Please note that we are fully booked and have opened a waitlist. In the Political Guidelines for her second term, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen heralds a Clean Industrial Deal for competitive industries and quality jobs, to be delivered in the first 100 days of her mandate. As universities of science and technology, we are convinced: Clean growth and global competitiveness can only be achieved by placing excellent research, cutting-edge technology, and engineering innovation at the core of this initiative.
Join us for a debate with high-level experts from the European institutions, academia and industry!
Next to inspiring discussions and networking time, the event will feature Phoenix, the newest, highly sustainable electric car developed by students at Eindhoven University of Technology, as well as further exciting examples of innovation originating at our universities!
Programme
This programme is subject to change.
The event is moderated by Katrina Sichel.
13:30 Registration
Armin Hartmuth
Director, Representation of the Free State of Bavaria to the European Union
Robert-Jan Smits
President of EuroTech and President of Eindhoven University of Technology
Panel discussion with
- Robert-Jan Smits
President of EuroTech and President of Eindhoven University of Technology - Rebekka Pontoppidan Tuxen
Vice-President, Novo Nordisk - Gerhard Kramer
Senior Vice-President for Research & Innovation, Technical University of Munich
Laurits Hytting Fiig, Gustav Juul, Gustav Minor Jensen – presenting LiftSync
Co-Founders, GGL Logistics
Tim van Grinsven – presenting the Phoenix car
Team Manager TU/ecomotive, Eindhoven University of Technology
15:20 Coffee break
Panel discussion with
- Thierry Coulhon
President, Institut Polytechnique de Paris - Maria Cristina Russo
Director for Prosperity, DG Research & Innovation, European Commission - Christian Ehler
Member of the European Parliament and Coordinator of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy - Judith Ay
Policy Director, European Round Table for Industry
Panel discussion with
- Anna Fontcuberta i Morral
President, EPFL - Mirjam Storim
Head of Strategy & Technological Relations, Siemens AG - Ralph Schmitt-Nilson
Head of Unit Strategy and Regulation: Single Market and Industrial Policy, DG for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, European Commission
18:30 End
Our confirmed expert speakers
Click on the photos to learn more about the speakers’ backgrounds.
Judith Ay
Policy Director, European Round Table for Industry
Judith is Policy Director at the European Round Table for Industry (ERT), a Brussels-based platform for CEOs and Chairs of leading European industrial companies. Judith runs ERT’s work stream on Innovation, R&D and Skills.
Prior to joining ERT in 2021, Judith has worked in various EU public affairs roles including the European Banking Federation, Finland’s Metsä Group and public affairs consultancy Brunswick. She holds a PhD in Economics from the European University Institute in Florence.
Judith Ay
European Round Table for Industry
Thierry Coulhon
President of Institut Polytechnique de Paris
Thierry Coulhon was born in 1958. He was admitted to École Polytechnique (1977), from which he resigned in 1978. He has an agrégé in mathematics (1981), holds a DEA in the history and philosophy of science (University of Paris I, 1985) and a habilitation to direct research in mathematics (University of Paris VI, 1991). He was assistant (1984), then maître de conférences (1989) in mathematics at the University of Paris VI, now Sorbonne University. He has been a professor at University of Cergy-Pontoise since 1992.
Thierry Coulhon was President of the University of Cergy-Pontoise from September 2004 to June 2008 and First Vice-President of the Conférence des Présidents d'Université (CPU) from 2006 to 2008. In July 2008, he joined the cabinet of Valérie Pécresse, former Minister of Higher Education and Research, where he was appointed Special Advisor, and then Deputy Chief of Staff. He was Director of the "Centers of Excellence" program at the Commissariat Général à l'Investissement from February 2010 to August 2012.
From August 2012 to January 2015, he was Director of the Mathematical Sciences Institute of the Australian National University in Canberra.
He was President of Paris Sciences et Lettres (Université PSL) from February 2015 to May 2017, after which he was appointed Education, Higher Education, Research, and Innovation Advisor in the office of French President Emmanuel Macron where he served from June 2017 to October 2020.
From 2020 to 2023, he was the President of the Haut Conseil de l'évaluation de la recherche et de l'enseignement supérieur (Hcéres).
On July 16, 2024, Professor Thierry Coulhon was appointed President of Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris) having previously held the position of Acting Chairman of the Board of IP Paris beginning in September 2023.
He is the author of over 70 publications in peer-reviewed journals and is listed in the Scopus database among the world's 2% most cited researchers by discipline.
Thierry Coulhon
Institut Polytechnique de Paris
Rebekka Pontoppidan Tuxen
Vice-President, Novo Nordisk
Rebekka Pontoppidan Tuxen is vice president of the Technology & Innovation area within Aseptic Manufacturing Science and Technology at Novo Nordisk, a leading global healthcare company. Novo Nordisk's purpose is to drive change to defeat serious chronic diseases. Rebekka graduated as M.Sc. Pharm from the Pharmaceutical University of Denmark (now: University of Copenhagen) in 2004 and has a PhD from the University of Copenhagen from 2009.
Rebekka has been with Novo Nordisk for 11 years in various leadership positions within Chemistry Manufacturing and Controls and Manufacturing Science and Technology. As part of her current area of responsibility she leads the Manufacturing Innovation strategic partnership between Novo Nordisk and the Danish Technical University, DTU, fostering innovation and development in manufacturing through university engagement and external partnerships. She is an established and experienced leader within innovation, development and implementation.
Rebekka Pontoppidan Tuxen
Novo Nordisk
Christian Ehler
Member of the European Parliament and Coordinator of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy
Dr. Christian Ehler has been a member of the European Parliament for Brandenburg since 2004 and part of the European People's Party (EPP/CDU) group. He has also been a member of the Industry, Research and Energy Committee (ITRE) since 2004, where he has been coordinator of the EPP group since 2019. In the mandate from 2019-2024, Dr. Ehler was, among other things, rapporteur for Horizon Europe and, in this legislative period, rapporteur for the research framework program FP10.
Christian Ehler
European Parliament
Anna Fontcuberta i Morral
President of EPFL
Anna Fontcuberta i Morral holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from Barcelona and a PhD in materials science from France. She worked as a postdoc at Caltech before co-founding Aonex Technologies, a startup that developed substrates for LEDs and solar cells. She went on to earn a Habilitation in experimental physics in Munich.
She joined EPFL in 2008 and was promoted to full professor in 2019. Alongside her research, Fontcuberta i Morral actively promotes education and supports young scientists and engineers, especially young women pursuing technical careers.
She became president of EPFL on 1 January 2025.
Anna Fontcuberta i Morral
EPFL
Armin Hartmuth
Director, Representation of the Free State of Bavaria to the European Union
Bio to follow
Armin Hartmuth
Representation of the Free State of Bavaria to the EU
Laurits Hytting Fiig
Co-Founder, GGL Logistics
Process and Innovation student at DTU, working from the Skylab incubator. Laurits leads system design and hardware iterations for our LiftSync technology.
Laurits Hytting Fiig
GGL Logistics
Gustav Juul
Co-Founder, GGL Logistics
Process and Innovation student at DTU, working from the Skylab incubator. Gustav is responsible for customer insights, industrial leads, and partnerships, ensuring GGL’s technology meets real-world needs.
Gustav Juul
GGL Logistics
Gerhard Kramer
Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation, Technical University of Munich
Gerhard Kramer is Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). He received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Manitoba in 1991 and 1992, respectively, and the Dr. sc. techn. degree from ETH Zurich in 1998. From 1998 to 2000, he was with Endora Tech AG in Basel, Switzerland; from 2000 to 2008 he was with the Math Center at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, NJ; from 2009-2010 he was with USC, Los Angeles, CA. He joined TUM as Chair of Communications Engineering in 2010.
Gerhard is an IEEE Fellow and a member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities. He has received several recognitions, including an Alexander von Humboldt Professorship and the Aaron D. Wyner Distinguished Service Award.
Gerhard Kramer
Technical University of Munich
Gustav Minor Jensen
Co-Founder, GGL Logistics
Global Business Informatics student at DTU, working from the Skylab incubator. Gustav is the head of software development, driving the digital backbone of our solutions.
Gustav Minor Jensen
GGL Logistics
Maria Cristina Russo
Director of the Prosperity Directorate in DG Research and Innovation, European Commission
Maria Cristina Russo is Director of the Prosperity Directorate in DG Research and Innovation. In this role she is responsible for Industrial research innovation & investments agenda, Valorisation policies and IPR, Industrial transformation, and Industry 5.0 and AI in Science. Previously Director for Global Approach & International Cooperation in R&I with responsibility for developing and implementing the EU international strategy for international cooperation in research and innovation and the international dimension of the Horizon programme. She has been working for the European Commission since 1992 where she held several policy and managerial positions related to external relations, the EU decision-making process and various EU policies, in particular Research & Innovation. Before being appointed Director, she was member of the Cabinet of the Commissioner in charge of research policy and Head of Unit in the Secretariat-General of the European Commission holding different positions dealing with inter-institutional relations and policy making, and in the department in charge of consumers' policies and financial services.
Maria Cristina holds a degree in Political Sciences from the Luiss University of Rome and a Research Master’s Degree in European Studies from the College of Europe in Bruges. She has three children.
Maria Cristina Russo
European Commission
Ralph Schmitt-Nilson
Head of Unit, DG for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, European Commission
Ralph Schmitt-Nilson is Head of Unit for “Strategy and Regulation: Single Market and Industrial Policy” at the European Commission’s Directorate General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW). The unit is charged with preparing the Annual Single Market and Competitiveness Report (ASMCR) and implementing the Internal Market Emergency and Resilience Act (IMERA). Previously, Ralph worked as Assistant to the Director General in DG GROW and as economist in DG ECFIN. He is a trained economist, holding degrees from Yale University, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and ENSAE Paris.
Ralph Schmitt-Nilson
European Commission
Robert-Jan Smits
President of EuroTech Universities Alliance,
President of Eindhoven University of Technology
Robert-Jan Smits is the President of the Eindhoven University of Technology (since May 2019). Prior to this, he was the Director-General of Research and Innovation at the European Commission (2010-2018). In this capacity he was the architect of Horizon 2020, the 80 billion EU Research and Innovation program. Smits has also been instrumental in shaping the successor program Horizon Europe (budget: 95 billion).
In his last year in Brussels, Robert-Jan Smits was the Open Access Envoy of the European Commission and developed concrete policy proposals aimed to ensure that all academic publications resulting from publicly funded research are widely available and accessible through Open Access.
Smits has received several recognitions and awards for his contribution to European science and innovation. He received the Academy Medal of the Royal Dutch Academy, the Excellence in Global Science Award in South Africa, the Medal of Honour of the KU Leuven. He holds an honorary degree from Edinburgh University, is an honorary member of Academia Europaea and is a Fellow of the International Science Council.
Photo credits: Angeline Swinkels | Fotograaf
Robert-Jan Smits
EuroTech Universities Alliance & Eindhoven University of Technology
Mirjam Storim
Head of Strategy & Technological Relations, Siemens AG
After studying humanities and social sciences in Freiburg, Ioannina (Greece) and Munich and obtaining her doctorate, Mirjam Storim initially worked as a strategy consultant at Mercer Management Consulting and as deputy managing director of the Eberhard von Kuenheim Foundation of BMW AG.
In 2009, she moved to the BMW Group, where she was responsible for various departments including the company's trade policy positioning, strategic resource allocation and value creation as well as innovation strategy and scientific cooperation. She also worked as a freelance consultant for Corporate Strategy and Identity.
In 2024, she took over the management of the "Siemens Research & Innovations Ecosystem" at Siemens AG, since February 2025 additionally the “Technology Innovation Management” within the “Foundational Technologies” of the company.
Mirjam is involved in a number of scientific and science-related organizations, including as Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees of the Fraunhofer Institute for Innovation and Systems Research in Karlsruhe, as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Hochschule für Philosophie and as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the R&D survey of the Stifterverband Wissenschaftsstatistik for the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
Mirjam Storim
Siemens
Tim van Grinsven
Team Manager TU/ecomotive, Eindhoven University of Technology
Tim van Grinsven is a Master student at the department of Mechanical Engineering of the TU/e, specializing in the processing and performance of polymer-based products.
For the past year, he was the team- and technical manager of the TU/ecomotive student team that built Phoenix, the car that is Made to be rebuilt.
In this position, he was responsible for bringing the different disciplines involved in the project together and for creating a safe and enjoyable atmosphere within the team members.
Tim van Grinsven
TU/ecomotive
Watch it, touch it, try it out! Our demonstrators
Wonder how the future could look like? At the event, you will get a glimpse into innovations made in Europe that help lay the ground for clean industries.
Phoenix
What makes Phoenix unique is that its materials can be closed-loop recycled up to 75%, where materials can be recovered and reused in their original state for new products of the same kind. Currently, this percentage is at 21% in the automotive industry, but the European Commission is on a path to significantly increasing this number.
Phoenix: The car whose materials can be closed-loop recycled up to 75%
Developed by TU/ecomotive, a student team based at Eindhoven University of Technology
XSeaO2
Producing synthetic fuels from abundant, renewable sources is a major challenge in tackling the current energy crisis. The XSeaO2 demonstrator will initially be sized for deployment on École Polytechnique's pond before being extended to a prototype operating in a marine environment.
Photo: XSeaO2
XSeaO2: Recovering CO2 dissolved in seawater to produce synthetic fuels
Developed at the Energy4Climate Interdisciplinary Center of Institut Polytechnique de Paris
Helios
EPFL’s Swiss Plasma Center is one of the world leaders in fusion research. Fusion is based on the principle that powers the Sun. It has the potential to provide everyone with an abundant, safe and clean source of energy.
Meet Helios, a machine built by five EPFL students that is capable of creating an experimental plasma.
Photo: François Wavre
Helios: Demonstrator of basic plasma principles used for fusion energy
Developed at the Swiss Plasma Center at EPFL
LiftSync
At GGL, we are transforming logistics with a simple, plug-and-play solution that creates a real-time digital twin of warehouse operations. Our technology allows forklifts to automatically track and locate pallets, providing instant visibility of goods without requiring existing digital infrastructure.
This means any warehouse, large or small, can modernize effortlessly—without costly system overhauls.
By digitizing logistics, we reduce waste, optimize efficiency, and lower emissions, addressing Europe’s need for clean and competitive industrial innovation.
LiftSync: Making digital twins for logistics easy and affordable
Developed by GGL logistics, a DTU start-up based in Skylab Lyngby
Hyperloop
Having repeatedly secured the title as four-time champions of the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competitions, our team has established its engineering expertise in the field.
As leading members of TUM Hyperloop, we have successfully developed and certified Europe’s first full-scale hyperloop demonstrator for passenger transportation and successfully performed the first passenger ride under vacuum conditions.
Illustration: Neoways
Hyperloop: Enabling new ways of mobility
Developed by Neoways, a spin-off of Technical University of Munich
Practical information
Date and time: Wednesday, 19 March 2025, 13:30-18:30 CET
Location: Representation of the Free State of Bavaria to the European Union, Rue Wiertz 77, 1000 Brussels
Registration: We are fully booked. In case you want to join the waitlist, please sign up here and we will inform you if a spot opens up.
Audience
This event is open to all who are interested.
Terms & conditions
By registering to this event, you agree to have taken note of the following:
- Data protection: In order to ensure your access to the venue, your registration data (salutation, first/last name, organisation, e-mail address) will be passed on to the Representation of the Free State of Bavaria to the EU.
- Safety: For your own safety we reserve the right to admit registered guests only and to carry out checks of ID cards and bags.
- Admission: Shortly prior to the event you will receive an admission card with personal QR code. Please present a printout of the admission card or the QR code on your mobile device as well as your ID card at the entrance.
- Kindly note that this event will be documented by photo and video. By participating you declare to agree that these photos and video recordings may be used and published.
Further information
For further information, please contact Astrid Kristensen or Anita Schneider (see contact details below).
