Ramon Puras
Dr Ramon Puras serves as Aurora Secretary-General since 1 May, 2024. As Secretary-General, he serves as chief operational officer and is the most senior appointed official within the Aurora network. Ramon Puras previously worked as the Dean of the Faculty of Education at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. He has led educational and research initiatives that have substantially advanced the pedagogical landscape in Amsterdam. His dedication extends to employing cutting-edge research and emerging technologies to enrich and continuously innovate higher education programmes.
Apart from his managerial commitments, Dr Puras finds joy in teaching an innovative course, Gastronomy, the Art and Science of Cooking, bridging his interests in science, cooking and education. This multifaceted approach highlights his drive to explore and foster interdisciplinary connections within the academic realm.
Freyja Oddsdóttir
Freyja Oddsdóttir is the Aurora Project Manager for R&I at the University of Iceland and the coordinating project manager for the RI project within the Aurora Alliance Horizon 2020 programme.
With an academic background in Political Science and Development Management, she has spent the last 15 years managing projects for the private sector, government and the third sector in Iceland, New Zealand, UK and Kenya as well as working in research support at the University of Birmingham, UK.
Prior to joining Aurora at the University of Iceland earlier this year, Freyja worked as a senior adviser on immigrant policy for the Icelandic government. One of her main passions is bridging the gap between research and practice by making the latest evidence more accessible to policy makers and the general public.
Dejan Lukovic
Dejan Lukovic is a project manager at Universität Innsbruck. In his role, he was responsible for establishing the framework for better sharing and utilization of research infrastructure and data within the Aurora Alliance.
Lukovic is currently coordinating the planning and implementation of a joint digital campus for the Aurora Alliance. He firmly believes that the creation of structures between universities that can be utilized in the best possible way by researchers, staff, and students alike, will facilitate closer cooperation between them and strengthen the European idea.
Sander Bosch
Dr. Sander Bosch is the Chief Open Science Officer at VU Amsterdam. In this role, he connects existing initiatives on Open Science and initiates and manages projects that work towards necessary Infrastructure, Support & Training, Community Engagement, Recognition & Rewards and Policy for Open Science. He strives to make the scientific process more transparent and its pillars (research, education, impact, leadership) more fairly and evenly appreciated.
In 2022, Sander took up the role of Portfolio Manager at the Dutch National Programme Open Science (NPOS). In this role, he was responsible for the creation of a Multi-Annual Plan (NPOS2030), which contains the vision, shared ambitions and key objectives of a broad consortium of Dutch Open Science stakeholders.
From June 2023 onwards Sander represents the Universities of the Netherlands (UNL) as a steering board member for the National Initiative Open Science NL (OSNL).
Sem Barendse
Sem Barendse is the Dialogue Coordinator at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (the Netherlands). Over the years, he has conducted research in science communication, dialogue, public engagement, and citizen science.
In this capacity, he has provided training to students and researchers in both the Netherlands and across Europe. His central question is: how can we ensure that dialogue takes a central role within the university?
In addition, Sem has a passion for everything related to science and media. For example, he creates videos on scientific topics and hosts the official podcast channel of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Studio VU.
Doris Alexander
Doris has worked in research management since 1994, taking up her current post as Associate Director of European Engagement in 2019 and is responsible for the development of strategies of EU engagement, working to get early insight on new EU initiatives so as to maximise the opportunity space for the University.
She has been involved in several EC stakeholder groups including the co-creation group for the European Universities initiative. She is a member of the Executive board of the CHARM-EU alliance and is on the advisory board of CARDEA (Horizon Europe project concerning professionalisation of Research management).
She was an EARMA board member and inaugural vice chair of the COIMBRA Group Research Officers grouping and is currently on the LERU ERPM steering Group as well as chairing the FOR EU1 R&I subgroup (a subgroup of the informal network of the first 17 European Universities alliances funded).
Helena Acheson
Helena Acheson has led teams in public agencies – Ireland, Germany, Lithuania – focused on Innovation, Competitiveness and Economic Development. This involved the provision of strategic advice on enterprise development issues, specifically in relation to research and innovation ecosystems, internationalization and regional development. Helena has hands-on experience in priority-setting exercises including Foresight processes, benchmarking, technology transfer processes, innovation support programs, cluster initiatives and, evaluations of same.
Helena has chaired and been an expert rapporteur for various EU policy initiatives inter alia Joint Programming, EU-US S&T Agreement, H2020 Policy Support Facility, Regional Foresight and, also regularly evaluates STI policies, programs e.g., FP7, COST and ITER and, projects (H2020, Horizon Europe).
Helena is Europe Director at UI Global – an international platform of innovation experts who promote and support international collaborations with partners to build healthy innovation ecosystems and accelerate the growth of ecologically sustainable technology-based businesses.
Helena has strong links with Canada – as member of ARIA, Alberta Research & Innovation Authority (2010 -2021). As Chair, International Evaluation Group(s), completion of evaluations – GOA Research Capacity Program (2019) and Alberta Innovates Programs (2017) (2023). Since 2012, Helena has been a Board Member, CONNECT (National Centre for Future Networks & Communications) Ireland.
The EC initiative targeting the emergence of “European Universities” is a current focus.
Olga Wessels
Olga Wessels is the Head of Brussels’ Office at ECIU (European Consortium of Innovative Universities) and Founder and Chair of FOR-EU1/3, the informal network of the first and third generation of European University Alliances.
She is also the coordinator of FOR-EU4All, the Community of Practice of all 64 European University Alliances. In her role as Head of the ECIU Office, she contributes to setting the agenda of ECIU at the European level, increasing the organization’s visibility as a potential and reliable partner for European institutions in debates on policy and programme developments.
Ludovic Thilly
Ludovic Thilly is Full Professor at the University of Poitiers. Since 2012, he is Executive Vice-Rector in charge of European Networks. Member of the Executive Board of the Coimbra Group since 2015, he was first elected Chair in June 2017, re-elected in June 2020 and again in June 2024.
Ludovic Thilly is a Physicist and works on the deformation mechanisms of (nano-)materials. He has co-authored 70+ publications in international peer-reviewed journals (incl. 4 book chapters) and given 50+ invited lectures at international conferences and institutions.
Professor Thilly is Coordinator General of the EC2U European University Alliance. He also coordinates FOREU2, the informal group of the 24 European University Alliances selected in 2020.
Jorge Molina Martinez
Jorge works as a Project Adviser at the European Research Executive Agency (REA). With a background in Environmental Sciences and Industrial Engineering, complemented with postgraduate studies in Project Management, Jorge gathers more than 20 years of professional experience in capacity building and internationalisation of Research & Innovation and Higher Education.
He has held different positions during his career, such as Research Assistant, Project Manager, Regional Contact Point for the EU RTD FP7 Framework Programme and Internationalisation Officer, working mostly for public education and research organisations.
Currently, Jorge is the Project Officer of the AURORA RI project, being also in charge of the management of other Swafs-related European University Alliance projects as well as Feedback to Policy and Communication activities at the ERA sector within unit C4 in REA.
