Major Marco Pinto is R&D National Defence Representative at Portuguese Defence Resources Directorate (MoD).

He is National R&T PoC for the EDA and National Coordinator for the NATO Science and Technology Organization.

He holds a Military Science (Aeronautical Engineering) by the Air Force Academy (2004), an executive program on entrepreneurship and innovation management at Católica Lisbon (2014) and a post-graduation in military and aeronautical studies from University Military Institute (2015).

He was Weapon System Manager of the EH101 helicopter until 2014 at Helicopter Division from Weapons System Maintenance Directorate. Afterwards, he was Project Manager at Programs and Engineering Directorate until 2019, where he was responsible for bid and tenders and management of I&D projects and aircraft modification programs with national and European funding.

Óscar Jiménez was educated at the University of Navarra on Biological Sciences and obtained a PhD on Molecular Biology in 1997 from Universidad Autonoma de Madrid (UAM). From 1997 to 2001 he held several postdoctoral research positions in UAM and Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Since 2001, he has been working for the Ministry of Defence, initially as a freelance biologist and later on as civil servant. With a great experience in the CBRN area, he worked from 2001 to 2008 in the Technological Institute of La Marañosa (ITM). His technical background is mainly on B- agents’ detection by molecular biology methods. From 2008 he has been working for the Under-directorate of Planning, Technology and Innovation at the DG of Armament and Material, holding several positions related to R&T planning as well as to CBRN defence, including CBRN project tracking. Spanish representative for the JIP-CBRN management committee and CapTech National Coordinator (CNC) for the EDA CapTech CBRN & HF.

Achilleas Stalios is B. Sc. Physics by the Aristotle’s University of Thessaloniki, Greece (High Distinction); Ph.D. Physics (Great Distinction) by the University of Antwerp, Belgium and Honorary Doctor’s Diploma by the Frantsevich Institute for Problems in Materials Science (IPMS) of the National Academy of Science, Ukraine (UA).

From 1981 to 1993 he was at SCK/CEN Nuclear Research Institute in Mol, Belgium. From 1994 to 2000, he was at DG JRC at the Institute for Transuranium Elements (ITU), Karlsruhe, Germany. From 2000 until today, he is at DG Research & Innovation, Brussels. Mr. Stalios also held different positions in the European Commission: Head of materials characterisation lab, JRC- Karlsruhe, Germany, from 1994 to 2000, Policy Officer, Directorate F-Prosperity, F4 Unit: Materials for Tomorrow, DG R&I (Directorate General for Research & Innovation) from 2000 to 2021, and he is currently Head of Sector B3.2 Advanced Materials at HADEA.

Submission

Giuseppe G. Daquino is a nuclear engineer, with a PhD in nuclear and industrial safety and a Master in Business Administration. He has worked at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (EC), at the CERN in Geneva and, just before entering the European Defence Agency (EDA), at the Research Executive Agency of EC as Project Officer dealing with Space Research. In the latter context, he developed a long experience in project management, the portfolio being mainly composed by space critical technologies, including materials and structures, and enabling technologies for satellite communication.

Dr Daquino is now the EDA project officer of materials and structures technologies. In this role, he contributes to the EDA Research, Innovation and Technology Directorate initiatives aimed at defining capability-led priorities and projects, he moderates and steers the EDA Member States expert group (CapTech) on Materials and Structures, he liaises with the EC and EU Agencies, companies and industry associations involved in military and dual use R&T in the materials and structures area of responsibility. He is also responsible for the maintenance/update of the Materials CapTech Strategic Research Agenda.

Erno Vandeweert is the Deputy Head of the Unit in charge of the capability development part of the European Defence Fund within the Directorate-General Defence Industry and Space of the European Commission. He received his PhD in Physics in 1997 from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium and joined the European Commission in 2005. After a long-standing career in EU project management, he is deeply involved in designing the European Defence Fund since 2016.

Prof. Raul Fangueiro is currently professor and senior researcher in the School of Engineering at the University of Minho, Portugal. He is the Director of Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Head of the Fibrous Materials Research Group of the same university with expertise in advanced materials (nano, smart, composites) and structures (3D, auxetic, multiscale) with 45 researchers. He is the mentor and the coordinator of the FIBRENAMICS International Platform (www.fibrenamics.com) including 350 partners developing promotion, dissemination, technology transfer and research activities on fiber-based advanced materials. He has more than 170 published papers in international reputed scientific journals, 450 conference publications, 36 books and 40 patents. He is the scientific coordinator of several national and international research projects on advanced fibrous and composite materials, mainly for building, defense, architectural and health-care applications.  He supervised various PhD and Pos-Doc scientific works and is the chair of AUXDEFENSE – World Conference on Advanced Materials for Defense and ICNF – International Conference on Natural Fibers. Raul Fangueiro is the founder of the WANFR – World Association of Natural Fibers Research, member of the editorial board of several leading international scientific journals on composite and fibrous materials, and member of several working groups of the European Defense Agency and NATO.

António Braz Costa graduated in Mechanical Engineering by University of Minho in 1989 and in Advanced Public Management from the National Institute of Administration in 2008. Since January 2000, he works as General Manager at CITEVE – Portuguese Technological Centre for Textile and Clothing Industries, CEO at CeNTI – Centre of Nanotechnology and Smart Materials, President of Textranet, the European Network of Textile Research Organizations, President of RECET the Portuguese Association of Technological Centres, Vice President of Textile ETP, European Technological Platform for the future of Textiles and Clothing, Member of the Advisory Board of ANI – National Agency for Innovation of Portugal, Member of the board of TecMeat – Agri-food competence centre for the meat sector, and CCG – Centre for Computer Graphics.

Retired Lieutenant General António Fontes Ramos is guest Professor at the Institute of Political Studies of the Portuguese Catholic University and Integrated Researcher of the Political Studies Research Center. His areas of research and teaching include Conflict Resolution, Crisis Management, European Security and Defense Policy and Russian Studies.

Gen Ramos is Vice-Chairman of the Board of EuroDefense Portugal and Member of the Military Studies Section of the Lisbon Geographical Society.

In the last years of his military service, he was the Permanente Military Representative of Portugal at NATO Military Committee and the European Union Military Committee, in Brussels; Director of Army Administration and Mobilization; Head of the Army Operations Division and Director of Strategic Studies Section at the Institute for High Military Studies.

He performed service missions at SHAPE’s Intelligence Division in Belgium, and operational activities in Mozambique and Timor. He was the Chief of Staff of the Mission of Portugal to the Peace Agreement Structures in Angola and assessor for the formation of the Angolan Armed Forces.

Contra-Alm. Mário Durão, graduated from Naval Academy in June 1971 and from Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, USA, as Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering in June 1977. Between 1984 and 1994, was appointed Professor of Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics at the Naval Academy. From 1994 to 2005, assumed top management functions in the ICT areas in the Navy and the MoD being CIO and Deputy Secretary General. Retired in December 2013. Since October 2014 he has been president of AFCEA Portugal.

Constantinos Charitidis is a Professor at the School of Chemical Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens since 2006. He is the founder and head of the “Laboratory of Advanced, Composites, Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology” and a collaborating faculty member of the NCSR “Democritos”. He has over 25 years of research experience in the fields of Materials Science and Nanotechnology, in Research Ethics and Integrity, and has been involved in over 70 projects, mainly funded by the European Commission. He has a total of 180 publications, resulting to approximately 5,262 citations. He is the author or publisher of 32 books. He has been an invited speaker to more than 110 International Conferences and is a member of the Editorial Board of 10 international journals. He participates in many major research panels of the EU DG Research (INFRAIA, Marie-Curie, ERC-Ethics among others) and has served as an Expert, Vice-Chair and Independent Observer on multiple program review committees. He has been the President and Organizer of 8 international conferences/workshops and summer schools.

Thanks to his over 20 years of experience working as a Director Innovation & Skills at Euratex and currently as Secretary General of the European Technology Platform, Lutz Walter disposes of a rich knowledge and unparalleled network of contacts into the European Textile and Innovation eco-system.

Lutz successfully coordinated of several large-scale EU collaborative research, innovation and networking projects and organised many large-scale European textile innovation events. He is the editor of several publications on textile research and innovation trends and is programme committee member of leading European textile research conferences.

Lutz is of German nationality and speaks fluently English and French. He holds degrees in Business Administration (Germany), Political Science (France) and an Executive MBA from Vlerick Business School in Belgium.

Dr Daniel Fiott is Security and Defence Editor at the EU Institute for Security Studies (EUISS). At the EUISS, Daniel analyses EU security and defence policy and defence innovation. Before joining the EUISS, Daniel held research positions with the Research Foundation – Flanders, the Institute for European Studies at the Free University of Brussels and the College of Europe. He teaches European security at the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy at the Free University of Brussels and the Brussels School of International Studies at the University of Kent.

Head of the Foresight Area in Isdefe, Mr. Gonzalez has 20 years of experience in the fields of Technology Watch and Foresight and innovation management in the defence context. Among other activities, he has taken part in the conception and definition of the Spanish MoD Technology and Innovation Strategy (ETID) and has participated or coordinated different projects for NATO, EU Framework Programme and European Defence Agency.

Mr. Gonzalez holds a Master in Science in Telecommunication Engineering from the Technical University of Madrid and Executive Master Business Administration from the ESADE business school.

Jean-François Ripoche joined the European Defence Agency (EDA) on 1 May 2019 as the Research, Technology and Innovation (RTI) Director. He previously held the position of R&T Director of the French Ministry of Defence. He graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique and the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Techniques Avancées and holds a PhD in laser Physics. He started his career in 1998 and worked across various domains in the defence procurement such as Optronics, Missiles, UAVs, Space and C4ISR. He also developed a sound experience of relations with industry.

José Agrelo serves in the R&D Planning section of the Spanish National Armaments Directorate. In his service he has been attached to the Spanish R&T PoC for 13 years now and so he has been closely involved in all the multinational initiatives tackled under the EDA RTI Directorate during these years. He also tracks the national implementation of the collaborative research projects. He recently took over as Spanish CNC for the Materials & Structures CapTech. He is also the Spanish National Coordinator for NATO-STO. He has a technical background in the area of energetic materials. He holds a degree in Chemistry.

Marco Manfroni joined the European Commission in 2016 as policy officer for digital manufacturing. At present, he works in the Unit dealing with Textile, Clothing, Leather and Footwear in DG GROW. He is responsible for the textile legislation and policies related to innovation, environment, and international affairs.

Marco is a graduate in civil law from Pontificia Universitas Lateranensis, Rome. He has carried out research on EU Law and International Law of Human Rights at the University of Valencia and the International Institute of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Marco also holds a degree in European Interdisciplinary Studies from the College of Europe in Natolin.

He has acquired diverse experience in the Brussels policy and political landscape, working at the Secretariat of the European Parliament. His mother tongue is Italian. He speaks fluently English and French and has a basic knowledge of Spanish.

M.Gen. Jorge Côrte-Real Andrade is Deputy Director of the Portuguese Defence Resources Directorate (MoD) and Deputy National Armament Director.

He is National R&T Director for the EDA and Principal Board Member for the NATO Science and Technology Organization.

He holds a PhD in Systems Engineering (Artificial Intelligence) and a Master in Military Sciences. His main areas of research are AI Decision Support, Strategic Planning, and Innovation.

He was Deputy Director of the Military University Institute, Director of its Research Centre, Director of the MSc in Military Sciences and responsible of its Strategic Planning domain. He served at the Planning and Policy Division of SHAPE, namely on NATO-EU relations.

Dr. Panagiotis Kikiras is Head of Unit Technology and Innovation at the Research Technology and Innovation Directorate at the European Defence Agency (EDA). He has more than 20 years of experience in computer and network engineering with strong emphasis in IoT, wireless sensors architectures and analytics, embedded systems, wearables, cyber defence, security and privacy and in mission critical C4ISR systems.

Prior to EDA, Panagiotis hold a number of leading positons in industry, governmental agencies and in academia. From his tenure in governmental agencies he gained significant expertise in managing complex European and National projects in the areas of homeland security and defense and in the design, development and management of large scale sensor based mission critical IT Systems. In Academia he is Adj. Assoc. Professor at the department of Computer Science of the Univ. of Thessaly in Greece, where he created, and was the Technical Director, of the Wireless Sensor Sensing Laboratory.  In industry he hold a leading management position at a research center of a leading innovative multinational company with track record of creating value both to customers, by delivering turnkey innovative solutions, and to research excellence by managing a research team which created new intellectual property and scientific knowledge in terms of patents and scientific publications.

Panagiotis has published more than 50 papers in scientific peer-reviewed journals and conferences in the areas of IoT architectures and analytics, cyber defence, security and privacy and is a Senior Member of the IEEE.

He is a graduate of the Hellenic Army Military Academy and holds an MSc in Management and Economics of Communication Networks from the Univ. of Athens and an MSc and PHD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens.