1st European Teaming Conference with the participation of Centers of Excellence (CoE)

Kyriacos Kokkinos is the former Deputy Minister to the President for Research, Innovation and Digital Policy. He previously served as the National Chief Scientist for R&I and Chairman of the Board of the R&I Foundation. He is a distinguished technologist and professional business leader in the high-tech sector, with more than thirty years of experience in Executive Management and Consulting roles in IBM Europe (Executive Director & Partner) and PwC. He also served at Board level of many Organizations. His Academic qualifications include Executive MBA in Strategic Management from Henley Management College (UK) and MSc & BSc in Electrical Engineering from NJIT (USA).

Stelios D. Himonas was born in Athens, Greece, on May 2, 1962. He received the BE, MS and PhD degrees from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, USA in 1985, 1986 and 1989, respectively, all in electrical engineering. From 1989 until 1997 he was an Associate Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering at the New York Institute of Technology, USA. Also, from 1994 until 1997, he was collaborating with the Multimedia Communications Research Group of Bellcore’s Applied Research Division in Morristown, New Jersey, USA. Dr. Himonas has published numerous research papers in refereed journals and conference proceedings in the fields of detection and multimedia communications. Also, during the period from 1989 until 1997 he served as a reviewer of research papers submitted for publication to Transactions of the IEEE and Proceedings of the IEE, as well as to various conferences in the field of communications. Currently he is the Permanent Secretary of the Deputy Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy. Prior to this position he was the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Energy, Commerce and Industry, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Justice and Public Order and the Director of the Department of Electronic Communications of the Republic of Cyprus. Also during the period from 2000 to 2003, he served on the Board of the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority. From 2006 until 2013, he held chairmanship and vice-chairmanship positions in European electronic communications committees. Since October 2012, he has been appointed by the Council of Ministers as the Digital Champion of Cyprus. Dr. Himonas is a member of the Sigma Xi and Eta Kappa Nu honor societies and the New York Academy of Sciences. He is listed in the Who is Who in the World, the Who is Who Among Human Services Professionals, the Who is Who in the East and the Who is Who in American Education.

Constantinos Yiorkadjis is the Mayor of Nicosia since January 2012. Over the last twelve years, the Mayor has been leading Nicosia’s regeneration initiative. His vision is enabling the city’s growth, leading the green transition, expanding the city’s digital transition and developing Nicosia into a friendlier, more sustainable and inclusive to all, aesthetically pleasing city for its inhabitants, visitors and for future generations. Prior to taking office and during his 17-year professional career Constantinos Yiorkadjis held various senior managerial positions in multinational corporations in Romania, Greece and Cyprus. He holds two bachelor’s degrees with distinction, one in Economics and one in Business Administration, both from Boston University.

Dr. Nikolas Mastroyiannopoulos has extensive experience and a doctorate in Molecular and Cellular Biology. He also has a degree in Biomedical Sciences. He has been working at the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics from 2006 and in 2012, he was appointed Lecturer and later Assistant Professor at the Cyprus School of Molecular Medicine (CSMM). On March 4th, 2020 Dr. Mastroyiannopoulos was appointed Chief Scientist of Research and Innovation by H.E. the President of the Republic of Cyprus and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Cyprus Research and Innovation Foundation. Dr. Mastroyiannopoulos was also appointed as a board member of the JRC Board of Governors, the National Board for Research and Innovation, member of the steering investment committee of the Cyprus Equity Fund in collaboration with the European Equity Fund (EIF) and Chairman of the Ministerial Committee for Research and Innovation.

Manuel Aleixo works in the European Commission, where he heads the unit responsible for Widening. He has previously worked in the European Parliament and in his country’s Foreign Ministry, as a diplomat. He is a Portuguese national.

Anthoula Charalambous Savvides is the Director of Recovery and Resilience, DG Growth at the Ministry of Finance. She has been working for the public sector for 32 years in policy making, strategic planning and coordinating the implementation of public investments. Anthoula served as Head for the implementation of EU’s Cohesion Policy in Cyprus, Head of Policy and European Affairs Directorate, Ministry of Interior and Head of Office of the Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment. Represented Cyprus in various EU Committees and Conferences such as the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions. She graduated in Accounting and became member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Holds master’s degree in Public Sector Management and an MBA.

Stefan Weiers is working with the European Commission's Directorate General for Research and Innovation as the Head of Sector 'Widening, ERA and Research Infrastructure Programming’ within the directorate ERA & Innovation. He has 25 years experience in European research co-operation including the SME programme, regional innovation, environmental and space research. He holds a doctorate degree in natural sciences from the University of Bonn.

Federica Roffi has been working in Research and Innovation related roles for over 20 years. In 2005 she was seconded from the Regional Technological Development Agency of Emilia-Romagna (Italy) to the European Commission, DG RTD, where she worked on policy issues related to Industrial Technologies and later on actions to the benefit of SMEs until 2009. She then moved to the REA (Research Executive Agency) where she continued to work intensively on the FP7 SME programme as Project Adviser, following the entire project cycle management (from the evaluation phase to final payments and de-commitments) and later won a competition to become Operational Head of Sector for one of the Marie Skłodowska Curie actions, namely European Individual Fellowships. In that role she was responsible for the implementation of the Programme, which included call planning, organisation of evaluations, Grant Agreement preparation and project follow-up. She then won another internal competition and since 2015 she has been working as Deputy Head of Unit on the H2020 Science with and for Society work programme and on the Widening actions, in particular on Teaming, Twinning and ERACHAIRS. In 2021, with the launch of Horizon Europe, the new European R&I Framework Programme, the unit became fully dedicated to the new Widening programme with a significant budget increase and a vast array of new actions to implement.

Tilman Becker is a German scientist and expert in the field of Industry 4.0, since 2020 he is the director of the RICAIP Centre for Advanced Industrial Production at the Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics (CIIRC) of the Czech Technical University in Prague. With twenty-five years of experience at DFKI, Germany's largest artificial intelligence research center, he has a broad knowledge of digital transformation, natural language processing, cyber-physical manufacturing systems and human-machine interaction research.

Zacharias Siokouros graduated from the National Technical University of Athens as a Naval Architect and Marine Engineer. He is the CEO of the Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute. Mr. Siokouros has more than 30 years of experience in the shipping industry. He has worked as an onboard engineering officer and then Technical Superintendent at a tanker operator, a Safety Manager/DPA and a Technical Director for a major Cruise Line and as a Maritime Safety and Security Lead Auditor, a Maritime Labour Inspector and a Trainer in major ship classification societies. He also served for a year as a Deputy Secretary General of the Cyprus Marine Environment Protection Association (CYMEPA). Furthermore, Mr. Siokouros has been the President of the Cyprus Naval Architects and Marine Engineers Association (CyNAMEA) for over 15 years. He was among the founding members of the Maritime Institute of Eastern Mediterranean (MarInEM), a not-for-profit organization aiming to promote Research, Innovation, Training and Education for the maritime industry as well as cooperation and dialogue in the Eastern Mediterranean region. Mr. Siokouros was the initiator of the innovative EU-funded Lynceus project and the Mentor and “Sea of Experience” projects. In 2014 the “Lynceus” project received the prestigious Global Innovation Award of Lloyds, while the “Mentor” led to the establishment of the “Blue Career Center of Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea”. Moreover, he is a member of the Board of Governors of the Cyprus Maritime Academy of the University of Nicosia and served as a member of the Expert Group on Skills and Career Development in the Blue Economy of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, and the Advisory Council of the Oceanography Centre of the University of Cyprus. He is also a Founding Member and member of the Executive Committee of the Cyprus Foundation of the Sea (CyFoS), an institution established by the Shipping industry and supported by the Government of Cyprus, as the Marine and Maritime Cluster organization for Cyprus, and a member of various committees of the Cyprus Shipping Chamber.

Dr. Andreja Kutnar is a full professor in the field of wood science at the University of Primorska in Koper, Slovenia and director of the InnoRenew CoE. Her areas of expertise include wood composites, therm- hydro-mechanical treatment of wood, and adhesive bonding. Her work focuses on research projects in the fields of natural science, technology, sustainable development of the wood industry, environmental impact assessment of new materials, products, and technologies from origin, manufacturing, use/alteration to reuse or recycle. For the wood industry, she performs life cycle assessments (LCA) and advises on improving environmental impacts across the wood value chain.

Kalypso Sepou (f) holds a Ph.D. degree from the University of Birmingham, UK. She joined the Research and Innovation Foundation in 1999 and she is Heading the European Programmes Department, which is responsible for the participation of Cyprus in the EU’s Framework Programmes, COST and EURAXESS. She is the Horizon Europe NCP Coordinator, the JRC NCP and one of the representatives of Cyprus in the Strategic Configuration Programme Committee. Moreover, she has been representing Cyprus in a number of Committees (COST CSO, Deputy Representative in the High Level Group of EUREKA and Representative of Cyprus in the Standing Working Group on Gender in R&I). Dr Sepou has been participating in a number of EU-funded projects as a Task or Work Package Leader.

Patricio Ortiz de la Torre is a Spanish Mining Engineer accounting 25 years of professional experience gained in Spain, Ireland and Belgium, both in the private and public sectors. From 2004 is working for the European Commission, first at the General Directorate of Research & Innovation and then from 2009 at the European Research Executive Agency. From 2017 is Head of Sector at the Agency’s Widening Participation Unit.

Ralf-Martin Soe is a Founding Director of the FinEst Centre for Smart Cities at TalTech. His previous positions include being an ICT Counsellor to the Minister of Entrepreneurship and Information Technology, a Supervisory Board Member at the Estonian Internet Foundation and a Government Fellow at the United Nations University’s e-Government Unit. He has a PhD degree in Technology Governance from TalTech.

Jan received a PhD. in Finance. He currently works at RECETOX at Masaryk University and contributes to the implementation of selected strategic projects, such as TEAMING. He is the coordinator of the ERA Chair project and is also dealing with the development of international research infrastructure of EIRENE-RI. Jan is also member of the Board of recently established Czech Association of Research Managers and Administrators.

Minna Wilkki has a master in Political Science from the University of Helsinki. She joined the Commission in 1997 at DG Environment working on sustainable development and integration of environment into other policy sectors. Since 2001 in DG Research and Innovation in various positions: scientific officer for health and environment projects, HR officer, international cooperation officer, ITER policy officer, Policy Assistant to Director-General Robert-Jan Smits, Head of Communications and Head of Common Missions and Partnerships Service. Prior to the Commission, Minna worked at the United Nations HQ (NYC – sustainable development country reporting), Finnish Ministry of Environment, Ministry for Foreign Affairs/Press and cultural department.

Anna Maria Trawińska has a PhD in social sciences, is a researcher, PR specialist, branding expert, and storyteller. Anna Maria is creative and innovative thinker and planner, on one hand merges analytical approach and creative one on the other. Holding her sociological hand on society pulse, she tries to merge digital world with social components. A supporter of the #TechForGood idea. Laureate of i.e., the Presidential Expert Program "Ideas Laboratory", winner of the Orange Polska and the National Chamber of Commerce "Digital Poland 2020" competitions. She cooperated with, i.e., the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland, Chancellery of the President of Poland, CYBERSEC Forum and one of the largest Polish think tanks - The Kosciuszko Institute.

Prof. Jean Sciare is the Director of the Eastern Mediterranean Middle East (EMME) Climate & Atmosphere Research Center; a 100-research-staff Center-of-Excellence established in 2020 at The Cyprus Institute with €45 million of competitive funding from the EU’s H2020-Teaming and the Cyprus Government. His scientific expertise covers air pollution and its impacts on climate and health, an expertise much needed in the EMME region which is one of the most polluted and dusty environments worldwide. Supporting several Cyprus-Government-Departments in their mission to monitor, report, and mitigate air pollution and greenhouse gases emissions are among the tangible societal contributions achieved so far by JS and his research teams.

Teresita Qvarnström received a PhD in Physics at Stockholm University in April 1996 and joined RISE (formerly Acreo) in August the same year. She is author of about 30 scientific publications in international journals. She is a senior scientist, senior project leader and technology transfer expert at RISE. She has good experience on developing working models to translate research results into entrepreneurial opportunities and has worked on several European collaboration projects and networks. She has been a member of the Enterprise Europe Network and advisor at the Swedish EUSME Support Office, promoting the participation of Swedish SMEs in European collaboration projects.