Partners

Axel Koch is head of the Transfer Department at Kiel University combining the divisions Technology Transfer Division, the ZfE - Centre for Entrepreneurship of Kiel University as well as the Science Centre Kiel. He serves as the chairman of TransferAlliance e.V. facilitating technology transfer between academia and industry. Next to the vice pretend for Research, Transfer, Scientific Infrastructure Prof. Dr. Quandt, Axel Koch leads the event format ‘The Innovation and Transfer Day’ aimed at showcasing research projects, startups, and spin-offs with a focus on transfer.

Pascal Koch (M.Sc. in Geophysics) is an intellectual property expert with a strong science and technology background. His IP journey began as a working student at the Patent and Trademark Center, Schleswig-Holstein (WT.SH), and continued at the Patent and Utilization Agency Schleswig-Holstein (PVA SH). Currently, as Patent Manager at the University of Kiel, he advises startups, spin-offs, and researchers on IP strategies and gives seminars. As Managing Director of Imensus, a deep tech company, he oversees technological development and manages its IP portfolio.

Laura MacDonald has headed up the HQ of the pan-European members' association for knowledge transfer professionals since September 2016. Her role there combines professional training events, conferences, and advocacy to enhance capacity-building of the KT sector. Originally qualified as a Scots lawyer, specialising in EU and IP law, her transition to academic/industrial collaborations started in 1992 when she established the first in-house legal function in a UK university to support these collaborations. Then followed a career across different UK universities (Dundee, then Edinburgh) before moving to the Netherlands, spending 10 years at Leiden University, with responsibility across all aspects of knowledge transfer activities. She has been active in key professional organisations which bring together players in this ecosystem, such as the Licensing Executives Society AUTM and ASTP.

Alessandra Baccigotti has been the Head of the Knowledge Transfer Office of the University of Bologna, leading the team in charge of technology transfer in the Bioeconomy and Engineering sector and the team in charge of Innovation Funding. Since January 2025 she has moved to a role of Knowledge Transfer and Innovation Expert both within the University of Bologna’s Innovation Department and as independent consultant. Since 2016 Alessandra has been collaborating with several European Commission units as expert evaluator for project proposals. She is also a member of Innovation working group of The Guild of research-intensive universities. She has been member of the ASTP Board for 4 years and is still collaborating with the association as Rapporteur of the Europe Committee and expert for EU policies and matters related to research and innovation. Alessandra holds a Master in Open Innovation and Knowledge Transfer and is RTTP (Registered Technology Transfer Professional).

Since 2020 she has been studying the interactions between Intellectual Property management and Open Science, also as part of her role in the University of Bologna’s working group on Open Science (GLOS). In 2024 she contributed to the publication “How to Enable Engagement Between Universities and Business”, edited by K. Daniels and S. Loer Hansen (Edward Elgar Publishing Limited) with a chapter on ““University-industry research collaboration in the context of open science”.

Claire Fritz is Head of IP & Innovation at Eurice GmbH and the lead project manager for IP4OS, overseeing the Train-the-Trainer Scheme, stakeholder engagement, and strategic dissemination.

Beyond IP4OS, she coordinates the European IP Helpdesk, supports SMEs through the Latin America and India IP SME Helpdesks, and serves as an expert for the EC Booster Service. She holds a trilingual M.A. in International Economic Relations and an LL.M. in Patent & Innovation Protection, bringing over a decade of experience in IP management and EU-funded projects.

Jörg Scherer is the Managing Director and Founder of Eurice. With over 20 years of experience as an R&D manager and business advisor, he supports innovation in both academia and industry. He has coordinated and participated in 60+ EU research and innovation projects from FP4 to Horizon 2020. A senior expert for the European Commission and Enterprise Europe Network, he provides training, coaching, and strategic IP support while working at a high-level advisory and policy level in IP and innovation management.

Stephen is Director, External Affairs at IFLA. In this role he works to realise the potential of partnerships between libraries and other stakeholders in order to achieve shared goals. He also oversees work around communications and advocacy, in particular as concerns copyright and open science.

Gustav Nilsonne (Assoc. Prof.) is an Associate Professor of Neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet and an affiliated researcher at the METRICS Center at Stanford University. He is a long-standing advocate for OS, and his main research focus is in metascience: how to make science more transparent and reproducible. He is a senior advisor to the Swedish National Data Service, a national infrastructure for data sharing.

Gautam Sharma is a postdoctoral researcher at the Karolinska Institutet and an affiliated researcher with the Centre for Innovation Research (CIRCLE) at Lund University, Sweden. His research interests include science policy, innovation, and entrepreneurship, with a focus on grassroots innovation, innovation and development, and open science.

Katharina Miller is an accomplished lawyer and expert in legal compliance, corporate governance, and sustainability, with over 15 years of professional experience. As a partner at Miller International Knowledge (MIK), she specializes in aligning business practices with international standards, focusing on intellectual property (IP), ethics, and corporate accountability. Katharina is a seasoned educator and advisor, actively contributing to capacity-building projects such as IP4OS, where she brings her expertise to promote the synergy between IP and Open Science. She has served as a Task Lead for ethical frameworks in EU-funded projects, including H2020 Path2Integrity or H2020 DivAirCity, and is a trusted consultant on data protection and regulatory compliance. Katharina is passionate about fostering innovation, responsible governance, and inclusion, consistently advocating for sustainable and ethical business practices in the international arena.

Eliana is the Policy and Legal Director with MIK. She has extensive experience in advising on EU contentious and non-contentious legal matters, working with a range of lawyers from various jurisdictions.

She is a Member of the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality & Anti-Discrimination Law and Co-Editor in Chief of the BCCE.  Eliana is the Secretary General of the EWLA. She coordinates various projects in the field of gender equality. She is responsible for relations with EU Institutions, having been a Policy Advisor at the European Parliament. She is a Visiting Lecturer at the West University of Timisoara and at the University of Aix-en-Provence.

Pavel Stoev is Chief Operating Officer at Pensoft Publishers Ltd. and Professor of Zoology at the National Museum of Natural History with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. His research interests include the systematics and biogeography of cave and soil-dwelling arthropods, the distribution of invasive species, bioinformatics, and data management. Pavel has been involved in the development of the publication and data management platforms of Pensoft’s open-access journals. He has published more than 180 peer-reviewed articles and participated in several EC-funded projects (PATH2INTEGRITY, EUROPABON, MAMBO). In IP4OS, Pavel is contributing to the communication and dissemination activities and co-leads WP5.

Natali Dobreva is a science communication expert at Pensoft Publishers. Within IP4OS, she supports the ongoing promotion, dissemination, and communication of the project's mission, developments, and outputs.

Natali holds degrees in Book Publishing from Sofia University, Bulgaria, and Cultural Management from UIC, Barcelona. Over the past three years, she has been leading communication packages for EU-funded projects in the fields of science, architecture, and design.

Lea is the head of the Central Medical Library at the UZSM and an associate professor. On top of managing Croatia’s largest academic medical library, she is engaged in teaching and research, publishing, expert committees and projects at national and international level. Her professional interests include scientific communication, publishing, open access, open science, research assessment, biomedical information systems and advanced information literacy.

Iva is an academic librarian with seven years of experience at the University of Zagreb, having started at the Central Library for Physics and currently working at the Central Medical Library. Proficient in database research, as well as library administration systems. She is an expert in subject cataloging and classification using MeSH and PACS, actively involved in organizing various user education workshops. 

Iva holds a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science, as well as Museum Studies and Heritage Management.