Agenda

Stefaan HERMANS is Director Competitiveness, Talent Mobility and International Cooperation in the Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture at the European Commission. He was previously Director of Policy Strategy and Evaluation in the same DG. He was also Head of Cabinet of the Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility, Marianne Thyssen. Before that, he held a wide range of posts in other DGs, including Head of the ‘Universities and Researchers’, ‘Skills’, and ‘Reflective Societies’ Units in DG Research and Innovation, and Secretary of the Employment Committee of the European Union. He also lectures on EU Affairs at the KU Leuven.

Dr. Ricardo Baptista Leite is a Portuguese-Canadian medical doctor trained in infectious diseases with extensive experience in global health, health systems and science-based policymaking. Before his current role as CEO of 'HealthAI - The Global Agency for Responsible AI in Health' in Geneva, Ricardo served four terms as a Member of Parliament in Portugal, serving on both the health and foreign affairs committees.

Ricardo is a city councilor in Sintra and previously served as Deputy Mayor of Cascais. He is the founder and President of the 'UNITE Parliamentarians Network for Global Health,' a network of current and former policymakers from 110 countries. With more than 15 years of academic experience, he is Chair of the Board of the Harvard-Charité Global Health Policy Lab, based in Berlin, and Chair of the Centre for Global Health at NOVA University Information Management and Data Science School in Lisbon. He completed postgraduate studies at Johns Hopkins University, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and Harvard Medical School. Previously, Dr. Baptista Leite worked as a practicing physician in the Portuguese National Health Service for several years, including an internship at the World Health Organization.

More recently, he served as a medical volunteer for over a year during the COVID pandemic at his hometown hospital in Portugal, and as part of a humanitarian mission at the Lviv Regional Hospital in Ukraine during the first summer after the start of the war.

In 2024, he was the first leader from Portugal to be selected for the Obama Foundation Leaders program. In 2025, Ricardo joined the UK’s National Commission on the Regulation of AI in Healthcare as a founding member.

Alfons Carnicero is an entrepreneur from Barcelona focused on using technology to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities. He holds a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering, specialising in Biomedical Engineering, from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, as well as executive training in entrepreneurship from Cambridge Judge Business School, EADA and ISDI.

His career began at Implantcast GmbH, a joint implant manufacturer, and Institut Guttmann, a neurorehabilitation hospital. In 2018, he co-founded ABLE Human Motion, a healthcare start-up working to make exoskeleton technology more accessible.

Alfons has been recognised as an Innovator Under 35 Europe by MIT Technology Review and as a “Joven Relevante” by Círculo Ecuestre. He also serves on the Steering Committee of the International Industry Society for Advanced Rehabilitation Technology (IISART).

Markus Kalliola is a Programme Director in the Future well-being solutions programme at the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra. He is the co-ordinator of the Joint Action Towards the European Health Data Space 2 (TEHDAS2) and Value from Nordic health data (VALO) projects. Both projects aim for the successful implementation of the European Health Data Space regulation.

Prior to Sitra, Mr Kalliola worked in the European Commission’s DG Sante where he was responsible for the cross-border healthcare IT projects. He has vast experience in data economy and in the next years he will work towards a healthier and fairer data economy for Europe.

Mr Kalliola holds a position of trust in multiple advisory boards linked to digital health.

Sofía Moreno-Pérez is a Telecommunications Engineer and Executive MBA graduate who has served as Director of VALDE Innova since 2008. She specialises in Innovation Procurement, bringing a practical, demand-side perspective to the design and implementation of innovative public procurement processes.

She has more than ten years of experience in the field, including roles in the STOPandGO and award-winning RITMOCORE projects, and has coordinated procurer activities in the PCP projects ROSIA, TIQUE and CRANE.

Until recently, she was a partner and Innovation Procurement Expert at HIPPS, where she contributed to the development of support services for health-sector procurers and innovation providers. Her work focuses on aligning buyer needs with innovative solutions and strengthening the capacity of public organisations to adopt innovation effectively.

Biotech entrepreneur focused on bringing new medicines to patients and strengthening Europe’s biotech ecosystem. He co‑founded PhagoMed Biopharma and led it as Co‑CEO through its acquisition by BioNTech, where he then co‑led the Austrian R&D hub and brought new drug candidates into the clinic. Alexander is now building his new venture Sameric Bio to close Europe’s translation gap by advancing promising biology to clinical proof‑of‑concept. He also invests in early‑stage health and deep‑tech companies through LANA Ventures and mentors life science ventures via the Creative Destruction Lab.

Cornel Amariei is a renowned Romanian inventor, speaker and entrepreneur known for creating .lumen, the startup that builds Glasses which empower the blind to live a better life.

Cornel was born into a family where he was the only person without a disability, severely limiting their mobility. Growing up in such an environment allowed Cornel to understand the role of assistive technology.

Previously, Cornel was known for operating as Head of Innovation in a large Automotive company. For his work, he became the first Romanian inducted into Forbes 30U30 Europe, the Global Business Hall of Fame and JCI's Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World, recognitions associated, over time, with figures such as John F. Kennedy, Elvis Presley, and Levi Strauss.

Emmanouil (Manos) Tsiasiotis works as a research associate at the Graduate School of Economics and Health systems management at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. He is a civil engineer with a master's degree in public health from London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and is currently coordinating and managing research projects in this sector.

He looks forward to further developing his skills in public health with a variety of projects with the goal to support the international research community in improving life quality through evidenced based policies. He is the coordinator of the EDiHTA project, which aims to be the first HTA framework to assess digital health technologies.

He coordinates a portfolio of international research projects amongst which the Partnership of Health Systems Sustainability and Resilience (PHSSR) and national projects in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of Health and the agency for managing regional health systems (AGENAS). He is a member of the Health Technology Assessment International as well as the Italian Society of Health Technology Assessment (SIHTA).

Fruzsina Mezei, PhD is a health economist and health policy expert at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Rome, specialising in health technology assessment (HTA) and the adoption of digital health and medical technologies in health systems. Her work centres on harmonising assessment criteria for digital health technologies (DHTs) across Europe: she coordinated the European DMD Taskforce on behalf of EIT Health and currently contributes to the EDiHTA project. She also designs educational programmes and bootcamps, and advises and mentors technology developers on market access pathways across several countries. In 2022 she was elected to the presidential board of the Hungarian Health Economics Society, with a mandate to bring international digital health regulatory practice into the Hungarian setting. She holds a degree from Durham University, an MSc in Health Policy, Planning and Financing from Eötvös Loránd University, and a PhD in innovation management.

Laia Pascual is Investment Director at Ship2B Ventures, an impact VC based in Barcelona, where she leads investments in healthy ageing. She backs seed and Series A companies across healthcare, social care and financial health for older adults, from biotech and medtech to digital health and new business models, and sits on the boards of portfolio companies. She holds a PhD in Immunology and an Executive MBA, and her career spans biotech startup operations, accelerator programmes and venture capital. Women’s health is where her two interests meet. Laia explores women's health topics in a weekly, research-backed LinkedIn series, and is keen to see more founders and investors take on this gap.

Fabrizio Conicella is today VP Open Innovation & Competence of Chiesi Farmaceutici. He covered the CEO position in Life Science District, a Life Science Venture builder and he was European and International Affairs manager of Cluster ER Health , General Manager of OpenZone and Zcube, President Ephoran-MIS,President Parkinsoncare and General Manager of Bioindustry Park Silvano Fumero, offering also strategic expertise to different startups and organizations. Over the years he has gained experience in supporting organizations and companies in general management, in defining and implementing the R&D and innovation and open innovation strategies, in innovating business model and growth strategies, in the implementation of business development activities, in defining corporate strategies and in evaluating projects and business plans. He is also university and MBA professor in Innovation management.

Arianna Arienzo is the CEO and Co-Founder of VoiceMed, a digital health company pioneering the use of AI-powered vocal biomarkers to make respiratory health assessment more accessible and scalable.

Arianna has been working in digital health since 2020, combining her leadership role at VoiceMed with academic activities at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, where she has been a contract professor and lecturer since 2022 and, since 2026, coordinator of the Master's programme in Entrepreneurship in Sanità (Healthcare Entrepreneurship).

Before entering the healthcare sector, she built her career in technology and open innovation, working in Silicon Valley in USA, at Accenture in Italy, and on social innovation and impact projects in Ecuador. Coming from a family of doctors, her transition into digital health was inspired by the ambition to extend the impact of healthcare beyond what an individual physician can achieve through clinical practice, using technology to reach and support patients at scale.

In 2021, she founded VoiceMed Italia, leading the company from initial problem identification and concept development to 7 clinical studies, multiple technology proofs of concept, and 3 customer pilots, including a strategic collaboration with Chiesi Farmaceutici involving both a pilot and a commercial agreement. Under her leadership, VoiceMed has secured €2 million in funding.

Today, VoiceMed is developing two AI-based respiratory solutions, including VoiceMed Check, which uses smartphone recordings of breathing and voice to help identify individuals who may be at risk of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Arianna is now leading the company's journey towards CE marking and European market entry, with an initial focus on Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain.

Arianna is a Fulbright alumna, Forbes Under 30 honoree, and TEDx speaker, passionate about translating technological innovation into accessible healthcare solutions that can positively impact patients' lives.

Teresa Riesgo has served as Secretary General for Innovation at the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, as well as President of the Center for Technological Development and Innovation (CDTI), since January 2020. She previously held the position of Director General for Research, Development and Innovation from July 2018. She holds a Master's degree and a PhD in Industrial Engineering from the Technical University of Madrid (UPM), where she is Full Professor of Electronics since 2003. Throughout her academic career, she has 

participated in more than 60 research projects—many of them international and in collaboration with industry—and has published over 200 scientific documents. 

With more than 25 years of experience in academia, research, and innovation, she assumed the role of Director General at the Ministry, where she is currently responsible for innovation policies in both the private and public sectors, as well as for promoting entrepreneurship in deep tech and advanced technologies.

Ana Isabel González-González, MD, PhD, is Head of Innovation Promotion and Internationalisation of Health Research at the Directorate-General for Research and Teaching of the Regional Ministry of Health of Madrid. She is also the EIT Health Master Contact for the Madrid Health Service (SERMAS) and its Legal Entity Appointed Representative (LEAR) for Horizon Europe.

A family physician and senior researcher, she has extensive experience in European collaborative research, health services research and innovation. Her work focuses on strengthening the participation of the Madrid health system in European programmes, fostering public–private collaboration and supporting the development and implementation of innovative solutions.

Her areas of interest include health data, digital transformation, value-based healthcare, multimorbidity and medication management, with a strong focus on translating research and innovation into meaningful impact for healthcare systems and patients.

Dr Moredreck Chibi is an international public health innovation expert currently leading strategic innovation initiatives at the WHO Regional Office for Europe. He has coordinated the development of the region’s Strategy for Harnessing Innovation for Public Health 2025–2030, as well as its regional innovation agenda.

Previously, he served as Regional Focal Point for Science and Innovation at the WHO Regional Office for Africa, where he contributed to Africa’s first regional strategy for scaling health innovations and chaired a UN coalition advancing the Sustainable Development Goals through science and digital transformation.

With more than 20 years of experience across WHO regional offices and headquarters, his work focuses on scaling health innovation, strengthening innovation ecosystems and fostering international collaboration. He holds a PhD in Medical Biosciences, an Executive MBA in Innovation Management and an MPH from Imperial College London.

Dr. rer. medic. h. c. Helmut Hildebrandt is CEO of OptiMedis AG. His focus is on the development and man agement of healthcare regions and regional care interventions. From 2005 to 2018, for example, he was Man aging Director of Gesundes Kinzigtal GmbH, which is responsible for integrated care in the Ortenau district of Baden-Württemberg, in addition to his role on the Executive Board of OptiMedis AG. He is also Managing Director of Gesunder Werra-Meißner-Kreis GmbH in North Hesse. As co-chair of the Heinrich Boell Foundation’s Health Policy Commission, Helmut Hildebrandt contributed to the recommendations published in 2013 for reforming the current incentive and remuneration system in the direction of quality and efficiency. He served for three terms on the board of the International Foundation for Integrated Care and for more than ten years on the board of the German Managed Care Association, working to optimize incentives for better health outcomes for patients, both nationally and internationally. He was also a board member of the German Network of Health-Promoting Hospitals and received the 2022 Forward Thinker Award from the Initiative Gesundheitswirtschaft, the B. Braun Foundation and Bibliomed-Verlag. The pharmacist and health scientist has many years of experience in qualitative research and conceptual work in health promotion and organizational development. He has worked for the World Health Organization and has advised hospitals, health insurance companies, associations, companies and institutions in the healthcare industry for over 40 years on organization, strategy and system development, including as a restructuring manager in the hospital sector.

Bruno Miguel Silva is a physician working in Medical Oncology and an invited faculty member at NOVA Medical School in Lisbon. His work focuses on cancer survivorship, personalised medicine, medical education and simulation-based training.

He leads the GENCareSim consortium, an EP PerMed-funded project focused on simulation-based education for hereditary cancer survivorship. His work also includes the implementation of clinical pathways and digital solutions in cancer survivorship, with particular emphasis on integrating patient-reported outcomes and personalised supportive care into clinical practice.

Noora Hujala (Pharm, MSc, EMBA) is the CEO and Co-founder of Solid IO, a University of Helsinki spinout developing a functional precision medicine platform to help personalize cancer treatment. She brings nearly 30 years of experience across the healthcare ecosystem, spanning clinical work, commercial leadership, growth and business transformation. Driven by a mission to improve how patients are treated at scale, she co-founded Solid IO with her scientific co-founders to expand patient access to effective cancer treatments.

Hugo R. Caires, PhD, is CEO and Co-founder of MYCancer, a Madeira-based startup developing bone-marrow-on-chip avatars to study how blood-cancer cells respond to different therapies outside the body, with the long-term goal of supporting personalized treatment decisions. A scientist-turned-entrepreneur, Hugo holds a PhD from the University of Porto, has authored 20 peer-reviewed papers with more than 7,000 citations, and combines expertise in tissue engineering, organ-on-chip systems and haematological oncology. After leading a nationally-funded academic research project in acute myeloid leukaemia, he took MYLeukaemia work through EP PerMed Venture Creator and EIT Jumpstarter 2025, winning first place in Healthcare and the Outermost Regions prize before incorporating MYCancer in late 2025. Within its first year, MYCancer reached the Startup World Cup Portugal Top 10, won the HealthQ UP Impact Award and became Overall Winner of EU InnoMedCatalyst, advancing Hugo's mission to translate organ-on-chip science into scalable blood-cancer innovation from Madeira, one of the EU's Outermost Regions.

Kathrin Hetz is a public health professional who has been working with the World Health Organization since 2020. Her current work at the WHO Regional Office for Europe focuses on harnessing innovation to address public health challenges. She currently coordinates the WHO/Europe Public Health Innovation Platform, supporting efforts to close the innovation implementation gap, bridging the divide between promising solutions and their adoption in public health systems. Through its mission-driven approach, the Platform convenes diverse stakeholders to identify innovations addressing priority public health needs, understand practical pathways to implementation and scale, and foster collaboration across sectors. 

Kathrin has worked across WHO regions, including assignments in Fiji and the Republic of Korea, gaining extensive international experience in public health policy and programme development. Her work has focused on the prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases and childhood obesity, the commercial determinants of health, including a strong focus on policies to restrict the marketing of unhealthy foods to children, and the promotion of healthy and sustainable food systems. Across these areas, she has contributed to evidence-informed approaches that address complex public health challenges and support the development of healthier environments and more effective public health action.