Advisory Board
The ERA-LEARN consortium is supported by an Advisory Board. It consists of 10 experts from 8 countries. Every 6 months, the Board comes together to discuss past and newly planned ERA-LEARN activities and support the project by giving valuable advice and new ideas.
Maarja Adojaan (Estonia)
With background in molecular biology, Dr Adojaan has been active in research policy and strategic planning since 2011. She has worked on various positions in Ministry of Education and Research and twice as national expert in the European Commission - in the ERC EA and DG RTD. Currently she is working as the Head of International Research Cooperation Department in Estonian Research Council and is responsible for designing and implementing various internationalization related activities and support measures. She is National Coordinator of Estonia’s H2020 NCPs, member of the EOSC Sustainability WG.
Alexander Grablowitz (Germany)
Alexander Grablowitz is the Head of Unit for EU Research and Innovation policy in the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in Germany. He is responsible for matters concerning the European Research Area and Horizon Europe and rapporteur of the ERAC ad hoc group on the future of ERA. Alexander is the main correspondent for all partnership related negotiations (SBA, Horizon Europe, EIT, Metrology). He is the German delegate for the Strategic Programme Committee and the co-chair of the Partnership Knowledge Hub.
Ken Guy (United Kingdom)
Ken Guy is currently the Director of Wise Guys, a company specialising in innovation policy research and analysis and the provision of policy advice. He has over 40-years’ experience in the field, including positions at OECD, where he was Head of the Science and Technology Policy (STP) Division from 2012-15, and the European Commission, where he was a member of the Innovation Union Task Force responsible for producing the Innovation Union Communication in October 2010.
Jennifer Cassingena Harper (Malta)
Dr Harper’s area of expertise is Research and Innovation Policy in transition economies and foresight. She has coordinated EU Framework Programme projects and studies in this area and has participated in EU tenders. She has been active at European and international level serving on a number of EU DG Research High Level Expert Groups, including the EU DG Research Expert Group on Strategic Foresight in Research and Innovation (2016-7), DG Regio Cities Foresight (2010), the Lisbon 3% Objective (2009), RD4SD (2009), ERA Rationales Group (2007), EU SCAR Foresight HLG (2006), the EU HLG on Key Technologies (2005). She has been a member of the JRC FTA Committee and recently completed a JRC study on scenarios to address SDGs. She currently acts as expert, evaluator, reviewer and observer on H2020 programme, covering joint programming, security and EIC.
Maurice Heral (France)
Maurice Héral is in charge of international and European affairs in ANR (French National Research Agency) in charge of Environment, Ecology and Biological Resources since 2011 for internationals calls on biodiversity, agriculture, forestry, aquaculture and fisheries and impact of global changes. Water management, Eco-technology, and food processing are developed in partnership with private industry. He wrote more than 270 publications in scientific journals and public reports (4926 citations, and h index of 36) and supervised the realisation of 15 PhD thesis. As scientists he coordinated 5 EU contracts on carrying capacity and coastal zone management. At the European level he is very active as coordinator or funder in the ERANETs on water, biodiversity, marine research, sustainable agriculture, climate change and involved in cooperation with the Mediterranean and African countries. He is Vice chair of JPI on Agriculture and Climate Change (FACCE), chair of the JPI WATER and member of the JPI Oceans.
Daria Julkowska (France)
Daria Julkowska is the Assistant Director of the Institute of Genetics, Genomics and Bioinformatics at INSERM. She coordinates the European Joint Programme Cofund on Rare Diseases (EJP RD) that brings together 130 institutions from 35 European, Associated countries and Canada. Previously, she was the scientific Coordinator at ANR responsible for the management of several EU and international funding programmes including the ERA-Net E-Rare. She developed and put into action a set of collaborations facilitating rare diseases research, including partnerships with EU Research Infrastructures and Patients’ Organizations. She has an extensive knowledge of the European funding schemes and programmes. Since February 2017 she serves as the chair of the Funders Constituent Committee of IRDiRC.
Jana Kolar (Slovenia)
Dr. Kolar is Executive Director of CERIC-ERIC. She is currently also a member of the ERA Council Forum Austria, advising the Austrian Minister responsible for Science and Research and a member of ESFRI. She has a broad range of expertise, ranging from policy development and implementation, research and innovation to entrepreneurship. Among others, she was Director General of Science in Technology at the Ministry in Slovenia, a member of the Governing Board of European Institute of Innovation and Technology and a member of the High-Level Group of Innovators for a European Innovation Council.
Ben Ruck (Netherlands)
With a background in business economics Ben Ruck has worked in various ICT related areas as a policy adviser in the Ministry of Economic Affairs for 36 years. Since 1997 he has been active in the field of micro- and nanoelectronics. As Dutch public official he is involved in the development, implementation and monitoring of European and intergovernmental industrial research programs. This concerns in particular the EUREKA nanoelectronics cluster project PENTA and the Joint Technology Initiative (JTI) ECSEL, focusing on electronic components and systems. Since 2014 Ben Ruck has held the position of Chairperson of the ECSEL Public Authorities’ Board, the group of more than 25 participating countries and the European Commission who jointly decide on the funding of ECSEL projects.
Katarzyna Walczyk-Matuszyk (Poland)
Katarzyna Walczyk-Matuszyk – Deputy Director in the National Contact Point for Research Programmes of the EU. She holds a post of the Coordinator of the NCP_WIDE.NET project (Horizon 2020). Katarzyna is a member of the Strategic Committee and Committee for SMEs at the European Commission. She supports research institutions and innovative companies in obtaining funds under Horizon 2020 and complementary funding. Her fields of specialization are innovation, cooperation industry-academia, synergies and international cooperation. She has a long-lasting experience in management and implementation of European projects (7th FP, Horizon 2020, Structural Funds and Norway Funds). One of the co-author of Polish Teaming 2 successful projects. Member of several committees on structural funds and complementary funding. Since 2015 President of the Association of the Top 500 Innovators, alumnus of the Top 500 Innovators Programme at Stanford Univeristy, Palo Alto, California.
Petra Žagar (Slovenia)
Petra Žagar is acting chair of the of the High-level group on Joint programming (ERAC-GPC). She is a policy officer at the Slovenian Ministry of Education, Science and Sport and as such responsible for Joint Programming. Petra is in charge for the strategic coordination process of European Partnership Initiatives and a member of the Governing Board of the Joint Programming Initiative JPI Climate. She co-drafted the national ERA Roadmap for Slovenia and is also monitoring its implementation. Currently, Petra is responsible for implementing the national decision-making process for European partnerships. She has extensive experience in EU research policy and with R&I and structural funds projects. Her work is strongly connected to the European Research Area. Before becoming the acting chair of the GPC, Petra has been involved in several working groups of the GPC.