Meet the speakers

Fernanda Bajanca (Speaker)
PhD in Developmental Biology (2006) and was later awarded an MSCA Individual Fellowship grant for pursuing her career on the frontiers of fundamental and applied research (2010-2012). She was elected Chair of the Marie Curie Alumni Association’s Board and Executive Committee. She previously held the MCAA Vice-Chair position (2020-2022) and was the Chair of the MCAA Policy WG (2017-2019). She has also been a member of the MSCA Advisory Group (2017-2020). She is currently responsible for managing clinical research targeting rare diseases at a children’s hospital in France.

Dario Capezzuto (Speaker)
Senior pharmacist, specialized in Health policies, recently focusing in Digital Health, Genomics and AI at DG CNECT @European Commission, where also worked for 12 years at Directorate General for Competition and the Joint Research Center. Before joining the EU , had several years of experience in pharmaceutical companies in Spain and UK. She specialized in Competition Law and Economics at the Brussels School of Competition where is currently following Executive Master on Artificial Intelligence. International cooperation in the field of Health in Brazil, Colombia and Mozambique. Member of the board of AEFICE for 6 years (Association of Spanish@EU).

Agnieszka Gawda (Speaker)
Molecular biologist with a broad experience in business development and operations for Life Science companies. She is Vice-President and Chief Business Officer at Polonium Foundation. Agnieszka has played a crucial role in integrating the Polish scientific community across the globe. She is providing vital support to growing biotech start-up companies, through her continued work in non-dilutive fundraising, enabling them to accelerate their R&D efforts.

Javier Pardo (Speaker)
Biotechnologist at the Technical University of Madrid (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid – UPM), specialist in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. He is a doctor in Statistics at the University of Oxford. He was involved in the management of the MCR (Middle Common Room) of Keble College (University of Oxford), becoming President during the academic year 2018/19. He is part of the working group of the Oxford constituency of CERU, being also its Press and Online delegate. In addition, He is involved in the CERU Scientific Policy Department and is a representative from CONNECTS-UK (CONNecting European Communities Through Science in the UK).

Francisco Vilaplana (Speaker)
Chemical Engineer and a doctor in Polymer Technology. He is Associate Professor and Head of Division at KTH (Sweden), where he leads the “Carbohydrate Biotechnology” research group focused on the transformation of plant biomass through sustainable chemistry and biocatalysis for applications in biomaterials and nutrition. He is Honorary Professor at the University of Queensland (Australia) and President of the Association of Spanish Scientists in Sweden (ACES) and and the President of the Network of Spanish Researchers Abroad (RAICEX).

Izaskun Lacunza (Speaker)
PhD in Chemical Sciences and professional advisor and science policy with an international profile and more than 15 years of experience. She has worked in European science policy, in the implementation of projects for the improvement of the Spanish science and technology system, in obtaining competitive funding and in the definition of institutional strategic positions.In recent years she has specialized in science diplomacy and consultancy. She is currently Director of Science for Public Policy at FECYT and one of the coordinators of the Science and Technology Office of the Spanish Congress of Deputies.

Ettore Marchesoni (Speaker)
Expert in peace and conflict research, and is currently completing a second degree on the use of artificial intelligence for public services. He joined the NATO’s Emerging Security Challenges Division in 2019 to support the management of the Science for Peace and Security (SPS) Programme and its activities. With the SPS Programme, he contributes to translating policy priorities into concrete research projects, as well as in feeding research results back into policy discussions. Prior to his current assignment, Ettore managed projects and programmes focusing on conflict and post-conflict environments for international organisations (UN, OSCE) as well as civil society.

Lluis Montoliu (Speaker)
Biologist, CSIC Research Scientist and Deputy Director at the CNB and at the CIBERER, in Madrid. He is the Director of the Spanish node of the European Mouse Mutant Archive (EMMA/INFRAFRONTIER). He has pioneered the in vivo use of genome-editing CRISPR approaches in Spain. He has founded and served at the board of several scientific societies. He is the current President of ESPCR, IFPCS and ARRIGE and scientific secretary of SEBBM. He currently serves at the Ethics Panel of ERC in Brussels.

Marcus Scheuren (Speaker)
Business and economics expert working in several parliamentary committees in the European Parliament as EU official over the past 11 years, notably the Economic and Financial Affairs Committee (ECON), the Special Committee on the Luxleaks tax revelations (TAXE) and on the PanamaPapers (PANA), and in the Industry, Research and Energy Committee (ITRE), before managing the secretariat of the European Parliament’s Special Committee on Artificial Intelligence in a Digital Age (AIDA) in 2020-2022. Head of Unit of the STOA Secretariat (STOA)European Parliamentary Research Service.

Sarah Verhulst (Speaker)
Full professor in Hearing Technology at Ghent University. She is leading a team of interdisciplinary scientists working on the interface between auditory neuroscience, computational modeling, hearing loss diagnostics and treatments. Her research is funded by several Flemisch and European grant mechanisms (ERC, EIC, ERA-NET). In 2023, she won the Laureate (Technical Sciences) of the Belgian Academy of Sciences Prize, and since 2020, she is a member of the Belgian Young Academy where she focuses on internationalization. In 2022, she hosted the European Young Academies meeting in Brussels (joint with ALLEA), and since 2022 she is a board member of the Young Academies Science Advice Structure (YASAS).

Mónica Vara (Moderator)
Biotechnologist from the University of Salamanca and holds a masters degree in Molecular Medicine from the Erasmus University (The Netherlands) and a PhD in Biomedical sciences from the KU Leuven (Belgium). As a postdoctoral researcher at VIB-VUB (Belgium), she studies the changes on the brain immune compartment in deleterious conditions, such as stress or cancer.  Advocating for science communication, she is currently managing director of the Belgian branch of the international festival Pint of Science. She has been a member of CEBE since 2018, serving as its president since 2022. 

Guillermo López Gallego (Speaker)
Deputy Director General for the Promotion of Spanish Language in the World at the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation. He holds a degree in from the Complutense University of Madrid and the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, and a degree in cultural management from New York University and Carlos III University. He is a career diplomat and previously held, among others, the position of Cultural and Scientific Counselor at the Spanish Embassy in Peru and as a member and head of the Support Unit at the General Directorate of Cultural and Book Policy and Industries.

Silvia Molina Plaza (Speaker)
Full Professor at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, where she currently teaches in the Department of Applied Linguistics for Science and Technology. She is a member of AEDEAN, AELFE and AESLA, several Spanish linguistics associations with international links. She has been co-organizer of the AEDEAN Congress (2000) and organizer of the XXXIII AESLA Congress in Madrid in April 2015. Her research has focused on English-Spanish translation, contrastive analysis (modality and collocations), Pragmatics and Discourse Analysis applied to language for specific purposes in numerous book chapters, articles, papers and has attended several national and international Congresses.

Eva Ortega-Paíno (Speaker)
Doctor in Chemistry, specialty of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Director of the Biobank of the CNIO (National Cancer Research Center) and General Secretary of RAICEX. Eva has 17 years of experience in Sweden where she has been Vice President of ACES (Association of Spanish Scientists in Sweden), President of the Council of Spanish Residents and Advisor for Sweden in the General Council of Spanish Citizenship Abroad (CGCEE). Member of the science, innovation and technology council (CACTI).

Raimundo Pérez-Hernández y Torra (Speaker)
Lawyer and Director of the Ramón Areces Foundation since 2008. He held the positions of Counsellor in the Permanent Delegation of Spain to the Office of the United Nations; Economic and Commercial Counselor at the Embassy of Spain in the French Republic; Chief of Protocol of the Presidency of the Government, with the rank of Director General; Executive Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union with the rank of Undersecretary; Ambassador Representative Under-Secretary; Ambassador Permanent Representative to the Office of the United Nations and other United Nations and other International Organizations based in Geneva; President of the Executive Committee of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He has been Ambassador of Spain to the Republic of Austria and Ambassador Introducer of Ambassadors, MAEC (Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs).

Santiago Sierra González del Castillo (Speaker)
Historian and Lawyer from the Complutense University of Madrid. Diplomat with a humanistic-legal background, with experience in political, consular, administrative, cultural and institutional communication. He is currently head of the Department of Coordination of Cultural and Scientific Relations of the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation for Development (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation).

Gonzalo del Puerto y Gil (Moderator)
Cultural manager with thirty years of international experience, many of which, at the Instituto Cervantes, first, in London, then in Berlin, Lisbon and Brussels, where he has worked on two occasions: from 2009 to 2014 and since 2019. She holds a degree in Philosophy from the UAM, with a specialization in Cultural Anthropology and postgraduate studies in Hermeneutics. She holds a Master’s degree in the Third Sector from the Carlos V International Center of the Faculty of Economics at the UAM. He has translated and annotated works of philosophy, history, art history and literature from English, French, German and Portuguese into Spanish.

María Badal Tejedor (Speaker)
Industrial PhD in Surface Chemistry applied to pharmaceuticals and Chemical Engineer degree from the University of Zaragoza. She has experience in formulation and early development of drug products and worked as Associate Principal Scientist in freeze-drying in a molecular diagnostic company for the past years.

Antonio Dabán (Speaker)
Construction and management expert, with 22 years of experience in the construction and real estate industry. He is developing his professional career for the last 15 years in Sweden, working in both the private and public sectors. He was also recently elected president of the Spanish-Swedish chamber of commerce in Sweden.

María José Mariño Fontenla (Speaker)
Industrial Technical Engineer with more than 20 years of experience in organizations, especially in the founding environment. He worked in diverse areas such as innovation, technological development and business competitiveness, research and science, employability, management training and educational improvement and talent. She currently holds the position of Area Director of Centers at the Galician Innovation Agency of the Xunta de Galicia, leading Talent, Transfer of Research Results and Design projects. Responsible for the Technology and Design Innovation and Services Center.

Eva María Revilla Penaranda (Speaker)
Responsible for the supervision of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology in the Directorate General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture of the European Commission. Previously, she worked as coordinator of development programs for Latin America at EuropeAid, as policy officer in charge of supporting industrial clusters and SMEs in the EU, and as member of the specialized group for the increase of industrial production of COVID vaccines. She holds a degree in Business Administration and Economics from the Carlos III University of Madrid and a Master of Research in Monetary Policy from the University of Limerick, Ireland.

Raquel Saiz (Speaker)
Director of Strategy and Communication at the Spanish Association of Biotechnology Companies (AseBio), Raquel Saiz merges her expertise in political science and international affairs to enhance the association’s industry positioning and influence. Educated at Carlos III University, ICADE and ESADE, Raquel has forged a career at the intersection of innovation and public policy. Her experience includes contributions to prominent organizations, such as the European Commission, Facebook, and the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology.

Tada Bastida Eizaguirre (Moderator)
Lawyer and expert in Business. Coordinator for Violence against Women and Minors Abroad. She acted as the Embassy Secretary, in charge of the Consular Section and Cultural Affairs at the Embassy of Spain in Bucharest (Romania). Tada was also Director of the Technical Organization Division of the General Directorate of Foreign Communication and Head of Area of the General Sub-Directorate for European Union Countries. Moreover, she was the Second Head of the Spanish Embassy in Malabo (Equatorial Guinea).

Carolina Cañibano (Speaker)
Tenured scientist at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). Since 2022 she has been seconded at CSIC European office in Brussels, belonging to the institution’s Vice-presidency for International Relations. Her research has addressed the study of scientific careers and scientific and technical human capital, with a special focus on the gender dimension. She has also studied the effects of research evaluation systems and has recently conducted a study on the Spanish ecosystem of “science for policy”. 

Ángel Fuentes (Speaker)
Biologist with a doctorate in Molecular Biology from the University of Reading (UK). He has worked for many years on regulatory issues in several multinationals (DuPont, Syngenta, Pfizer) before starting to work in 2016 in the Research Framework Programs of the European institutions. His current position is at the European Executive Research Agency (REA).

David González Martínez (Speaker)
PhD in Neuroscience and Science and Space Coordinator Counsellor at the Permanent Representation of Spain to the EU. His current position at the Perm Rep focuses on the Research and Space groups and he is chairing the Research Working part of the Council during the Spanish Presidency. In the Science and Innovation field, he has previously worked for the Ministry of Science and Innovation, the State Research agency and the CSIC since 2008. In the last fifteen years he has worked on the development and implementation of European and national R&D&I policies in Spain. He has also focused his career on international cooperation in R&D&I in Brazil in the Spanish Embassy in Brasilia and in Portugal in the cabinet with the former minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education of Portugal. 

Lorenzo Melchor (Speaker)
Policy analyst at the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Commission’s science and knowledge service, where he runs projects to connect and strengthen science-for-policy ecosystems across Europe. He holds a PhD in Molecular Biology by the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (2008), with a 13-year international research career in cancer genetics in Spain, US and the UK, and over 30 peer-reviewed publications. He is the Founding President of the Society of Spanish Researchers in the United Kingdom (SRUK/CERU).

Belen Hurtado de Llera (Moderator)
Senior pharmacist, specialized in Health policies, recently focusing in Digital Health, Genomics and AI at DG CNECT @European Commission, where also worked for 12 years at Directorate General for Competition and the Joint Research Center. Before joining the EU , had several years of experience in pharmaceutical companies in Spain and UK. She specialized in Competition Law and Economics at the Brussels School of Competition where is currently following Executive Master on Artificial Intelligence. International cooperation in the field of Health in Brazil, Colombia and Mozambique. Member of the board of AEFICE for 6 years (Association of Spanish@EU).