Ulrich Genschel is the head of sector for simplification in Horizon Europe since 2021.

Ulrich graduated in biochemistry from the University of Edinburgh and received a PhD from the University of Cambridge in 1997. He pursued an independent research career in Japan and Germany, leading to a second doctoral degree in plant biochemistry from TU München (Habilitation and appointment as Privatdozent).

He joined the European Commission in 2009, where he initially held positions as scientific officer in the Directorate-General for Research & Innovation and the European Research Council. In 2014, he joined the newly created Common Implementation Centre to develop processes, guidance, and trainings for Horizon 2020. Since 2021 he is the head of sector for simplification in Horizon Europe.

Staska Mrak Jamnik is the Head of the University Office for Research and LEAR at UL since 2006. She has a BSc. in Computer Science and MSc. in International Economic Relations.

Staska has 25 years' experience in the areas of international research cooperation and development, research policy and management of European projects. Before joining UL, she spent two years as Director of the Information Centre of the Delegation of the European Commission in Slovenia where she was involved in an information and awareness raising campaign of the European Commission in Slovenia.

As the Head of the University Office for Research at UL, Staska mainly works on organisation, coordination and consulting activities in the field of research support and especially on financial planning and management of EU grants.

Between 2013 and 2019, she coordinated the development, implementation and evaluation of the UL's Strategy for Researchers' Career Development. Between 2013 and 2019, she was also a member of the COST BESTPRAC targeted network Management Committee and Working Group 2 on financial issues. She served as a member of expert group SYGMA to European Commission and as sa member of the EUA expert group on EU funding and simplification issues. She is an active member of several expert working groups dealing with EU programmes, such as The GUILD Research & Innovation Policy Group, The GUILD Widening Group. As a member of the EU research liaison officers groups of the university networks UNICA, The GUILD and Utrecht network, she actively contributes to the exchange of experiences and policy development in the field of European and international research projects.

Sara Van der Gucht is project coordinator and financial advisor for European funding programmes at Ghent University. She is also coordinating the administrative and financial research projects funded via the EIT programme, which is part of Horizon Europe. Sara has been analysing the new requirements of the Horizon Europe framework programme to implement the required changes, to adapt the existing systems, procedures and processes at Ghent University.

Among other things, Sara is sharing her expertise as an active member of the audit committee of EIT Health BeNe hub. As a strong believer in knowledge sharing, she is also active in the EARMA BESTPRAC community and other network organisations.

Alexandre Marques has been working for about 17 years with EU R&D Framework Programmes and is now the Horizon Europe National Delegate to European Innovation Council (EIT), Member State Representative to the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) and National Contact Point to Legal and Financial Issues, EIC and EIT. 

During Horizon 2020 he was National Delegate to SMEs and Risk Finance and National Contact Point (NCP) Horizon 2020 to SMEs, Risk Finance, Legal and Financial Aspects and EIT. During FP7 Alexandre Marques was National Representative for Risk Sharing Finance Facility (RSFF), National Delegate for the Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities, FP7 NCP for Legal and Financial Aspects, SMEs, Socio-economic Sciences and Science in Society, and was also responsible for the Financial Implementation of 26 FP6 and FP7 projects both as financial officer and technical manager. 

Speaker at various conferences, seminars, workshops and conferences devoted to the themes of innovation management, project management, European funding and legal and financial aspects. Coordinator and contributor to various national and international publications in the areas of innovation management, European affairs and project management. He has a degree in International Trade with specialization in International Economics and a Master in Economics and Management Science, Technology and Innovation at the School of Economics and Management - Technical University of Lisbon.
 

Sheila Vidal heads the Research Funding Affairs Unit at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência.

Sheila has dedicated the last 18 years of her career to Research Management, having a long-standing experience in the conception & implementation of pre-award grant management strategies at both the individual and institutional levels. She also has global experience in research funding policies and supporting Life Science researchers to assemble successful proposals for prestigious national and international research grant programmes. In addition, she creates and organizes a grant application training programme for in-house researchers and has coordinated/lectured advanced training modules on grant development at several Master and Ph.D. programmes.

Sheila was a founding member of the Portuguese network Plataforma de Interface à Ciência. Currently, she is an active member of the EU-LIFE Grants and Funding Working Group, and the European Association of Research Manager and Administrators (EARMA). She has also acted on certain occasions as an advisor for the Portuguese Research Council (FCT) on grant management programs and the Ministry of Science on career development & training for research managers.

Sheila holds a Biology Degree from the University of Porto, an M.Sc. in Plant Physiology and Biochemistry from the University of Lisbon, and a Ph.D. in Innate Immunity from the University Paris XI (France).

Mariana Simões is managing the H2020 Twinning SymbNET project since January 2021. Her main responsabilities are to coordinate the collaborative initiatives of the consortium and the interaction among all the partners, ensuring the project achieves its goals and impact.

Mariana is a Biologist and holds a PhD in Biomedicine from the University of Lisbon, Portugal. Her PhD studies at the Instituto de Medicina Molecular (IMM) in Lisbon, Portugal, and Postdoc at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin, Germany, focused on the regeneration of vertebrate tissues.

Mariana has also worked as data manager at the ResearchGate in Berlin, and implemented and managed the Native Science project in Germany. 

After several years working as a researcher and with interest in research management and outreach, she embraced a career in Science Management in 2021.

Luís Valente is responsible for the implementation of the scientific, communication and financial strategies of the Gulbenkian Collaborative Centre and for establishing new national and international partnerships at the FCG-IGC.

Before joining the institute in 2019 as the Executive Director of the Gulbenkian Collaborative Centre, he developed and managed institutional collaborations as Head of Global Activities at EMBO and acted as the Deputy-Head of the EMBO Courses and Workshops Programme, in Heidelberg. Previously, he served as the Executive Coordinator for the Scientific Council of Health and Life Sciences at FCT, in Lisbon.

Luís graduated in Biology at the University of Porto in 2002 and he holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Coimbra for his work in chromosome biology at the Cancer Research UK, in London. After the PhD he was a postdoctoral fellow at IGC where he studied epigenetic mechanisms during cell division.

Beatriz Fernández is the EU Grants Officer at the RFA unit, of the nstituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC) in Oeiras, Portugal, since 2019.

Her main responsibility is to actively assist the IGC Community in securing competitive EU funds for research and for other activities related to the current institute’s strategic goals, following IGC internal policies and conditions of EU funding bodies.

Beatriz graduated in Biology at the University Complutense, Madrid, Spain (2002). She holds a PhD in Development by Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal (2007), having completed her doctoral research programme at Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência and at Instituto de Medicina Molecular da Faculdade de Medicina de Lisboa.

After more than 10 years in Basic Life Science Research she switched into a career in Research Management in 2014 when she joined ISPA-Instituto Universitário, as a Pre-Award Grant Manager. She became the Head of the Research Management Unit in 2015 where she coordinated a group of people in the Pre/Post- Award/Accounting administration. She also acted as the chief communication channel between the four Research Centers and the Rector of the University, and the University Board. Moreover, she was responsible for re-launching “Prémio ISPA” in 2016; she coordinated the scientific organization of the research internal conferences and she was in charge of the institutional hiring process for PhD holders under Law 57/2017 at ISPA.

Ana Sofia Alves was recruited in September 2021 to work as a Pre-Award Grants Advisor at the RFA Unit of the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC) in Oeiras, Portugal, after 3 years of experience in Research Management as a Project manager at Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa.

Her goal at the RFA unit is to assist the IGC community in securing competitive funds for individual research projects and other scientific activities related to the current institute’s strategic goals, following the internal policies and conditions of the different funding bodies. Ana Sofia is responsible for searching & disseminating funding opportunities tailored to the institute`s needs, checking the regulations for applications, addressing researchers` application doubts, and notifying researchers of funding opportunities they can apply for. In addition, she has been providing professional guidance and support to postdoctoral grant proposals to competitive calls from relevant national and international funders and is currently training in the management of grant negotiations of contracts with funders.

Ana Sofia holds a Ph.D. in Biosciences from Universidade de Coimbra and has five years of experience in Marine Ecology research as a post-doc at the University of Lisbon, Évora, and ISA.

Linda Piálek is the Head of the EU Office at Kiel University, Germany, and the spokesperson for the National Working Group of EU Funding Advisors at German Universities.

Linda represents Germany in the Group of European Practitioners for Horizon Simplification. Until 2013 she was the Head of the European Team at Oxford University (UK) and member of the EU Research Projects Managers group of League of European Research Universities (LERU).

Linda studied Politics and International Relations with French and Spanish at St Andrews University (UK), Sciences-Po Paris (FR) and Oxford University (UK).

Virginia Garcia is the Head of Grants Services at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany since 2018.

As an international organization at the forefront of Life Sciences covering the spectrum of molecular biology in 6 sites across 5 European countries, EMBL obtains funding from a wide variety of external funders. EU funds are EMBL’s main source of external funding.

After more than 6 years of providing support to EMBL research and services groups, including researchers at all career stages, she became the Head of the Grants Services department. She and her team provide pre and post-award support in applying for, obtaining, and managing external grants and fellowships.

Virginia holds a Master of International Business Administration and has been working with externally funded projects for the past 15 years. She has also worked as project manager of EU-funded coordinated projects and was responsible for strategic partnerships at a UN agency.