Partners

Dr. Kirezi Kanobana is scientific advisor at the Agentschap Innoveren en Ondernemen (vlaio) since 2012. She graduated as a veterinarian from the University of Ghent (Belgium) and has a mixed background in biotechnology, immunology and epidemiology of infectious diseases which she gained during her PhD at Utrecht University (The Netherlands), and during 8 years of post-doc at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp (Belgium). She also worked for three years in the pharmaceutical industry (risk assessment and preclinical drug development). At the IWT, she is involved in the evaluation and facilitation of R&D projects in life sciences, with a special emphasis on veterinary sciences. From October 2014 on, she will also be representing vlaio in the EUROTRANSBIO network.

Dr. Fien De Raedemaecker is scientific assistant at the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ). As a marine biologist graduated at the University of Ghent (Belgium), she gained experience in fisheries ecology, benthic ecosystem studies and habitat mapping during her PhD in GMIT (Ireland). At VLIZ, she works on communication and dissemination actions of national and EU projects with focus on developing websites, publications, organizing conferences and events. Currently, she also works on the Flanders Aquaculture platform, Flanders Marine Biotechnology Platform and FP7 project CSA Oceans.

Floor ten Hoopen is Scientific Officer at Innovation Fund Denmark (IFD). She has a biology degree from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands and a subsequent Ph.D. at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Floor represents IFD in all international marine and aquatic initiatives the fund is involved in, such as JPI OCEANS, COFASP, ERA-Net Marine Biotechnology and BONUS, and is co-responsible for national grants within the same area as well as bioresources and food in general.

Dr. Catherine Boyen is is a marine biologist and genomicist, focusing her research on marine macro-algae and bacteria associated to algae. She is Director of Research at CNRS and head of the Laboratory “Integrative Biology of Marine Models” at the Marine Laboratory in Roscoff (France). She obtained her PhD in Marine Biology in 1986 at the University of Paris 6 (France) and entered the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in 1991. From 2004 to 2008 she was the scientific coordinator of the Network of Excellence (NoE) “Marine Genomics Europe-MGE”, and is now co-coordinating the European marine science network Euromarine. She is currently a member of the Strategic Advisory Board of JPI Oceans and of the managing board of Biogenouest, the Life Science and Environment core facility network in Western France. She was involved in the FP7 KBBE CSA project MarineBiotech and contributed to the Marine Board-ESF Position Paper 15 ‘Marine Biotechnology: A new vision and strategy for Europe’.

Dr. Jens Schiffers is scientific officer at the project management agency Juelich (Projektträger Jülich, PtJ) which is part of the Research Centre Juelich (Forschungszentrum Jülich, FZJ) in Germany. After graduation in biotechnology and his PhD thesis at the RWTH Aachen (Germany) he worked two years for a natural gas company (E.ON Ruhrgas) in the department for R&D before he joined PtJ in 2009. Accompanying different research projects within the context of industrial biotechnology and a national funding programme, he moved in 2013 within the department for bio-economy to the division EU & International Affairs, which is involved in several ERA-NET initiatives.

Margrét Geirsdóttir is a project manager at MATIS – Icelandic Food and Biotech R&D. After finishing B.Sc. in Chemistry and Food Science at the University of Reykjavík (Iceland), she gained her M.Sc. from KVL Frederiksberg (Denmark) (now part of University of Copenhagen). She has been working at MATIS – previously Icelandic Fisheries Laboratories - from 1998, were her main research area has been the utilization of fish proteins from underutilized raw materials.

Dr. Dermot Hurst is a mechanical engineer who completed his doctorate in Industrial Engineering at the National University of Galway (Ireland). He works as a research programme manager with Ireland’s Marine Institute. In this role, Dermot is responsible for defining and managing new research initiatives, including the development of Ireland’s marine biotechnology research and related programmes. Dermot has a long association with strategic research, having played major role in the development of Ireland’s Marine Knowledge, Research and Innovation Strategy for Ireland 2007- 2013 – Sea Change; and other national and international initiatives related to the exploitation of marine bioresources.

Dr. Renata Denaro is a researcher at the Institute for Coastal Marine Environment of the National Research Council (IAMC-CNR). She obtained her PhD in Biochemical and Molecular Sciences at the University of Catania (Italy). Her study is focused on Marine Microbial Ecology and Biotechnology. She is participating in several European projects whose main topics are related to marine hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria, ecological, molecular and physiological aspects and their biotechnological perspectives (biosurfactant-producers, biosensors). She is author of several scientific articles and chapters of books. She is currently member of the PhD committee on Cellular Biotechnology at the University of Messina (Italy), member of the Advisory Board for the Italian Ministry of University Research and she is coordinating the Action on "Communication" within the national project RITMARE.

Pablo Chavance is European programme officer for the Science and Technology Park of New-Caledonia (ADECAL-Technopole). He has a fisheries science background with 15 years of experience managing projects related to marine and coastal management. The Innovation and Technology park implements technological transfer and innovation on marine and terrestrial resources (incl. marine aquaculture – finfish, prawns, microalgae, and agriculture – field crops, bee farming, tropical roots crops). ADECAL-Technopole is involved in several EU projects notably NetBiome initiatives aiming to strengthen research cooperation for EU tropical overseas (co-funder of the Era-Net Netbiome first joint call in 2011).

Ole Jørgen Marvik is Sector Head at the Health and Life Sciences Department at Innovation Norway. Marvik is the founder and former CEO of the antibody therapeutics company Affitech and has also been co-founder of several other biotech start-ups. He has been active in industry policy through many board and advisory positions, including the Norwegian Government's national biotech strategy. Recent projects focus on industry cluster development and national initiatives in areas such as medical biobanks, neuroscience, marine bioprospecting and industrial biotechnology. Marvik is a Norwegian representative in the OECD Task Force on Biotechnology. Marvik holds a PhD in molecular and structural biology and a master's degree in business management.

Dr. Marta Norton studied Chemistry at the Faculty of Sciences and Technology, Universidade Nova de Lisboa (FCT/UNL) and in 2001 she did her PhD in Organic chemistry at FCT/UNL, (Portugal), in collaboration with the University of Toronto (Canada). As a post-doctoral fellow (2002-2004) at Institute for Chemical and Biological Technology (ITQB/ UNL), her interests focused on medicinal chemistry, working in bio-organic and bio-organometallic projects. From 2004 to 2012 she worked as a research scientist at Alfama Lda, a pharmaceutical start-up company, where she was responsible for the design, synthesis and testing of new organic and organometallic molecules, with biologically relevant ligands and potential therapeutic activity. In February 2013 she joined the International Department at Fundação Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) where she is involved in the management of several ERA-NETs and other initiatives (ERA-IB-2, ERASynBio, ERA-MBT and PLANT-KBBE).

Simona Stoian graduated from the General Medicine Faculty in 2002 and has been involved in the implementation of several European Projects under FP6 and FP7. Since 2012 she is a Project Officer at International Relations and Project Implementation Department within UEFISCDI. Between 2008 and 2010 she was Scientific Officer for Health and Project Officer for Euronanomed at National Centre for Programme Management and between 2003 and 2008 she was physician at Floreasca Emergency Hospital and at Prof. Dr. Al. Trestioreanu Institute of Oncology.

Kim Turk is a graduate of Political Science – International Relations. She received her degree from the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) where she is currently in the final steps of receiving her Master of Science in International Economics (topic: Economics of international scientific cooperation: the small country case). Kim has substantial international experience, working first in the academic sphere as a young researcher and later in the private sector as a consultant and Slovenian representative of an international company. She is currently in charge of managing and coordinating 7 different ERA-NET projects mainly in the bioeconomy area, namely ERA-MBT, SUMFOREST, ARIMNET-II, SUSFOOD, ERASynBio, WoodWisdom-Net + and TRANSCAN. She is the work package leader on training and education in ERASynBio and work package leader on dissemination and networking in WoodWisdom-Net +, task leader in ERASynBio’s and ERA-MBT’s communication work package with active participation also in the communication work package of ARIMNET-II.

Dr. Lisa Almesjö holds a position as senior research officer and international coordinator at The Swedish Research Council Formas. As a marine ecologist graduated at Stockholm University (Sweden), she has experience in biology and earth sciences, fish ecology and ethology, as well as phytoplankton ecology. At Formas she works as a coordinator of international affairs and is responsible for marine and aquatic issues including e.g. the Article-185 programme on the Baltic Sea – BONUS, and JPI Oceans.

Anders Carlberg is the maritime expert of Region Västra Götaland. Anders is also the coordinator for the maritime cluster of the region, one of the areas of strength in Western Sweden. Anders is also on the board of the Swedish Research programme BioInnovation.