Lidia Borrell-Damián

Lidia Borrell-Damián is the newly appointed Secretary General of Science Europe, the association representing major public organisations that fund or perform excellent, ground-breaking research in Europe. In this new role she holds overall responsibility for the strategy and functioning of the organisation. Prior to this she worked for the European University Association (EUA) since 2006 and served as its Director for Research and Innovation (R&I) between January 2014 and mid-September 2019. As the Director for R&I, she was responsible for the overall strategy and activities of EUA in the area, supporting the work and enhancing the role of universities as major research and innovation organisations at the European level in coordination with EUA individual members and the National Rectors’ Conferences. 

Her areas of policy work covered a wide range of EU priorities, including the EU Framework Programme; European Research Area; research infrastructures; research ethics and integrity; research assessment; 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).