Jean Jacques has more than 25 years of experience in setting up and managing international partnerships on innovation. He is involved in several European initiatives focused on the industrial, digital, and environmental transformation of innovation ecosystems. He is a member of the pan-European EEN network.

Harald Bleier started his professional career in 1983 as a design engineer in an international plastics engineering company. In 2004 he had passed through many different areas of responsibility, from development management to key account manager for large projects. In 2005 he transferred to Lower Austria’s business agency ecoplus with the task to build up a plastics technology cluster in cooperation with Upper Austria. In 2010 he expanded his area of responsibility with the mechatronics cluster. Since 2020 as Technology Evangelist he focuses on the challenges of climate targets and accompanies innovative companies in transformation processes to achieve climate-neutral business activities. His experience from numerous national and international cooperation projects as well as a very large network always form the basis to find and inspire the right people to solve big tasks.

Professor Boly is one of the co-founders of ENSGSI (France), an engineering school dedicated to innovation management founded in 1992. Anticipating the emergence of a new profession, innovation manager, he built a corpus of knowledge and a global teaching program based on an original pedagogy: real industrial projects, abilities assessment sessions, web learning, and international practical training. Professor Boly keeps a close relation with industrial international companies, small enterprises, and municipalities and he collaborates as an expert on new product development projects. He participates in the elaboration of the recent French and international norms on innovation management.

Ing. Mag. Markus Brunnthaler was born in 1974 into an entrepreneurial family, and the passion for his parents’ plastics business was ignited very early. After his studies in polymer engineering, business administration, and some studies abroad, he joined the family business becoming COE and Owner in 2005. Besides the family business, he contributes to the industry sector and currently holds the position of vice guild master of the Austrian SME plastics processors. Here he is involved in projects presented at this conference.

Dr. Mario Drobics is head of the Competence Unit for Cooperative Digital Technologies at AIT. He studied technical mathematics in Vienna and Linz. For more than 20 years he has been dealing with topics of digitization and the use of data in different fields of application. He is a member of the Management Board of the Gaia-X Hubs Austria and head of the working group for Internet-of-Things in the OVE-GIT.

Franz Edler supports startups and regional projects for companies, with experiences such as his work at the Center for Applied Technologies of Leoben, ZAT (Austria) which has been working for spin-offs and founders in the region for more than 20 years. His own experience as a founder and his scientific approach helps him to discuss ideas considering their technical developments and innovation potential with the founders. As part of the Styrian DigiTeRRI team, he helps to expand the regional strengths of the companies and thus to that creates new jobs.

Dr. Iris Filzwieser got her master’s degree (M.sc.) in Metallurgy from the Montanuniversität Leoben, Austria in 2002 and her Ph.D. in 2005. Between 2001 and 2004 she worked as research assistant at the Non-Ferrous Department, at the University of Leoben. She founded METTOP GmbH in May 2005. Since then she is active as managing director of Mettop and responsible for developing recycling processes and finance. In January 2014 she co-founded UrbanGold GmbH. She is a Member of the supervisor board of Pierer Mobility AG.

Jens Ørding Hansen is a senior researcher at Nordland Research Institute (NRI), Norway. He holds a doctoral degree in International Management from the University of Agder, Norway. His research interests include corporate governance, corporate finance, regional development, responsible research and innovation (RRI), environmental economics, and organization studies. He is currently working on several EU-funded projects focusing on RRI, regional development, and the circular economy.

Since 2004 Ángel Honrado has worked as a Project Manager in the planning, management, and implementation of collaborative and multidisciplinary research projects, with total funding of ~ €95M. He has been directly involved in the preparation and management of more than 80 R&I proposals presented to the EC. He has also worked in the development and implementation of communication and outreach strategies (including the organization of workshops and international conferences). Co-founder and Public Funding Manager of FreeOx Biotech S.L., a start-up developing a neuroprotective treatment that prevents damage caused by reperfusion after stroke, based on the results of clinical research.

Marianne Hörlesberger (Ph.D., female) has worked for the Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, AIT, since 2001. She currently works mainly on projects applying forward-looking methodologies (foresight and road mapping) combined with stakeholder engagement. She started at AIT analysing data and methodologies such as informetrics, scientometrics, and bibliometrics for the identification of emerging technologies and the network of agents behind those topics. In some projects, she combines both the analytical methodologies and the qualitative approach. She has also managed and coordinated international and national projects. She graduated from the University Vienna (Austria), where she obtained her Ph.D. in mathematics.

Ingrid Ivars has for many years worked in various roles in the regional innovation system and acted in the zone between private and public organizations. For many years, Ingrid has had managerial roles in the private business world, mostly in the manufacturing industry but also in service-producing companies. The present work in Compare is focused on coaching innovative start-ups in the Digitalwell GovTech Incubator and Digitalization in a broader perspective for SME´s identified as focus areas in Smart Specialisation.

Dr. Andreas J. Kassler is currently a Full Professor of Computer Science at Karlstad University (Sweden) since 2005. Before that, from 2003 to 2004, Dr. Andreas J. Kassler worked as an Assistant Professor at the School of Computer Engineering, Nanyang Technological University (Singapore). He currently co-chairs the Distributed Systems and Communication group, DISCO, and maintains an active research program in the fields of networking and cloud computing with main research focus on Software Defined Networking, Future Internet, Datacenter Networking, and Quality of Service.

Andrea Kasztler studied Technical Physics at the Vienna University of Technology, where she worked for several years as a university assistant in the field of superconductivity. Since 2001, she has been working as a scientist at the Center for Innovation Systems and Policy of the Austrian Institute of Technology, AIT, where her research focuses on the thematic and collaborative analysis of research, technology, and innovation (RTI) systems. Addressed topics range broadly from digital transformation in general to very specific topics, such as artificial intelligence, bioeconomy, or tribology. She is also involved in the development of new innovation models for the strategic development and benchmarking of organisations and regions, also within the context of responsible research and innovation (RRI) and through foresight with stakeholder engagement.

Andrea Kasztler has participated in and managed numerous projects for Austrian public authorities, companies, research centres, and the European Commission. Her publications include Science and Public Policy, the Journal of Intellectual Capital, and Physica C.

Brigitte Kriszt studied Material Science and did her Ph.D. at the Montanuniversität (Austria). In 2004 she started to work at the Industrial Liaison Institute of Montanuniversität. In that position, she coordinated many regional or national initiatives such as Material Cluster Styria, Nanonet, and Additive Manufacturing Austria in cooperation with industry. In 2017 she became engaged in RRI H2020 projects. She coordinated the IAMRRI project and the STYRIAN coordinator in the DigiTeRRI project.

Communications manager. Project communication, graphic design, and visual thinking. With a Bachelor’s in Art (2004), a Master’s degree in Corporate Communication (2020), and director of communications at WeDo, MM contributes more than 15 years of experience in visual communication and design. He developed communication plans and tools for 14 research projects, including FP6, FP7, and H2020, where he applied his experience in project branding and editing, communication tools and actions, social media management, and outreach material. He contributes to Projects by designing, monitoring, and updating the communication plans in collaboration with partners and stakeholders. He also designs tools for outreach (newsletter, social media, videos, leaflets, clinical study pack) and supports outreach Project actions in general (Stakeholder forum meetings, development of training material and actions, and final project conference). He coordinates the internal communications of each Project within WeDo, assisting in the development and implementation of tools, templates, procedures, and best practices (e.g. agenda and minutes, PowerPoint, SharePoint).

Mireia Manent is Co-founder and CEO. Psychologist and MBA graduate by University Pompeu Fabra. Broad experience in the planning, coordination, and management of complex research projects, specializing in the biomedical sector, and in contact with both the national and the international funding landscape. Has collaborated with foundations, biotech companies, research centres, and universities in leading/contributing to multi-year, crosstheme, multi-cultural, and multidisciplinary research projects. With broad experience in communication strategies, large meetings, conferences organisation, and training planning and execution on topics related to EU-funded opportunities, proposal preparation, and project management.

Martina Maurer has been working at the Public Employment Service, AMS, Austria since 2008. She is chairwoman of the working group for equality issues for AMS employees since 2018 and deputy head of the department of Labour market politics for women since 2017. Her main agenda within the department is i.a. the advancement of gender mainstreaming within the organisation, the achievement of gender budgeting, and the realisation of labour market programs for women. Before starting her career in the Public Employment Service she was working at the University of Vienna, within the department of Differential Psychology and Diagnostics.

Éamonn joined the Grants and Innovation Office at Karlstad University (Sweden) full-time in 2012. He works with individual researchers, research teams, research centres, and departments in supporting a strategic approach to research as well as their professional and personal development. He works alongside colleagues in developing quality assurance processes for research applications. Éamonn has been instrumental and key to the development of competence development workshops that have the overarching aim of increasing the researcher’s ability to compete for external funding and to build relevance and reputation for themselves and for the university. One such series of workshops are CTRIVE® which ensures that researchers’ careers and applications for external funding are cutting-edge. Éamonn works with researchers, university policy, and practice in relation to the European Commission’s Framework Programme for research and innovation, Horizon Europe.

Before Éamonn moved to Sweden, he was the Director of Community Relations in Schools in Northern Ireland. Here he was engaged with supporting higher education institutions, and public bodies involved in teacher training, and education developing knowledge and skills for working within a divided and contested society. He also worked alongside curriculum developers in exploring how contentious issues could be incorporated and engaged within the subjects of history, social studies, and civics education. Éamonn was also responsible for developing interventions within the education sector and in communities that would contribute to societal transformation as well as contribute to the policy dynamic of building a more shared and cohesive society. This alongside some special advising roles was part of the processes underpinning the Northern Ireland peace process.

Éamonn has also worked in an international context within the field of Conflict transformation and community capacity building.

Éamonn is a graduate of the University of Ulster (Ireland) where he read Social and behavioral science with a focus on people-centered approaches to counseling and personal development.

Dr. Stegmann McCallion is a Reader in Political Science at Karlstad University (Sweden). Her research has an EU focus, with a specific interest in multi-level governance, Europeanisation processes, paradiplomacy, how the sub-national level engages with the EU institutions, differentiated integration in Europe, and awkward states/awkwardness in European integration.

Dr. Stegmann McCallion is engaged in various networks that provide an international context to her work such as DigiTeRRI and in a long-term collaboration with the Assembly of European Regions, AER. She utilises and includes the outreach part of her work in both her teaching and research and vice versa.

Per Myhrén holds a Licentiate degree in Business Administration from Service Research Center, CTF, at Karlstad University (Sweeden). He has a long history of working with service development and service innovation in companies and organizations. At Paper Province he works as an innovation counselor supporting innovators and companies. He is also involved in projects on Servitization.

Ahmed Nasrullah obtained a Mechanical Engineering degree from the Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden) and started working in the timber industry in the traditional Scandinavian industry.

His focus has been on sawmill digitalisation and the transition into industry 4.0. from research projects into industrial applications. The challenges throughout vary a lot, but one of the biggest ones is competence in the industry.

Dr. Sabine Neuberger holds a Master’s degree in Agriculture and Food Economies from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, BOKU (Austria), and a Ph.D. from the Wageningen University & Research (The Netherlands). During her Ph.D., she studied how cross-border regional factors determine innovation in the agri-food sector. She joined AIT in January 2022.

Nhien Nguyen is a senior researcher at Nordland Research Institute (Norway), and an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Economics and Management of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU, where she teaches “Digital strategy and business models” and “Innovation management”. She has been leading and coordinating several EU projects focusing on innovation strategies, organizational level, and regional policy level. Nhien Nguyen is currently leading a work package on AI innovation ecosystem at the Norwegian Research Center for AI Innovation, NorwAI, which is the largest academic initiative on AI innovation in Norway. Her research interest includes leading transitions, digital transformation, responsible research and innovation, organizational learning, and learning organizations.

Anders Olsson, Manager of Smart Specialisation in the Värmland Region, has more than 25 years of experience in the area of regional sustainable development. He has worked with learning processes and policymaking for regional development internationally, in Sweden, and in the region of Värmland with the triple helix actors. Some of his specialties are planning and development processes in systemic perspectives.

He has been in charge of elaborating the regional development program, forming a regional cluster strategy and two generations of smart specialisation strategies for Värmland. Most recently, he participated in an OECD delegation to evaluate the regional innovation system in Newfoundland.

Manfred Paier is a Scientist at the Austrian Institute of Technology’s, AIT, Center for Innovation Systems and Policy, as well as the Deputy Head of the Research Field Innovation Dynamics and Modelling. Trained as a physicist and energy economist, he has 25 years of experience in innovation system research, and policy advice at regional, national, and European levels. Within the concept of knowledge ecosystems, he is interested in the dynamics of networks for knowledge creation as well as for regional innovation and development. Manfred is also concerned and active in responsible research and innovation, especially in the promotion of open science to advance the energy transition toward sustainability.

Alexi Perrino is an engineer, who graduated from the ENI-Metz. He started his career as an engineering designer for Husky IMS. He then joined the cluster Materalia, where he coordinated the European development of the cluster, through his position as operational director. He was a member of the European Economic Interest Group Greenovate!Europe.

With a longstanding interest in Finance, he recently decided to found the start-up, Jared, in association with a Family Office and the startup-studio Lumena. Jared develops an intelligent assistant to enhance people’s understanding and abilities to manage their personal finances and build their wealth.

As responsible for six people team for the Grand Est Region, Rémi Pierrat coordinates policies and the ecosystem dedicated to supporting companies towards innovation and digital, industrial, and environmental transitions. He works in partnership with stakeholders like Grand E-nov +, and clusters like Materalia or Bpifrance. With his ten-year experience in higher education (four years for the Grand Est Region), research (three years in European Funds), and innovation (three years), he leads the Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) of the Grand Est Region which integrates the challenges of digitalisation and responsible innovation, in connection with our Artificial Intelligence plan.

After a career in public institutions (National Assembly, Ministry of Tourism) and local authorities (City of Mulhouse, Grand Est Region), Caroline Porot took over the management of 42 Mulhouse (France) in May 2021. The campus is part of the largest network of computer sciences schools in the world with 47 campuses, including the one in Vienna. The campus offers free access to training and welcomes students regardless of their academic background and age.

Patrick Rein is a serial entrepreneur since 1996.

He has been involved in the creation of 35 companies in France, Switzerland, Canada, Ireland, and Poland, mostly in the digital field.

KMØ is the facility for business and technical development he has always dreamed of as an entrepreneur. His motto: An entrepreneur finds solutions where others (only see) problems.

More information: LinkedIn Patrick Rein

Franz Rotter holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering/Mining from the University of Leoben (Austria) and occupied mainly leading positions in the voestalpine group, Iso-Holding AG, Austria Antriebstechnik AG, and AMAG-group from 1981 to 2006.

From 2007-2010 Franz Rotter was a Board Member at voestalpine High Performance Metals GmbH (formerly voestalpine Edelstahl GmbH/BÖHLER-UDDEHOLM AG).

In early 2011 Franz Rotter was appointed as a Board Member of voestalpine AG, being responsible for the High-Performance Metals Division. At that time, he became Chairman of the Management Board and CEO of voestalpine High-Performance Metals GmbH (= Division High-Performance Metals) and President of The Austrian Society for Metallurgy and Materials, ASMET.

Mag. Michael Schickhofer has been in leading positions for over 10 years and has a large network in Austrian business, politics, and society. In particular, his expertise includes the development of innovative and future-oriented concepts, financial optimization, and profitable expansion of existing structures. He was a member of the Styrian state government for over 7 years. As deputy governor, he was responsible for the areas of finance, regional development, and disaster protection. Furthermore, he was a member of the Austrian parliament for 3 years.

In private, he is married to a tax consultant and has three children between the ages 4,11, and 13. They all live in Anger, a small market town about 40 km northeast of Graz.

Julia Schmidbauer was born in Upper Austria and has always been very interested in engineering, leading her to choose Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering as her specialisation at the HTL Leonding (Austria). Later, she studied for her bachelor’s degree in Mineral Resources Engineering at the Montanuniversität Leoben (Austria) and her master’s degree in Tunneling and Geotechnics. After a few years of practical experience in tunnel construction sites, she moved back to Styria in 2019. She currently lives in Trofaiach and works at the Ausseninstitut of the Montanuniversität Leoben in the field of technology transfer.

Annelie Strömberg worked for several years as Business Controller in Swedish base-industry like ABB, SSAB, and Stora Enso.

She entered IKEA when a new store was built in Dalarna and spent several years in different positions in Management Team. Entered Dalarna Science Park in Feb 2022 to run industrial projects and have taken on the task of speeding up the sustainability work for SME’s.

Stéphanie Toussaint has developed expertise in the implementation of a monitoring unit in the field of business intelligence, has worked on the implementation of a CRM, and the contribution to the foreign investment report for the Champagne region. Within the innovation and attractiveness agency of the Grand Est, she advises various structures on innovation projects, works on information analysis, and collaborates closely with foreign partners on European projects.

Michael Ulm has worked for FH JOANNEUM since 2007 and has been senior lecturer at FH JOANNEUM since 2020. He has been the owner and managing director of mea IT Services since 2012.

He has also been elected representative for the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber regional office and “UBIT” specialist group since 2020.

Helene Vogelmann has been working with regional, national, and European innovation policy development as well as instruments and new methods in various leading positions at national and regional agencies such as Lund University, VINNOVA, Tillväxtverket, and Region Skåne. And Mobile Heights. The competencies specifically held by Helene are: To design, implement and evaluate cluster and innovation system activities and programmes in collaboration with industry, academia, and the public domains. New developments and instruments such as user-driven open innovation activities as well as addressing cross-sector innovation are at the core of Helene’s competence. A large network nationally and internationally contributes to the quality of Helene’s work.

Specialties: Clusters and innovation systems, process development, multistakeholder governance, Branding and communication, open innovation, process support, capacity building and learning, cluster management, strategic financing of innovation, and R&D.

René von Schomberg is a science and technology studies specialist and philosopher. He is the author/co-editor of 15 books. He holds PhDs from the University of Twente (the Netherlands) in Science and Technology Studies and J.W.Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main (Germany) in Philosophy. He was a European Union Fellow at George Mason University (USA) in 2007 and has been with the European Commission from 1998 to 2021. He is also a Guest Professor at the Technical University of Darmstadt (Germany).

He also runs a blog with free downloadable resources: https://Renevonschomberg.wordpress.com

Erich Weber has been working as a project manager and managing director in various municipal and regional projects/companies since 1993. The main topics he has worked on are labour market policy measures, economic development, city marketing, and event organization.

In addition, in recent years, he has been involved in the organization and management of various projects with a focus on “labour market policy, labour market integration, and regional development” at the European level.