Trainers and Speakers
We've brought together top experts and champions in European Research and Innovation Programmes each one with specific expertise in one or more different areas in HORIZON Europe themes so that to reveal tips, techniques and tools for the full proposal development cycle in HORIZON Europe covering in a comprehensive way all the different topics around but also within HORIZON Europe.
We consider our summit experts as top in their area, not only because of their outstanding expertise in their domain but also because they have agreed to expose themselves to you and to the HORIZON Europe community and share their knowledge to you. It is rare to find experts with deep knowledge in research and innovation that are well-known and they are willing to provide tips and best practices in that depth. These are the professionals that we should consider as "Experts with Value" and we should all express our gratitude to them.
We consider our summit experts as top in their area, not only because of their outstanding expertise in their domain but also because they have agreed to expose themselves to you and to the HORIZON Europe community and share their knowledge to you. It is rare to find experts with deep knowledge in research and innovation that are well-known and they are willing to provide tips and best practices in that depth. These are the professionals that we should consider as "Experts with Value" and we should all express our gratitude to them.
Nikolaos Floratos
1st HORIZON Europe Virtual Summit Host
1st HORIZON Europe Virtual Summit Host
Who are the summit experts?
Ioannis Amarantidis MSc - Horizon Grants Expert, Project Leader and Administrator at Project Centre of R&D Department at Region Jämtland Härjedalen, Sweden. Experienced in working simultaneously at strategic and operational level without being disoriented. He is part of a rather small but very competent team where team effort, strong collaboration and mutual responsibility are key factors of the success. Indeed, he has coordination and leadership roles through large-scale international collaborative projects but also provides technical assistance and administration support through all phases of project development and implementation work. Ioannis has solid experience in Horizon collaborative project funding instruments (IA, RIA, CSA, PCP). He participates in 6 major Horizon 2020 projects as well as in national, regional and territorial – cross border initiatives. In addition, he has experience in developing, implementing and evaluating policies and strategies (e.g. Smart Specialisation Strategy, Common Agricultural Policy).
Project Centre track record since 2016: 70% Horizon projects granted success rate, secure more than 7 mil. € funding, collaborate with more than 200 active networks – partners. Linkedin profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amarantidisioannis/ |
Xavier Aubry, Managing Partner, Zaz Ventures. Xavier holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. He has been involved in EC-funded research and innovation projects for over 15 years. He is the founder of Zaz Ventures, an innovation consultancy focusing on deeptech addressing key societal challenges. Under his tenure, Zaz Ventures has helped over 200 deep tech innovators to raise over €450M of funding to bring their technologies to market. Xavier has personally been involved in supporting 60 EIC Accelerator interviews since 2018, resulting in 31 companies awarded EIC Accelerator funding. His latest project, the Da Vinci Labs, is a visionary project to promote the cross-disciplinary development of deeptech innovation tackling the world's most pressing societal challenges. Xavier also sits on the board of the EAIC (European Association of Innovation Consultants) where he oversees membership, code of conduct and advocacy activities related to the EIC Accelerator programme.
LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xavieraubry/ |
Stewe Bekk MSc is a grant advisor with 13 years of experience in handling and soliciting research projects at three top research institutes in Barcelona; IDIBAPS, ICN2 and ICFO. For eight years he was the coordinator of the Pre-award unit at The Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), one of the most successful Spanish research institutes in the H2020 Framework Programme. In this role he oversaw the review of more than 1,000 scientific proposals targeting a range of local, national, European, and other international competitive research funding calls. Stewe specifically helped prepare and review over 60 ERC proposals during his time at ICFO - of which 50% were granted - one of the highest success rates in Europe for an institute of similar size. Thanks to his experience and track-record, Stewe has a comprehensive overview of the ERC programmes ́ aim, focus, function and evaluation criteria. He now runs his own consultancy bekkresearchsupport.com, which focuses on in-depth grant preparation services primarily for the ERC calls and to the physical sciences and engineering communities.
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Malte Beringer PhD is a grant advisor, scientific editor and founder of sciencepoint.eu, a consultancy providing tailored grant preparation services to the biomedical community. Malte holds a PhD in Biochemistry and has more than 15 years of professional experience in the molecular life sciences. During his successful career as a researcher in top-class laboratories at the University of Witten/Herdecke (Germany), The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia (USA) and at the CRG, Barcelona (Spain), he gained extensive hands-on experience in scientific writing and grant writing. As a grant consultant, he applies this expertise to support individual scientists and institutions prepare competitive grant proposals. Since 2018, he has been focusing on the most prestigious of all European funding schemes, the European Research Council (ERC), while also supporting collaborative proposals within the H2020/HEurope and national funding programmes. Among his clients are world renowned scientists working at Max-Planck Institute (Germany), CNIO (Spain), HiTS (Germany), IMDEA Nanociencia (Spain), The Arctic University/EMBL Nordic Partnership (Norway) among others, and he has consulted clients from Belgium, Germany, Norway, Spain, UK and the US.
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Michael Browne is a founder and Director of Crowdhelix. Michael is also the former Head of European Research and Innovation at University College London. Michael has overseen the award and delivery of more than €1 Billion euros of EU funded grants and has more than 15 years experience in managing and exploiting large-scale international collaborative projects. Michael has extensive experience in shaping and influencing policy at regional, national and EU levels.
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Mathieu Carenzo is co-founder of Exploit Driver. He is a seasoned entrepreneur, early-stage business angel and entrepreneurship lecturer in three languages and four continents. He is a Business Angel investing in early stage high growth potential new ventures (holding 2 board seats) and leads the growth of the Global Entrepreneurship Week in Spain. Mr. Carenzo teaches in the MBA, EMBA, and other executive education programs of IESE Business School including the Advanced Management Program in 3 different languages (English, Spanish and French) and 4 continents. He serves as Member of Advisory Board of MBA & Company Consultancy Ltd. He took the helm of the IESE Business School Center for Entrepreneurship where he coordinated teaching, research and outreach activities related to Entrepreneurship and innovation. He holds MBA.
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Cais Jurgens is the Network Development Manager at Crowdhelix, focused on building the network's membership base of excellent academic and industrial partners that can help deliver pioneering research projects. Cais works with these organisations to achieve success in the European Research Area through Crowdhelix. Cais is also part of the Helix Impact and Proposal Development team, focused on developing and implementing a tailored impact acceleration model for EU projects.
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Grigoris Chatzikostas is an expert in financing innovation in agtech and foodtech. He is managing multi-national and cross-sectoral consortia, developing proposals for EU funding and coordinating large-scale projects that promote tech-enabled entrepreneurship in the agrifood sector. In the past 18 years he has managed projects exceeding the total value of 120 mEUR. He has delivered programs supporting more than 150 startups and SMEs with pre-seed funding and business support services. As an engaging public speaker and trainer, he makes complex subjects related to EU funding and technologies accessible and easy to understand. He also offers mentoring and strategic consulting to a small number of carefully selected companies that are aligned with his interests.
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Juan Espeche is the head of the Innovation Area of R2M Solution Spain. Juan holds an MBA essential from the London School of Economics, a II MSc degree in Renewable Energy coordinated by the Association of European Renewable Energy Research Centers (EUREC) and a MSc degree in Electronics and Telecommunications from Polytechnic of Turin. Juan worked for 2 years as project manager in the Telecom Italia Laboratories. In the past 7 years he has been project coordinator of DRIvE project (H2020) and LIGHTNESS (H2020) and project manager of Mas2tering(FP7), DR-BOB, EEnvest, REACT, PVsites(H2020) for R2M Solution. He has experience in the creation of start-ups (Shareholder of the R2M Energy ESCO) and the creation of new business lines for the company based on the products and services developed in the R&D projects (Leading Onyx Solar distribution in Italy to a 15M€ pipeline and 1M€ sales in 2 years). In the past 3 years, He delivered several H2020 trainings for the Turkish NCP, TUBITAK, bringing 5 new turkish companies to H2020 projects.
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Nadège Grabowski, Pathfinder Team Leader, Zaz Ventures. Nadège's ambition is to support entrepreneurs to bring their breakthrough ideas to the market! Nadège obtained a PhD in Pharmaceutical technology from the Institut Galien Paris Sud (France), studying the impact of nanoparticles on the lungs. Nadège moved to Belgium to start her career in cell therapy, one of the leading countries in the field! She investigated the role of stem cells in bone and cardiac regeneration in leading-edge companies such as Bone Therapeutics and Celyad. Nadège also worked to automate the manufacturing process of CAR-T cell therapies with the ultimate goal to transform a lab' product into a commercial reality. Working at Zaz Ventures since 2018, Nadège helps health researchers and deep-tech companies to build their projects to get European funding. With the launch of the EIC Pathfinder and Transition Instruments, Zaz Ventures intends to establish a leading position to support top researchers to bring disruptive innovations to the market. Starting with the launch of the Pathfinder Helix, developed in partnership with Crowdhelix, Nadège will lead the set up of multidisciplinary consortia, proposal development and writing.
LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nad%C3%A8ge-grabowski/ |
As Grants Support for Marine & Climate Research at DTU Aqua (www.aqua.dtu.dk) , Ivo Grigorov advocates for applying Ocean Literacy and Open Science principles for both individual career benefit as well as institutional visibility and impact. Ivo has broad experience in training Horizon 2020 NCP, librarians, and early career researchers in research impact benefits of Open Science, and will present grant proposal evaluation evidence how structured disclosure can win grants.
LinkedIN: https://dk.linkedin.com/in/ivogrigorov Twitter: @OAforClimate |
Jorge Gonzalez: I manage an association promoting digital health across Europe, headquartered in sunny Murcia (Spain). Overtime, we have mastered the art of obtaining funds to do good with perverse instruments (research and innovation public grants).
Within Ticbiomed I found a job for all my life: to transform the Health&Care sector in Spain/Europe, with the support of digital technologies. My challenge now is to get paid for it till I retire :-). |
Henrik Gudbergsen: Healthcare professional experienced in creating and managing organisational, R&D and business strategies within the areas of medical science, device technology, eHealth, digital transformation, and value-based healthcare.
Leader who excels at strategic thinking, thrives in cross functional organisations, and has an ability to bridge clinical, technical and business environments. Previously held positions as a Coordinator for a Horizon 2020 project and work package leader for a Eurostars project. Currently works for EU as a Coach and for Eurostars as an expert/assessor |
Denis Guilhot is co-founder of Exploit Driver. He has more than 10 years' experience in most aspects of EU project management in different fields such as lasers, energy, ICT, materials, sensors, IOT and cybersecurity, including exploitation tasks and work package leadership. He also acts as expert evaluator for proposals in open calls and for the European Commission. With a technical background, Denis also worked as technology transfer program manager in a research centre. His training includes lean launchpad entrepreneurship, technological asset management, and Intellectual Property. He holds a PhD in Optoelectronics.
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Lucie Guilloteau is Head of research projects at Euronovia, a consulting firm supporting organizations to develop successful public grant applications. Lucie has been involved in over 60 projects or grant applications and is a regular trainer on Horizon Europe. Lucie holds a Masters degree in European affairs from University Sorbonne Nouvelle, she has worked previously on EU projects at the Pasteur Institute, the University of Paris and Campus France. Euronovia supports 50 projects each year, with a main focus on research and training. On Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions, Euronovia claims a 40% success rate in Horizon 2020, working for clients all over Europe. Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucie-guilloteau-eufunds/ |
Katia Insogna, CEO of iKonsulting. Over 18 years’ experience in providing dedicated training, coaching and supporting services for proposal development and project management for the main European R&I funding programmes to diverse stakeholders, being researchers and/or businesses and academic organisations based in Europe and beyond, with a focus on Marie S. Curie Actions and European Research Council programmes. For both programmes formally nominated in the years 2007-2015 by the EC as National Contact Point (NCP) and project Coordinator (among others) of the Network of Marie Curie NCPs (PeopleNetwork+) and of the FP6 ERA-MORE initiative in Italy, now called EURAXESS. A mobile professional who worked in Brussels in the years 2006-2009 as National research liaison officer for CRUI-The conference of Italian Rectors and APRE-the Agency for the Promotion of EU Research, and in the years 2016-2018 in Cambridge (UK) as Head of InnoTec H2020 Training and Consultancy Services. From January 2019 based in Rome and owner of the individual consultancy company iKonsulting, providing supporting services for Horizon Europe first pillar programmes (MSCA and ERC grants, Research Infrastructures) and collaborative projects (RIA, IA and CSA funding schemes). EC /REA evaluator from 2016 for MSCA-COFUND and former Individual Fellowships grants and CSA projects.
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Pinar Kolancali is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Oxford. Her doctoral research focused on the language and identity development of children growing up in immigrant families in the UK. She is interested in the effects of home environment and family resources on the development of minority children. Over the past years, Pinar contributed to European Union’s Horizon 2020 project ISOTIS: Inclusive Education and Social Support to Tackle Inequalities in Societies. She coordinated a survey research with the Turkish families in the UK and led a study on the cultural and linguistic identities of minority children. She recently took up a research position at the University of Oxford to assess the role of learning technologies in the home environments of disadvantaged children in the UK.
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Nicos Kourounakis. Nicos is a professional Project Management Consultant and Trainer. He is also the Co-Author of the PM² Methodology (2012, 2016, 2018) and Agile PM² Guidelines (2014), the PfM² Methodology (2019), the PgM² Methodology (2021), the ITSRM Guidelines of the European Commission, and a founding member of the PM² Alliance. Over the past 10 years, he has been leading consulting projects with major EU Institutions such as the European Commission, the European Council, the European Central Bank, the European Investment Bank, and other EU Agencies. Nicos has also been involved in many international projects in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and all across Europe, working both with large organizations and with smaller ventures and start-ups. He holds an MBA from McGill University, Montreal, Canada, a MASc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Victoria, Canada, and a BSc in Physics from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
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Edward Melhuish is Professor of Human Development at the University of Oxford. He was the Executive Director of the National Evaluation of Sure Start from 2001-2012. He has also been involved in the Effective Pre-school Primary & secondary Education (EPPSE) and Effective Pre-school Provision in Northern Ireland (EPPNI) projects. He was also a director of the EU-funded CARE and ISOTIS projects. He is currently undertaking The Study of early education and development (SEED), a longitudinal study of 4000 children. These studies contributed to the formulation of social policy in the UK in the area of families with young children, early years services and education, such as the universal provision of a pre-school place for all 3 & 4 year-olds and the establishment of 3500 Children’s Centres, the government’s Every Child Matters and 10-Year Childcare strategies, and provision of early education for 2-year-olds for the 40% most disadvantaged. He has undertaken research in 12 countries. His research in the 1980s influenced the 1989 Children Act, and later research has influenced the 2005 Children Act, 2006 Childcare Bill and policy on childcare, early education, child poverty and parental support in the UK and other countries. He has conducted research for the Medical Research Council, Economics and Social Research Council, Save the Children Fund, DCSF, DoH, EU, and several other government and voluntary sector agencies. Professor Melhuish has acted as a consultant for design for children, children's organizations (e.g., UNESCO), government departments (e.g. DfE, DWP, DoH, Treasury, Prime Minister’s Office), and film, television and radio companies. He has served as an expert witness to several House of Commons Select Committees and is a scientific advisor to the Nordic Research Council, Academy of Finland, Portuguese Research Council, German Research Council, the Australian Research Council, South Korea, Canada, Saudi Arabia and Chile, as well as the European Commission, OECD and WHO. He is Chair of the Board of the Foundation Years Trust, and advises many charities.
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Elena Merlo has a research background and currently works as a senior project manager at the Center for Development and Innovation of the University Medical Center Groningen. In her position, she initiates and manages public-private partnerships with a broad network of stakeholders at global level, including small to large enterprises and public institutions. She is highly motivated to bridge the academic world with the non-academic sector working along with researchers towards knowledge transfer to maximize societal impact.
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Angie Mifsud. Angie has developed a passion for Energy Psychology in 2014, where she used these techniques for her own healing. Thanks to these techniques, she moved away from an abusive marriage and 10 years of infertility to an abundant life filled with meaningful and loving relationships, getting pregnant and becoming the mother of a beautiful baby boy. Energy Psychology comprises an array of techniques designed to bridge Western Psychology with Eastern Energy Psychology, with the main component being the world renown Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT). She is a certified Energy Psychology practitioner, trained by Dawson Church PhD, renowned author and researcher in the field. She is also certified in PSYCH-K®️, a technique developed to rapidly change your belief system, being trained by Health and Wellbeing Director Ducio Locati. She is a certified Meditation Teacher with the New Humanity School. She specialises in helping people overcome unwanted relationship patterns, experience growth and fulfilment in all areas of life. She runs a weekly live video series on this topic.
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Thanos Karvounis is a proposal developer with more than 15 years of experience in the research areas of agriculture and ICT. After graduating from the Agricultural University of Athens (Department of Animal & Science), he has collaborated with important industrial and academic organisations in Cyprus, Greece and several EU countries, including NCSR Demokritos, CERTH, NTUA, University of Nicosia, Agricultural University of Athens, EYDAP, CETRI etc. He is an expert in Impact section writing with lots of his impacts being graded with 4,5 or 5/5, while in parallel he works as an innovation manager with significant experience in managing dissemination, exploitation & communication activities in EU funded projects. Finally, he provides seminars on proposal development, funding R&D opportunities and innovation management, he is a social media specialist, and he produces and directs promotional videos for the needs of research projects and the promotion of research centers and private organizations.
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Àngels Orduña is a seasoned EU and international collaboration leader with proven track record championing success in technology and business development through multi-partner, multi-country and multidisciplinary collaboration. With an academic background in International Relations, she has managed and led a number of RDI projects in the EU and Canada in technology areas related to value chain productions and enabling technologies such as ICT, energy, renewables, environment, advanced materials or manufacturing. She has shown great ability to translate technological concepts to market opportunities and to link partners’ commitment through a win-win perspective. She now runs the SPIRE Association (A.SPIRE), representing the private side in the finalised SPIRE Public Private Partnership and leading the new Processes 4 Planet Partnership for Horizon Europe.
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Louis Papaemmanuel. Louis has been working in EC innovation funding for over 10 years. He is the founder and managing director of My EU Consulting, a Brussels based consultancy specialized in competing for the most competitive EU innovation and acceleration schemes offering both dilutive and non-dilutive funding. My EU Consulting works predominantly with early-stage deep tech ventures (Seed, Series A, B, C) with applications in life sciences, computing, food and agri tech, aerospace, energy and clean-tech, industrial technologies, telecom, new materials, chemistry.
LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/papaemmanuel/ |
Marie Prouteau has gained more than 11 years of experience in the funding of research and innovation projects through EU funds. After graduating from a Master in European Affairs at the University of Aix-Marseille, she started her career at CNRS, the French National Research Center, as a manager and proposal developer of FP7 projects in the field of research infrastructures and renewable energies. In 2015, she then became a consultant in innovation funding in a French consulting company. After 6 years of developing and reviewing multisectoral and multidisciplinary EU-funded projects, from the ITN or ERC calls to the collaborative actions of the H2020 Pillar 2 or 3, she has recently become a senior consultant at 2IA Consulting, in the starting blocks to help you get funds with the new Horizon Europe programme! Meanwhile, since 2014, she is also acting as an expert evaluator for the European Commission on MSCA and ERASMUS+ calls. Her career enabled her to acquire a complete expertise, from the setting up to the management of European projects, including the evaluation of project proposals and training on European funds. She is also an expert in dissemination and communication for EU projects.
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Isabelle Razis, In my 20ies, the need was a solid education and career. After receiving two law degrees in Paris, I worked for 12 years as a corporate lawyer in demanding international organizations. Later on, I moved to Russia with my husband and lived the life of the ex-pat outside my comfort zone. This is when my entrepreneurial spirit struck and I successfully created my real estate consulting firm developing a specific niche marketing opportunity promoting Greece as an investment destination. My personal life was that of a working ex-pat's wife with 3 children. Everyday life was a constant struggle and I eventually lost track of who I was and what I was after. Although I thought I was healthy and had a “happy life”, there were days that I would feel drained, with zero energy … not knowing what for! I literally burned Isabelle out slowly and to the ground. This is when I turned myself inward, felt the genuine need to concentrate more on my personal development and wellness. In the beginning, it was all about healing myself, and recovering energy. Then, after receiving specific education and training at the most renowned school of nutrition and health coach in the US, my knowledge in the field was enhanced. I am a Health and Life Coach. I have created my method Balance Connect Act though which I find myself in the position of sharing what has now become a real passion, in good hope of touching upon other people’s lives and health, hence a ripple effect on them too.
www.isabellerazis.com, [email protected] |
Anja Smykowski has a research background in genetics and worked as a publisher at Springer Nature in biomedical sciences. In her current position as coordinator of grant and impact support, she advices the institutes funding strategy and impact support infrastructure. She is highly motivated to create awareness on impactful scientific storytelling for project design and communication to the right stakeholders and audiences.
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Zoltán Székely (retired major, doctor of law and political sciences, co-founder of Székely Family and Co.): Zoltan’s family migrated to Hungary in the 90’s, he started his new life as a teenager working at scrapyards to support his family. After high school he joined the border guard detachment of the army as patrol officer, later he applied to become professional commissioned officer of the Hungarian Border Guard with success. When the Border Guard was integrated into the Hungarian National Police, he continued his service as police commissioner participating in first Frontex Joint
Operations and other international deployments until 2013. In 2013 he got seconded to lecture at the Law Enforcement Faculty of the National University of Public Service. On of his responsibilities was scouting and fundraising for security projects, in this role he participated in raising more than 20m EUR funds for various consortia including Hungarian National Police as end-user. In 2015 he started to work with the European Space Agency’s Technology Transfer Initiative to support security application of space solutions. From 2019 he was in reserve and only working for ESA Business Incubator and National Technology Transfer Initiative in Hungary. When ESA office ceased operation in 2020, he launched his own company for space, security and sustainability innovations. |
Silver Toomla, Managing Partner, Invent Baltics. I am the founder and Managing Partner of Invent Baltics, a consultancy firm specializing in assisting technology companies and R&D organizations to apply for EU grants. We are leading experts in EIC Accelerator helping disruptive startups raise funds. I have been involved in EU funded innovation projects for more than 15 years, since the 6th Framework Programme, and helped to raise more than 300 million Euros for deep tech companies and research centers. I have been involved in 38 successful SME instrument phase 2 grant applications.
My company also has written 6 successful ERA chairs. |
Dr Yazdan Yazdanpanah was appointed in 2021 Director of the French ANRS emerging infectious diseases Agency that fund and coordinates research on HIV, Hepatitis, STIs, Tuberculosis and emerging and re-emerging infections. He is also since 2017 the Director of the Institute I3M (Immunology, Inflammation, Infectiology, and Microbiology) which gathers the main stakeholders of this thematic in France in the frame of Aviesan, the French National Alliance for Life Sciences and Health. Yazdan Yazdanpanah is currently the head of an Inserm team on decision analysis in Infectious Diseases. He is heading the Infectious Disease department at Bichat Claude Bernard Hospital, and is Professor of Medicine at Paris Diderot University, France. He is a member of the Scientific Council for COVID-19 of President Emmanuel Macron. In May 2019, he was appointed The Chair of « The European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership » (EDCTP) board. He is the Vice-Chair of the « Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness (GloPID-R) board. Yazdan Yazdanpanah became MD from the Lille School of Medicine, France in 1996. He qualified from the same institution first as a hepato-gastro-enterologist in 1996 and next an infectious disease specialist in 2002.
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