Lidia Borrell-Damian

Lidia Borrell-Damian has worked for EUA since 2006 and has served as Director for Research and Innovation (R&I) since January 2014. She is responsible for supporting the work and enhancing the role of universities as major research and innovation organisations at the European level.

Her responsibilities include the coordination of policy input based on the evidence and practice provided by EUA individual members and the National Rectors’ Conferences. She is also in charge of policy input in collaboration with other major pan-European university networks and relevant stakeholders in the R&I sector. Her areas of work and activities cover a wide range of current EU priorities, namely the Horizon 2020 programme and its successor Framework Programme 9 (FP9); the European Research Area; research infrastructures; research integrity; university-business cooperation and other research partnerships; Regional Innovation Strategies for Smart Specialisation (RIS3); the Digital Agenda and Open Science. She also addresses the broad fields of doctoral education and academic careers in collaboration with the EUA-Council for Doctoral Education (EUA-CDE). As part of the EUA strategy in the field of energy as a fundamental societal challenge, she coordinates scientific and 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. She has also worked in the private sector in a chemical company in Spain as the R&D Deputy Director from 2001-2003. Previously she was a researcher and an Assistant Professor at the University of Barcelona from 1990-1998; a Visiting Scholar at North Carolina State University (USA), 1997-1998; and a Post-Doctoral Researcher at The University of Western Ontario (Canada), 1999-2000.