OUR LEADERSHIP: EXECUTIVE HEAD
The Secretary general of the FNR is the chief executive officer of the organisation. He heads the Executive Office, implements the strategy, oversees programme development and manages all running activities. He is appointed by the Board of the FNR, subject to approval from the government.
Marc Schiltz, PhD, MBA
Marc Schiltz was appointed Secretary General of the FNR in 2011. As of November 2017, he is also President of Science Europe, an association of major European research funding and research performing organisations. He holds a PhD in Physics and an executive MBA from INSEAD. He has been active in research and higher education for more than 20 years in several European countries and is a recognised scientist in his field of expertise. He has developed a thorough expertise in strategic research management and organisation. Under his leadership, the FNR has significantly contributed to strengthen the quality and impact of the Luxembourg research system and to build bridges with the private sector and the international scientific community.
BOARD OF THE FNR
Our Board supervises the organisation and approves the overall policies and strategic priorities of the FNR. It is appointed by the government and is composed of nine independent directors active in industry, business and the civil society. The members of the Board act in full autonomy.
Chair of the Board
Martine Reicherts
Martine Reicherts began her career at the European Commission in February 1984 in the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation. After holding several positions in different Directorates-General and cabinets, she was appointed Head of Service at the Office for Infrastructure and Logistics – Luxembourg in 2003 and Head of the Publications Office of the European Union in 2007. In 2014, she succeeded Viviane Reding in the Barroso II Commission as Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship. From September 2015, she was head of the Directorate-General for Education and Culture and retired from the European Commission in January 2018. Martine Reicherts is president of the Board of Directors of Mediahuis Luxembourg and a member of the Board of Directors of the Banque Centrale de Luxembourg.
Vice-Chair of the Board
Anouk Hilger
Head of Renewable Energies, at Enovos Luxembourg S.A. Born in 1970, Anouk Hilger received her master’s degree in chemical engineering and her doctorate degree in chemistry from the ETH Zürich. Prior to joining Enovos Luxembourg as Head of Renewable Energies, she held a variety of managerial positions in manufacturing, development, marketing, and sales with DuPont Luxembourg and DuPont Belgium.
Richard Sedrani, Executive Director at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (Basel, Switzerland). Born in 1962, Richard Sedrani has a PhD in organic chemistry (University Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris) and he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of South Carolina. He held various research positions within Sandoz Pharma AG and Novartis Pharma AG prior to serving as an interim member of the Novartis Pharma Research Management Board between 2000 and 2002. He was appointed as Executive Director at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research in 2002 where he currently leads a medicinal chemistry unit focussing on the discovery of new molecules with therapeutic potential. He received the Novartis Leading Scientist Award in 1999.
Yves Fromes, is a medical doctor (MD, Faculty of Medicine, Paris) and holds a PhD in Human Genetics (Université de Paris VII). He teaches Physiology at Paris Universities 6, 7 and 13 and is an associate researcher at the Paris Institute of Myology’s NMR CEA Laboratory. Prof Dr Fromes is member of the FNR’s Scientific Council since 2005 and also member of the ANR and FECECT Scientific Boards. He is also a member, amongst others, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the New York Academy of Sciences, the American Physiological Society and the Société Française de Génétique.
Jean-Marc Fandel, Jean-Marc Fandel, entrepreneur and non-executive director, received his master’s degree and PhD in Economics from the Ecole des HEC of the University of Lausanne, is an alumni of the Harvard Business School and a Certified Director by ILA and INSEAD. He operates a smart landing platform for tech companies into Europe and is a well known advisor and director to start-ups and scale-ups, capitalizing on research outcomes and valorizing talent. Prior, he held various senior positions in fintech, critical services infrastructure, travel and transport industry in Luxembourg and abroad.
Isabelle Schlesser, Director, ADEM, Luxembourg. Born in 1973, Isabelle Schlesser holds a Master 2 degree in European law and started her career in Brussels and Luxembourg as a legal advisor. In 1999, she joined Luxinnovation, the National Agency for the Promotion of Innovation and Research in Luxembourg and was appointed Secretary General in 2007. In 2013, she became Director of ADEM, the National Employment Agency. She serves as a member of the Board of the National Railway Company CFL and chairs its Internal Audit Committee since 2014. In 2016, she has been nominated as a member of the State Council.
Tania Brugnoni, Director, 1535° Creative Hub, Luxembourg. Born in 1975, Tania Brugnoni holds a diploma in Arts Conservation and Art Market. Prior to joining Ville de Differdange in 2002, she founded an art conservation company and taught in public education. Since 2013, she developed the first public hub for cultural and creative entrepreneurship in Luxembourg with nowadays more than 70 economic actors. She is a well-known advisor for small and medium entreprises from the cultural and creative economy and serves as a member of the Board of the public radio station 100,7 and as a member of the advisory board of the creative industries cluster at Luxemburgs innovation agency, LuxInnovation.
Stéphanie Damgé. Born in 1980, Stéphanie received in 2004 her Master degree in work sociology from the University Aix Marseille.
Prior to joining Jonk Entrepreneuren Luxembourg asbl, she worked in human resources for over seven years at KPMG where she gained significant experience in human capital and talent management coupled with business and strategic management.
Deeply engaged in entrepreneurship education, Stéphanie Damgé, joined Jonk Entrepreneuren Luxembourg asbl, member of JA Achievement, in 2013 as Director.
Stéphanie is also member of the board of IDEA Foundation since 2019.
Glenn Barnich, Professor Experimental Physcis, Université Libre de Bruxelles & International Solvay Institutes
Ex-officio (non-voting) board members
Marc Schiltz, in his capacity as Secretary General of the FNR.
The Government Commissioner
The Government Commissioner is a civil servant who is mandated by the Minister for Higher Education and Research to attend the meetings of the Board in an advisory function. He also checks that Board decisions are compliant with legal and contractual requirements and he has the right to inspect the management of the organisation.
For the major part of his professional career, Dr. Romain Martin has been Professor for Psychology and Empirical Educational Research. Besides holding a master’s degree and a PhD in differential and educational psychology from the University of Nancy II, Dr. Martin is also a certified primary school teacher and registered state psychologist in Luxembourg. His research interests include life-long learning, cognitive neuroscience in an educational context, large-scale and longitudinal educational studies and the development of new educational assessment and learning tools with a specific focus on technology-enhanced tools. A pioneer in computer-based testing, he initiated an open-source computer-based testing platform used in several large-scale international studies. This project has led to the creation of a spin-off company in 2013 of which Dr. Martin has been one of the co-founders.
Dr. Martin has co-authored a large number of peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and books on applied cognitive science and assessment. He was involved in major international comparative large-scale studies, including the “PISA Program for International Student Assessment” and the “PIAAC Program for the International Assessment of Adult’s Competencies”. His experience and his recognition as an international scholar are also documented through the participation in a number of international panels and expert groups.
From March 2016 until March 2019, Dr. Martin has been Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs of the University of Luxembourg. Among other things, one of his main objectives were to fulfil the mission that the University of Luxembourg has in terms of skilling and re-skilling for the ongoing and upcoming digitalization of the country. He has been president of the management board of the newly founded University of Luxembourg Competence Centre, which is a lifelong learning institute that should help to fulfil the abovementioned mission.
In 2018, Dr. Martin has been nominated “Digital Champion” for Luxembourg by Prime-Minister Xavier Bettel. Digital Champions are ambassadors for the Digital Single Market, appointed by their Members States to help every European become digital. They are people who lead innovative projects in ICT education, digital inclusion, access and e-government.
Since April 1st 2019, Dr. Martin is a senior government advisor at the Ministry of Higher Education and Research in charge of strategy and policy making for higher education and research at the national level.
SCIENTIFIC COUNCIL OF THE FNR
Our Scientific Council acts as an advisory body to the FNR. Appointed by the Government, it is composed of international experts. The current scientific council was appointed by ministerial decree in October 2020.
Chair of the Scientific Council
Nadine C. Martin MD
Nadine C. Martin is in charge of Innovation Management at sitem-insel AG since 2015. Her particular interests go to Open Innovation in the Life Science sector and how to foster interdisciplinary collaboration for the benefit of translating ideas and research results faster.
She holds an MD and a specialist degree in Anaesthesiology from the University of Louvain. She practised in Belgium and in Switzerland and performed specialised trainings in UK, Germany, Spain and Nepal. To satisfy her curiosity in research, she moved into the pharmaceutical industry in 1993. She acquired a Swiss FMH specialist degree in pharmaceutical medicine in 1999 while holding various local and global director and VP positions in large and middle-sized international companies. Over the years she covered the many topics of pharmaceutical medicine such as clinical research, drug safety and risk management, medical affairs, translational medicine, regulatory affairs, business development and due diligence projects. She was a tutor to trainees in pharmaceutical medicine for many years. After 20+ years experience in the pharmaceutical industry, she acquired a certificate in Innovation Management from LIMAK University of Linz 2015. Nadine also served as Vice-President of the Board of the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH) from 2015 to 2019. She was Mentor at SwissCompanyMakers in 2018 and is an expert judge and mentor at MassChallenge Switzerland since 2016.
Vice Chair of the Scientific Council
Gabriele Dobenecker
Gabriele Dobenecker holds a Master in Computer Science from the University of Hamburg. She spent over 20 years in IT and high tech industries. Beginning of 2007 Gabriele Dobenecker started at Empa, the the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, heading their Marketing, Knowledge and Technology Transfer section. Since autumn 2018 she is responsible for the Empa Zukunftsfonds, Entrepreneurship & Industry Relations.
Prof. Dr Yves Cocard is lecturer in Educational and Social Sciences at the Pedagogical Universities in Berne and Lucerne. He holds a Dr. phil of the Fribourg University. Dr Cocard was a panel member of the FNR’s AFR funding scheme and contributed as an expert to the FNR’s Foresight Study.
Dr Patrycja Paruch is an Associate Professor at the University of Geneva. She holds a PhD in Physics from the University of Geneva. She has been awarded with the Swiss Physical Society IBM Prize for Condensed Matter Physics as well as the European Science Foundation THIOX award for young researchers in 2005.
Prof Dr Burkhard Stiller is full professor at the University of Zürich UZH, Switzerland, leading the Communication Systems Group CSG, Department of Informatics IfI. He holds a Diplom-Informatik (MSc) and a Dr. rer.-nat. degree in Computer Science from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany. He is/was leading academic and industrial research rojects specifically in the Communications, Network and Service Management, and Blockchain domains.
Prof Dr Nicolas Gengler (Recipient ADSA J.L. Lush Award 2019) heads Genetics, Genomics and Modeling and Animal Science at the University of Liège – Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, Belgium. He holds degrees in Animal Agriculture, Statistics and Computer Science, and Animal Breeding, was a panel member of the FNR’s AFR funding scheme and is directing academic and industrial research in animal improvement.
Prof Rachel C Chambers (PhD, FRSB) is Professor of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology and Director of the Centre for Inflammation and Tissue Repair (CITR) within the Division of Medicine at University College London CITR.
Prof Jane Elliott CBE FAcSS is Professor of Sociology at the University of Exeter. From October 2014 to September 2017 she was chief executive of the Economic and Social Research Council in the United Kindgom.
Dr Georges Thielen is Manager Governmental Relations and R&D Partnerships at the Goodyear Innovation Center. He is experienced in Research & Development with a demonstrated history of working in industry, boards of associations and public research centers. Skilled in Open Innovation Management, State Aid Programs Management, Public Private Partnerships and Material Science, he is responsible of Goodyear’s collaboration projects with the Luxembourg Public Research. He holds a PhD Degree in Polymer Chemistry from University Hannover and the German Rubber Institute. He is a member of several scientific boards in Germany and an elected member of the Chamber of Commerce in Luxembourg.
RELATED DOCUMENTS
FNR Publications [rapport annuel etc.] as well as additional FNR Documents [ROI, VSG, Board decisions] are located in the section FNR Publications.