Innovation Procurement Conference - Speakers

Keynotes

Uli W. Fricke (19 March 2024)

Uli Fricke is one of the founders and CEO of Triangle Venture Capital Group, one of Europe’s leading investors in high-tech start-up companies. She is also the CEO of FunderNation, Germany’s only digital investing platform. Throughout her career, Uli served on numerous boards of companies and has been a longstanding board member of various advisory councils, committees, and juries (incl. EIC Accelerator). Uli was named the most powerful person in private equity (Real Deals, 2010) and has been recognized as one of the 100 most influential women in Europe’s finance industry (Dow Jones). Back in ’88 Uli was one of the pioneers in the early internet days, programming BTX (the German internet predecessor). Later, Uli has been CEO and founder of a number of start-up companies. Uli is an unflinching optimist and an entrepreneur to the core – so it’s best not tell her something “does not work”.

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Saskia Van Uffelen (20 March 2024)

Saskia Van Uffelen has been working in the sector of information and communication technology (ICT) for over 25 years. In 2012, the federal government appointed her as ‘Digital Skills Leader’ to represent Belgium at the European Commission. Saskia leads the National Coalition for Digital Skills & Jobs for Belgium. In this role she focus to skill/re-skill all talents to maximize the activation of everybody in the changing employment market going forward (DigiSkills Belgium). Since then, she became a role model. She is not only a digital manager and digital ambassador at Agoria (Belgian federation of technology companies), but also a female entrepreneur. In these roles, Saskia Van Uffelen always keeps a keen eye on the human aspects of collaboration. She is the author of several publications and received various prestigious awards and nominations.

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Speakers

Rossana Alessandrello

Rossana Alessandrello is the Value Based Procurement Director of the Agència de Qualitat i Avaluació Sanitàries de Catalunya (AQuAS), coordinator of the Value Based Procurement Subcommission of the Catalonian Department of Health Innovation and Transformation Commission, co-creator and Scientific Manager of iRaise (the very first Education Programme on high value care innovation adoption, semi-finalist of the European Innovation Procurement Leadership Award 2022 from the European Innovation Council and winner of Amparo Poch 2023 award in the category “Best Public Procurement Initiative for Innovation in Health” from Instituto Aragonés de Ciencias de la Salud (IACS) and Universidad de Zaragoza) and co-coordinator of the European Connected Health Alliance Health Procurement Thematic Innovation Ecosystem.

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Edelio Bermejo

Edelio Bermejo's primary responsibility is to accelerate the time to market of existing R&D projects, strengthen the new product pipeline and foster a more visible innovation culture and external partnerships around new ideas and business models such as reducing the CO2 footprint of the construction industry.

He has held roles within Holcim in management, research and development, product management, and trading as Head Offer Range Management (2016-), VP Marketing (2013-15), Business Unit Manager (2008-15), Trading Strategy Director (2007-08), and R&D Director, Cement Division (2002-07). He studied Materials Science at the Polytech Paris UPMC (1991), now Polytech Sorbonne, and holds a PhD in Materials Science from the Université Pierre et Marie Curie (1995).

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Serena Bianchi

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Jean-Jacques Bois

Jean-Jacques Bois is an Engineer in Physics who immediately started his professional life as an entrepreneur. He is founder of Nanolike, a French disruptive startup focused on IoT solutions for logistics optimization. Nanolike has 20 employees in France and Canada, and recently welcomed Holcim group as new strategic shareholder.

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Jens Bontinck

Jens Bontinck is part of the OCTO team at ML6, a specialised machine learning consulting firm on a mission to accelerate intelligence. Jens actively contributes to the top accounts by creating high-quality AI solutions and providing guidance throughout their AI-journey. His learnings and experience on (autonomous) generative AI will be brought to the workshop to give you a head start on your journey.

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Lieve Bos

Lieve Bos is a telecommunications engineer that worked in industry for 7 years on research and innovation projects, including also for public sector customers. After having experienced the barriers to innovation procurement from the private sector side, Lieve started working on public procurement policy from the public sector side. Since 2005 she works in the European Commission, in the past in DG CONNECT (DG Communication Networks, Content and Technologies) and now in DG RTD (DG research and innovation) as policy officer for innovation procurement and experimentation spaces. In this function she has developing policy initiatives to reinforce innovation procurement across Europe.

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Teuta Cakolli

Teuta Cakolli is the procurement coordinator at the City Management Department in Helsingborg City. The city has a strong focus on sustainability and climate responsibility, strategically working to integrate the climate perspective into our procurement processes. By promoting the use of fossil-free alternatives, imposing requirements for environmentally friendly products and services, and collaborating with suppliers to drive innovation, the city works strategically to make its purchases more sustainable and climate-adapted.

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Mandy Chan

Mandy is the procurement specialist of the First Movers Coalition (FMC) Initiative at the World Economic Forum. The FMC advances the most critical, emerging climate technologies by leveraging members' collective purchasing power. Previously worked as a procurement professional in both the public and the private sector, Mandy is currently leading the procurement workstream at FMC that facilitates the adoption of procurement best practices and connects innovative climate tech suppliers to interested procurers. Having pursued a dual master's degree in public administration and sustainable development, Mandy dedicates her career to driving the sustainable transformation of procurement practices. 

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Thomas Cottinet

Thomas Cottinet is head of ECOLAB, the public and private innovation laboratory of the French Ministry of Ecological Transition, in charge of data, AI, public procurements of innovation and Greentech sector. Thomas has studied in ENA (INSP) and Centrale Lille.

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Minouche Cramer

Meet Minouche Cramer, the driving force behind innovation in Amsterdam's municipalities. Minouche is dedicated to preparing the city for the future, inspiring and implementing cutting-edge ideas and technologies for a lasting impact for citizens, entrepreneurs, and visitors. As the visionary head of the innovation department, she has created an environment that encourages freedom of ideas. With a curious and ambitious approach, she translates strategies into impactful projects, fostering collaborations across public and private sectors while using procurement as an innovation tool and enabling smaller, innovative parties to collaborate with the municipalities.

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Thierry Decocq 

With expertise spanning Crisis and Innovative Procurement since 2007, Thierry Decocq is a seasoned professional based in Belgium. Notably, during the Covid-19 crisis (2020-2022), he led the Procurement Taskforce Covid-19 for the Belgian Federal Public Service (FPS) Health, Food Chain Safety, and Environment. Thierry's inventive "Out-of-the-Box" Procurement Strategies played a key role during this challenging period. Recognitions include YQ Purchasing, his company, receiving the runner-up prize for The European Innovation Procurement Award in 2022. Thierry's diverse expertise spans pharmaceuticals, healthcare, banking, and IT services. IPSERA acknowledged his innovative procurement approaches and performance evaluation methods, solidifying his impact on the global procurement landscape. With a Master’s in Law and a Master of Management, Thierry operates worldwide, leaving an indelible mark in Crisis and Innovative Procurement.

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Marc Delobelle

Over 20 years experience in automotive industry, with multi-cultural background being located in France, Sweden, USA, Japan and India. Have occupied different leadership positions within Volvo Group, driving international business and projects. Now in charge to accelerate the Volvo Group transformation journey towards fossil-free solutions together with supply chain partners.

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Boris Dimitrov

Boris Dimitrov has a Master's Degree in Clinical Psychology, and is Co-Funder and CEO of of Checkpoint Cardio, a Bulgarian start- up making wearables that combine advanced medical devices with software in order to follow a patient’s vital parameter. He was nominated for the EIT Venture Award in 2018 and was successful in securing an implementation contract from a leading university hospital consortium during the PCP Nightingale. He is a self-proclaimed serial entrepreneur.

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Jelena Drndic

Jelena is a public procurement specialist with 10 years of experience. Her focus of works is support to public entities and procurers in implementation of different public procurement procedures, capacity building in the area of procurement and providing advice on public procurement policy to different stakeholders EU-wide, including green, innovation and socially responsible public procurement. She is a PM for the EU Innovation Procurement Observatory project, within which information is gathered that will be presented during this workshop.

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Kamila Gasinska

Kamila Gasinska is the Strategic Partnerships Lead at GovTech Lab Lithuania within the Innovation Agency Lithuania. GovTech Lab Lithuania is running GovTech Challenge Series – a structured innovation process that facilitates cooperation between the public sector and startups/ innovative companies to build digital solutions that solve government’s challenges. In her role, she represents GovTech Lab in international alliances, establishes and manages strategic partnerships in Lithuania and abroad. With four years of experience in GovTech Lab, Kamila specializes in interpersonal dynamics and innovation management, leveraging a diverse skill set in project management and stakeholder engagement to drive impactful initiatives within the public sector. Kamila's role extends to coordinating international initiatives like “GovTech4All”, which aims to enhance startups' and SMEs' access to the European public procurement market.

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Silke Guggenbichler-Fellner

Since 2018 Silke Guggenbichler-Fellner works for the Austrian Competence Center for Innovation Procurement (IÖB-Servicestelle) at the Austrian Federal Procurement Agency (BBG). She is senior project manager and responsible for international relations and projects. One of her projects was the EU-project “Procure2Innovate” where existing Competence Centers for innovation procurement shared their knowledge, exchanged best practice examples and supported new ones to establish. Out of this project the P2I Network of Competence Centers emerged.  Furthermore, she advises public buyers to procure innovative products or services. She previously worked for the Economic Chamber of Carinthia in the Foreign Trade Department and EU-Affairs, as a project manager for different EU and national projects. She holds a master degree in the Studies of International Business at the University of Economics.

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Malcolm Harbour

Malcolm Harbour CBE served as MEP for the UK West Midlands for 3 Parliamentary terms 1999 - 2014. He was co-ordinator for the EPP-ED on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (2004-2009) and Chairman (2009-2014). His legislative work includes leadership roles on the Services Directive, Electronic Communications and Standards. He has a long-standing interest in promoting innovation through public procurement. In 2008, he was Rapporteur for an “own-initiative” report on innovation procurement. From 2009, he had a lead role in shaping Parliament's position on procurement reform and the negotiations for their adoption in 2014. From 2015-17, he chaired a UK Local Government Taskforce on Innovation Procurement that produced a widely read report. In 2019 he became an Associate Director at the UK Innovation Agency, the Connected Places Catapult, with an expert steering role on procurement and the development of the Innovative Procurement Empowerment Centre (IPEC), launched in 2023. He has contributed to many CPC reports and is a regular speaker at Procurement Conferences. He Chairs the IPEC Research Consortium with the Universities of Birmingham and Manchester.

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Marina Jurišić

Marina has been actively working on EU funds and public procurement issues for almost 15 years, during which time she became an expert in implementing all types of public procurement procedures and providing capacity building activities in respective area. During the past two years her focus has also been on providing advice to stakeholders and implementing projects in the field of public procurement with special emphasis on green, socially responsible and innovation procurement.

Carmen Laplaza Santos

Carmen Laplaza Santos studied at the University of Navarra, Spain and in 1994 she obtained a degree in economics and before joining the European Commission in 2008 she held senior roles in financial and strategic departments of different sectors. She is currently the Head of the Health Innovations and Ecosystems Unit within the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation.

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Alexander Lemmens

Alexander Lemmens provides legal support at the central purchasing body of the Agency for Facility Operations of the government of Flanders. He keeps a focus on sustainable public procurement.

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Ivo Locatelli

Since joining the European Commission in 1991, Ivo Locatelli has worked in several departments. Through his career he dealt with industrial relations with Japan, telecoms regulation, relations with third countries in ICT, the European semester and e-health. In 2012 he moved to DG GROW (Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs) to join the unit in charge of innovative and digital procurement; he now leads the team dealing with strategic procurement policy.

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David Lund

David Lund has been a Member of the Board of Public Safety Communication Europe since 2013. He currently coordinates the BroadEU.net programme, a partnership of 16+ EU governments/agencies  supporting the technological development towards the EU critical communication system, EUCCS. This builds upon the success of the BroadWay Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP).  David is also Board Member of the 6G Infrastructure Association (6G-IA) since March 2021, contributing to the continued innovation in Smart Networks and Services (SNS-JU); a European Partnership steering €900M research and innovation funding within the Horizon Europe programme.

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Robert Miskuf

Founder and CEO of PEDAL Consulting and Tenderio. PEDAL is a leading national SME performer in Horizon 2020 / Horizon Europe / COSME programme. Robert is an Optimist. Received €19M in EU/US grants. Managing a portfolio of projects worth €118M EUR. Robert has been involved in over 70 European projects and coordinated several international. Frequent speaker at high level events on public procurement organized by the European Commission or under the EU presidencies.

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Pantelis Michalis

Pantelis Michalis, PhD, Greek Army Ret, Head of Research & Development Border Security & Defense Division, including responsibilities related to Innovation Procurement, in private Company SATWAYS LTD. Member of DG HOME - CERIS BM expert Group.

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Tony Mortier 

Tony Mortier, a former military officer with a Master's in Political Sciences, Military Sciences, and Law, brings a wealth of expertise to his role as Flemish Audit Authority regarding RRF, BAR and ESIF funds. Specialized in Economical and Administrative Law, Tony is a respected figure in financial governance. With a successful career in the Belgian Armed Forces and the Inspectorate of Finance, he is a published author on public procurement and administrative law and a sought-after lecturer on national and international platforms.

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Masayuki Omote

Masayuki Omote has worked for public procurement reform with more than 15 countries in Europe and Latin America. Before joining the OECD in 2017, he worked in Japan, Afghanistan, and Bolivia as a public procurement specialist at a procurement agency affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan. He also worked at the country office of the Inter-American Development Bank in Peru in the field of public governance and public financial management. As a scholarship recipient from the World Bank, he holds a Master of Science in Foreign Service (MSFS) from Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. (concentration on international development and public governance).

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Stéphane Ouaki

Stéphane Ouaki is the Head of Department of the European Innovation Council (EIC) in the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency. In his role, he ensures effective and efficient implementation of the EIC from the emergence of new technologies having the potential to generate game changing innovation up to the scaling up of deep-tech enterprises (mainly startups and SMEs).

Previously, he was the head of unit for Financial Instruments in DG Research and Innovation at the European Commission. Before joining DG R&I, he was the head of unit for the Connecting Europe Facility and investment strategies in DG MOVE. Beforehand, he was Deputy Head of Cabinet of Commissioner Vladimír Špidla, responsible for employment, social affairs, and equal opportunities (2004-2010). Previously, he was part of the Commission’s team negotiating with the Czech Republic its terms of accession to the EU (2001-03), and then moved on to be part of the team coordinating the enlargement strategy (2003-04).

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Justyna Pożarowska

Justyna Pożarowska is a counsellor at the Public Procurement Office, master's degree in international relations (University of Warsaw), PhD in political science (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), long-time official in the Polish civil service. She has extensive professional experience in international and European cooperation. For years at the Public Procurement Office, where she has been involved in international cooperation in public procurement, European procurement policy and the issue of national implementation through public procurement of other policies (strategic objectives), including procurement of innovation & modern technologies and the use of electronic building information modeling (BIM) tools by the public sector.

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Xavier Vinolas Prat

Xavier Vinolas Prat is a cardiologist with more than 25 years of expertise in arrhythmias and electrophysiology. He graduated from the University of Pamplona with a degree in medicine and surgery, a MIR in cardiology from the University of Madrid, and a doctorate in medicine from the Rovira I Virgili University. Director of the Cardiology Department of the Hospital Sant Pau and buyer in the successful PPI Ritmocore.

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Dany Robberecht

Dany Robberecht, currently serving as the Business Unit Director of Strategic Innovation at Verhaert, brings years of experience in the dynamic realm of public innovation procurement within and outside Flanders. To Dany, innovation is not just a destination but a transformative journey. In addition to his instrumental role in shaping the landscape of public innovation procurement,  Dany played a key role in designing programs for ESA, EC and EUSPA. His practical knowledge spans a diverse range of projects, encompassing both digital and physical systems.

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Kristof Rombaut

tbc

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Dominique Sandy

Dominique is a senior expert and the lead of the Sustainable and Innovation Procurement team at ICLEI Europe. He is the head of a team of experts dedicated to advancing the use of public procurement as a strategic tool to enable cities to meet environmental targets and their other organisational objectives. He has worked across the topics of green, circular, sustainable and socially responsible public procurement and is motivated by cities using public funds to meet their needs while tackling the climate crisis. Dominique has a background in waste management and is a member of the chartered institute of wastes management. Previously in his career he has supported cities in the delivery and procurement of their environmental services.

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Keith Sequeira

Keith is heads the Unit in DG Research and Innovation of the European Commission responsible for European Innovation Council (EIC), including support to the EIC Board, preparing the EIC work programmes, and overseeing the EIC Fund. From 2015 to 2019, Keith was senior advisor to Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for research and innovation, on open science and open innovation, including Horizon Europe, scientific advice to policy, and the European Research Council. He was previously in the Cabinet of the Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn and has worked in the European Commission on innovation policy, development and implementation of Framework Programmes, and public procurement of innovation.  He has previous experience in the UK government and a private company advising and investing in public private partnerships and spin-outs. Keith studied physics at Cambridge University and has a doctoral degree in innovation studies from the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at the Sussex University.

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Valentina Schippers-Opejko

Valentina is an expert on public procurement with 23 years of experience working at the Municipality of Haarlem. She chairs the Urban Agenda Partnership on Innovative and Responsible Public Procurement and the Eurocities’ Working Group on Public Procurement. In 2021, she served as the Coordinator of the Circular Procurement working group in the Metropolis Region of Amsterdam. She is motivated to share her experience and to promote public procurement as a strategic tool for accelerating innovation, circular economy, sustainability, economic recovery, energy transition, and addressing other challenges faced by public authorities. In the PROTECT project, Valentina brings her knowledge, experience, and enthusiasm for innovation procurement to animate the PROTECT Community of 60+ public buyers in this field.

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Fredo Schotanus

Professor Fredo Schotanus holds the chair of Public Procurement, Utrecht University's School of Economics. He is also part of the management team of the Utrecht University Centre for Public Procurement (UUCePP). In addition to his work for the university, he works as a principal consultant for Significant Synergy. He has gained practical experience in procurement within the sectors of mobility and the central government, healthcare procurement, and collaborative procurement. His research interests include fulfilling policy objectives with public procurement, open procurement data, joint procurement, and supplier selection.

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Giannis Skiadaresis

Giannis Skiadaresis is the Area Coordinator for Strengthened Security research and Innovation (SSRI) in the Unit on Security Research and Innovation of DG HOME in European Commission. Mr. Skiadaresis holds an MA in EU International Relations and Diplomacy, from the College of Europe in Bruges where he was a laureate of ENP-EU scholarship awarded by the European Commission. He has also graduated from the Leadership programme of Harvard Kennedy School and from the Strategic Innovation Programme of University of Oxford. He has worked in the Cabinet of Commissioner Avramopoulos on Migration, Home affairs and Citizenship and in other posts at DG HOME in the European Commission. His experience also includes Industrial Policy, New Technologies and Innovation, International relations, security and defence policy, business development and coordination of EU-funded Projects.

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Rudi Strubbe

Rudi Strubbe is Category Manager Innovation and Technology at the Facility Agency of the Government of Flanders which is responsible for joint procurement initiatives and hosts the central contact center for procurement. Rudi has a background in Law and gathered many years of experience in legal counselling and innovative program management at Alcatel/Lucent.

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Trude Sundset

Trude Sundset is the Chief Technology Officer of Norsk Hydro and has more than 30 years of experience from working within the energy sector, with a specific focus on technology, environment, and climate issues. 

Her extensive management experience includes business development, field development in the oil and gas sector and research management and development. Sundset has held various leading positions in Equinor and has been the CEO of Gassnova – the Norwegian state enterprise for CCS. Sundset has broad experience from international organizational work as a board member of organizations such as IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme (IEA GHG), the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) and Zero Emissions Platform (ZEP). Sundset holds a Master of Science degree in Technology Physical Chemistry from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

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Teodora Tataru  

Teodora is an advisor at the EIB’s Advisory Services Department where she manages a range of assignments in the health, education, environment and transport areas. She joined EIB Bucharest Office in 2014 and worked for Advisory Services for Romania and Bulgaria before moving to Luxembourg in early 2020 where she extended her portfolio to other geographies and development areas. Prior to joining the EIB, Teodora worked in the private sector and also held a public manager position in the Romanian public administration, focusing mainly on European funded projects.  

Teodora’s hands-on experience in the area of procurement covers a wide array of topics, ranging from actually managing public procurement procedures for the Romanian central Government and the EIB, to providing support and advice for the transposition of the Procurement Directive or even conceptualizing and reinforcing the Romanian National Procurement Agency and creation of the Centralised Procurement Bodies. 

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Juris Ulmanis

Dr. Juris Ulmanis has experience in leading positions working on quantum research, technology, and startups for more than 10 years. He joined AQT in 2019, where he leads the research and development activities to include overseeing the company’s engagement in various EU and national projects, such as the EU Flagship and EIC Accelerator grants. He realized the first European rack-mounted quantum computer based on trapped ions that is connected to the cloud and deployed in data centre infrastructure.

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Ruben Van Caelenberg

Ruben is Principal at Addestino, a technology consulting firm specialized in digital innovation, strategy and transformation. The common thread throughout Ruben’s career is his passion to create an impact by collaborating with others while working on the cutting edge of technology. Within Addestino, Ruben has led and provided support on many innovation procurement projects from which he will tap to bring this workshop to life.  

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Marc Van den Bulcke

Marc has a pHD in sciences and is head of the Cancer Centre (CC) of Sciensano, Belgium. He gained experience in molecular diagnostics in academic, industry and governmental environments. He is currently supporting the national cancer care and control policies of Belgium including introducing innovative approaches in personalized medicine through strong interaction at EC level.

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Rosalinde Van der Vlies

Ms. Rosalinde van der Vlies is the Director of the Clean Planet Directorate in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation and Deputy Mission Manager of the Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities Mission. Before her appointment as Director, Ms. van der Vlies was the Head of Coordination & Interinstitutional Relations Unit, and acting Head of the Communication & Citizens Unit. Previously she held positions in Directorate-General Environment, Directorate-General Justice and Home Affairs, and in the private office of Janez Potočnik, the European Commissioner for the environment. Before joining the European Commission, she worked as a competition lawyer in an international law firm in Brussels and was a part-time teacher at the Catholic University in Brussels.

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Steven van Garsse

Steven Van Garsse is full professor of Law at the University of Hasselt, practising lawyer at the Brussels Bar and partner in the EU Sapiens Network focused in sustainable public procurement and in the Circular Economy Policy Research Center. He is also team lead of the Sustainable Public Procurement for Public Private Partnerships group of the Working Party on Public Private Partnerships of the UNECE.

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Reinhilde Veugelers

Reinhilde Veugelers is a full professor at KULeuven (BE) at the Department of Management, Strategy and Innovation, KULeuven. With her research concentrated in the fields of industrial organisation, international economics and strategy, innovation and science, she has authored numerous well cited publications in leading international journals.

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Bart Zoete

As a Team Lead of the Agency for Facility Operations, Bart Zoete is responsible for coordinating public procurement policy and legal support to procurement teams at the Government of Flanders.

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Innovation Procurement Conference

 

Banner PIP

19 - 20 March 2024

Tour & Taxis - Sheds
Havenlaan 86C
1000 Brussels, Belgium

Timetable programme day 1 & day 2

 

Agenda

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Details Programme PIP

An Schrijvers
Advisor
Programme for Innovation Procurement (PIP)