DMS Accelerator Coordinator. RTD Consultant and Project Manager. She supports the growth of data-driven startups and SMEs in programmes aiming at bridging the gap between companies and market success. B.Sc., M.Sc., and PhD in Biomedical Engineering, she previously worked as Biomedical Engineer developing tools to study the biology of cancer using image analysis techniques and microfluidics.

Part of the DMS Coordinating Team. Laura works as R&D Consultant and Project Manager at Zabala Innovation Consulting. With an academic background in International Business Administration and in Economics, she is mainly involved in the financial management of EU projects and in the elaboration of Exploitation Plans for project results. She has previously worked in the Venture Capital sector.

Susana leads to ZABALA the European communication team. She is a journalist specialised in the fields of Science and Innovation. Her postgraduate studies are focused on Corporate Communication, Public Relations and Digital Marketing. She is one of our favourite influencers on Twitter and always enthusiastic about European affairs!

After working for various startups in Leipzig where he focused on sales development and value selling, Dennis now supports the SpinLab. He studied Applied Media Science and wrote his bachelor thesis at IBM Germany about software-based knowledge management and collaboration.

Project Manager at Bright Pixel, João worked in a multinational touchscreens manufacturer, promoted a European nanomedicine program (nanomedTAB), provided strategic consultancy to SMEs and stimulated open innovation at the largest retailer in Portugal. In the meantime, travelled 3 months around Asia and founded a pet accessories brand.

Responsible for Minimum Viable Products and Incubation at Bright Pixel, Frederico Santos has a vast experience in turning complex technical systems into products. Passionate about entrepreneurship, he managed an open innovation program for a large telco, connecting startups and corporates. Also participated in 2 European projects (Mobizz & Cloud Catalyst).

Executive Director of Spherik Accelerator, Cristina has been involved in the local and regional startup ecosystems for 5+ years, organizing and supporting initiatives such as Startup Weekend Cluj, How to Web, Edtech Romania, etc; mentoring and judging various startup competitions and hackathons.

With a masters degree in PR & Advertising on the way, Flavia has been developing herself as a professional in the event planning & advertising industry. Her role as Media & PR at Spherik Accelerator’ helps the team deliver important news in the industry towards the community, in accordance with Spherik's brand mission, which is to connect startups with strategic…

Full-time human being, with a background in software development and a huge passion for education and business development. I am now focused on helping the tech ecosystem thrive and grow by connecting the dots between entrepreneurs with a vision and focus for innovation, and the necessary resources, to transform their ideas into real projects.

Mircea has worked along the years as business developer, marketing or product manager, and is now a Program manager @ Spherik. In the last four years, his focus was on working with companies and startups on product management, creating acceleration programs for startups and delivering workshops on various topics like customer validation, product definition, product metrics, user acquisition, user engagement…

Mr Birkeland holds a Master of Science (Denmark Technical University) and a Master of Law in Intellectual property management (Strasbourg University). In addition, he is an examiner European Patent Attorney and authorized representative. In 2014 he founded IPTec-tor™, a company providing IP and legal products and services to clients, as well as holding IP assets.

Elena Simperl is Professor of computer science at the University of Southampton and director of the Southampton Data Science Academy. She is also one of the Directors of the Web Science Institute and a Turing Fellow. She has contributed to more than 20 research projects, often as principal investigator or project lead.

Dr Stefano Modafferi is a principal enterprise fellow and project manager at the IT Innovation Centre. He has a PhD in Information Engineering from Politecnico di Milano, followed by experience in research projects and industry prior to joining IT Innovation in Jan 2012. In the last 7 years, he has been involved in 10+ research and innovation projects.

Rigo’s activity centres around three poles: legal advice for W3C & ERCIM, research in the area of Security, Privacy & Law, legal advise and technology consulting with the AFS Law firm. His current research project is SPECIAL.

Marie-Claire Forgue serves as Head of W3C Training. She developed the W3Cx MOOC program, in partnership with edX. Additionally, Marie-Claire is a member of the W3C Developer relations team, organizing W3C dev-meetups and participating in online and in-person communities. She also participates in the dissemination activities of European projects administered by ERCIM.

Entrepreneur, community builder & people-connector. Sebastien has a real passion for startups, innovation, and social impact. He currently dedicates most of his time to organize events and run programs that help startup founders to build successful and future-proof companies.

Head of Research at TNW X, Adam is responsible for the research programmes and startup activities at TNW. With a keen interest in technology and the creation of corporate startup partnerships. With an academic background in planning and real estate, his particular interests lie in smart cities, deep tech verticals and sustainability.

With more than 12 years of experience in marketing and communication, Iciar has developed her professional career in Ogilvy working for clients such as American Express, ING, Cepsa, Guggenheim, GE Money Bank, ABN Amro Bank Spain, among others, and developing international projects. Customer centric professional skilled in Digital Strategy, Integrated Marketing, Advertising and Customer Relationship Management.

During her career in Ogilvy, she has been managing different technology-based accounts, such as Big Data and Internet of Things. Besides of being an intermediary between the projects involved and the agency resources, she organizes and attends events around Europe.

With 15 years of experience, graduated as Computer Engineer, she focused her career on Social Media as a bridge between Marketing and Technology. As Head of Social at Ogilvy, she designs social network strategies oriented to business objectives to report benefits to the client. That involves KPIs, Social Listening, Influencer Marketing, Content Marketing, Paid Social, workflows and reporting.

With 8 years of experience and specialized on Digital Marketing and Content Generation, Vania is a multifaceted storyteller capable of integrating visual and written content within marketing strategies to create and broadcast a transmedia message that reaches the target audience and accomplishes business objectives.