoleta was involved in many international Erasmus and Erasmus+ projects, with most EU countries, as a main and partner coordinator. In 2018, she joined VIA University College as a project coordinator and is responsible for international multi-disciplinary projects at the Faculty of Technology and Business. 

Biography

Zsuzsa Jávorka is a principal consultant with Technopolis Group with over 14 years experience in the domains of research, innovation, science policy and higher education.

Zsuzsa’s work predominantly focuses on the interactions of higher education, research and the business world, addressing topics on intellectual property rights, university-business collaboration and internationalisation of higher education. She is the project manager of HEInnovate, a joint initiative between the European Commission and the OECD.