Lidia Borrell-Damián is the Secretary General of Science Europe, the association representing major public organisations that fund or perform excellent, ground-breaking research in Europe. She holds overall responsibility for the strategy and functioning of the organisation. Prior to this she worked for the European University Association (EUA) between 2006 and 2014. During the last five years in EUA she served as its Director for Research and Innovation (R&I), holding responsible for the overall strategy and activities of EUA in the area, working with EUA individual universities as well as the National Rectors’ Conferences.
Her areas of experience cover a wide range of EU R&I priorities, including the EU Framework Programme; European Research Area; research infrastructures; research ethics and integrity; research assessment processes; university-business cooperation; regional innovation; gender issues in research; Digital Agenda and Open Science. She also worked on doctoral education through the EUA-Council for Doctoral Education (EUA-CDE), and coordinated scientific policy input to the European Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan) through the European Platform of Universities in Energy (EUA-EPUE).
Lidia Borrell-Damian holds a Doctorate in Chemistry (Chemical Engineering Specialty; Solar Energy) from the University of Barcelona. Prior to joining EUA, she was Director of Research at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona from 2003-2005. Before then she was Visiting Scholar at the University of Western Ontario (1999-2001) and at the North Carolina State University (1997-1998).