Innovation Advisory Committee
As the primary goal of ENRIITC is to enhance RI-industry collaborations, the ENRIITC Innovation Advisory Committee (IAC) is made up of 6 successful representatives of industry, industry associations and innovation ecosystems. Given their various expertises, they will give input on the project strategy and its implementation and will be consulted for advise on various tasks.
Erik Fernández
Eric Fernández is the General Manager of INEUSTAR, the Spanish Science Industry Association. INEUSTAR is the Technical Secretary of the Spanish Science Industry Platform (INDUCIENCIA). He is a Telecommunications Engineer from the University of Navarra and holds a PhD in Telecommunications Engineering from the same university.
During his career, Erik has held various positions in research Institutes, as Project Manager, Head of Division and Corporate Development Manager with extensive experience in leading industry-academia relation and collaboration projects.
Nowadays, Erik combines his work in INEUSTAR and INDUCIENCIA with his position as associate professor at the School of Engineering of the University of Navarra.
Sy Holsinger
Sy Holsinger is the Strategy and Innovation Team Lead and Business Development Manager at the EGI Foundation working on sustainability planning, business model development, market analysis, project management and IT service management implementation.
He has ~15 years experience in EU-funded projects providing both management and support roles related to the development and implementation of e-Infrastructures for research and innovation as well leading commercial exploitation and industry engagement such as in the series of EGEE projects, EGI flagship projects, and currently in the EOSC-hub project where he coordinates the EOSC Digital Innovation Hub.
Sy is also serving as a member of the BDVA Board of Directors. In addition, he is a certified expert, trainer and auditor (ISO 19011) in both FitSM (Service Management) and ISO/IEC 27001 (Information Security) standards, and volunteers as Co-chair of ITEMO (IT Education Management Organization) to evolve the FitSM standard.
Sy studied Business Communications and Management in the U.S. with previous experiences including serving in the U.S. Air Force and Teaching.
Mounia Lalmas
Mounia Lalmas is Head of Technology Research for Personalisation at Spotify, where she leads the Tech Research team in developing core technologies and practices that result in enhanced user experiences. She has a deep understanding and expertise in leading interdisciplinary teams focused on user engagement in various areas.
Mounia holds a Masters and PhD in Computing Science from the University of Glasgow, and has years of experience as both a researcher and professor at various universities. She has managed and consulted on many projects that were aimed at understanding and promoting user engagement in areas such as music, advertising, digital media, social media, and search. Currently, Mounia is focused on researching, publishing, and speaking about user engagement and its measurement.
Laura MacDonald
Laura has headed up the HQ of ASTP (the largest trans-European members association for knowledge transfer professionals) since September 2016. Her role there of Chief Executive combines responsibility for setting up and running training events and conferences and together with the Board, enhancing support for those working at the academic/industrial interface.
Laura originally qualified as a Scots lawyer, specialising in EU and IP law. Her transition to the world of academic/industrial collaborations started in 1992 when she established the first in-house legal function in a UK university to support the industrial liaison office. Then followed a career across different UK universities (Dundee then Edinburgh).
She moved to The Netherlands in 2006 where she worked until 2016 (Leiden and LUMC) establishing the tech transfer office with responsibility for establishing collaborations, research consortia, managing IP portfolios, setting up spin-outs, training colleagues and delivering broad spectrum support for academic/industrial relationships.
She has been active in many professional organisations which bring together players in this ecosystem, from the Licensing Executives Society and AUTM to ASTP.
Giuseppe Magnifico
Giuseppe is First Technologist at the National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Italy’s premier public research organisation, in which capacity he is involved in the planning, development and management of CNR Large Scale Facilities and of research infrastructures (RIs), with a special focus on environmental RIs (ENVRIs).
Giuseppe has a keen interest in the topic of RI innovation and particularly in the development of new approaches to strengthening cooperation between research infrastructures and industry. Leveraging past experience as Technology Officer in the landmark ESFRI marine RI, EMSO ERIC, and the specialised knowledge gained in the Executive Master’s Program on RI Management of Milan Bicocca University, Giuseppe has developed particular interest and expertise in the evaluation of governance and sustainability policies aimed at spurring stronger linkages and cooperation between RIs and SMEs.
Giuseppe participates in numerous high profile European, national and international research partnering projects and outreach activities including the European Marine Board Working Group “Next Generation European Research Vessels”, the ERVO (European Research Vessel Operators) Group, the IRSO (International Research Ship Operators) Group, the EurOcean Foundation, the H2020 Eurofleets+ project and others.
Aldo Tagliabue
Aldo Tagliabue is an immunologist with strong experience in R&D for bio-pharmaceuticals and vaccines, both in the academic and private sectors. He spent time at international institutions such as the National Cancer Institute in USA as post-doc, the International Vaccine Institute in South Korea as founder and research director and the Institute Butantan in Brazil as senior scientist.
He has also been active in fund raising by creating the services provider company ALTA, particularly successful in the field of health sciences, which obtained several grants from the European Commission. He was the representative of Italy in the creation of the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), the largest Public-Private Partnership in the world.
In the vaccine field, he co-founded the Novartis Vaccine Institute for Global Health in Siena, Italy, and served as a member of the Programme/Policy Committee of the Global Alliance for Vaccine Immunization (GAVI). The most recent achievement obtained with his scientific management support is the creation, within the Toscana Life Science Foundation in Siena, of a research laboratory that is currently developing human monoclonal antibodies against SARS-CoV-19. Furthermore, he collaborated with CureVac in Tübingen to prepare a project proposal aimed to developing vaccines with an innovative mRNA technology. This project is now funded by the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) with a grant for € 34 M, which recently has been further increased to support activities for the identification and production of a vaccine for Covid-19.
