ICA-CoP Bio-Edu Workshop 2025 Keynotes & Panel Members Bios

C.R. (Nelo) Emerencia

After a career in the chemicals industry, Nelo Emerencia established himself as an independent consultant in the chemical, biochemical and education fields. From April 2015 through May 2022, he fulfilled the responsibilities of Director Programming for the Bio-based Industries Consortium (BIC) in Brussels. Since 1 June 2022 he is Director Human Capital & Stakeholder Relations for BIC.

Nelo studied Chemical Engineering at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. During his career, Nelo was seconded to PlasticsEurope in Brussels as Communications and Public Affairs Director. And later to the Dutch Chemical Industry Association in The Hague as Education & Innovation Manager, and Secretary of the Dutch Chemistry Board. In this last function, he led the bio-based economy activities for the chemical industry in the Netherlands.
 
Angelina Eßer

Angelina Eßer is a Transformation Manager at BioökonomieREVIER, an initiative at Forschungszentrum Jülich (Germany) that aims to develop the Rhenish mining region into a model area for the bioeconomy. With a background in psychology and sustainable agriculture, she works to accelerate innovation, foster climate-neutral and circular value chains, and strengthen regional value creation. She coordinates the Innovationcluster BioökonomieREVIER, which bridges science and practice to drive the transition from a fossil-based to a bio-based economy. The Innovationcluster focuses on innovative agriculture, biotechnology, and integrated biorefineries — creating scalable solutions, new jobs, and a sustainable future for the region. Education and collaboration across generations are key to this mission, engaging everyone - from children to professionals — in shaping a successful and lasting transformation.

 Sebastian Goerg

Professor Sebastian Goerg is a behavioural and experimental economist. He investigates how incentives, information, and (legal) institutions influence actual human behaviour. Together with co-authors from the social and natural sciences, he pursues an interdisciplinary research agenda.

Sebastian Goerg studied economics at the University of Bonn, where he also obtained his PhD under the supervision of Nobel Laureate Professor Reinhard Selten. From 2009 to 2012, he worked at the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods. After research stays at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the University of Michigan, he joined Florida State University as an Assistant Professor in 2012 and was granted tenure there in 2018. In 2018, Professor Goerg joined the Technical University of Munich as an Associate Professor. He heads the Professorship of Economics at TUM Campus Straubing for Biotechnology and Sustainability. At the campus, he is the academic program director for the study programs focusing on the Bioeconomy.

Han van Osch

As a human movement scientist I started my career at one of the founding organisations of Avans University of Applied Sciences at the Department of Health Care in 1990. After multiple positions (like lecturer, policy advisor, project manager and vice dean) in different surroundings I am at this moment working at the Centre of Expertise for the Technological Innovation in Energy & Material Transition (formerly Centre of Expertise Biobased Economy), www.mnext.nl.

I am portfolio manager at the Centre of Expertise and in line with that position I am responsible for (the educational part of) the Dutch Biobased Knowledge Network and member of ICA CoP Bio-Edu. We are, for example, creating online educational material, involving students in many projects and we have intensive cooperations with Finnish and Brazilian universities. As project manager of the set-up of the human capital agenda for the plantbased network in our region and the creation of a programme on lifelong learning for the chemical (technology) and energy transition domain, I am in the centre of the regional cooperation concerning the bioeconomy.  The other part of my job is to be work package leader in PIONEER, a European University Alliance (Home - PIONEER alliance). The main task for this work package is to shape the future of the alliance.

Giuseppe Pellegrino

Giuseppe Pellegrino has a background in agro-economy. He joined the European Commission in 2019, working at Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development, where he worked on political analysis on young farmer entrepreneurship and the European Innovation Partnership. He is now working at Directorate General for Research and Innovation, and he is in charge of analysing the bioeconomy trends in Europe, including bioeconomy education.

 Mona-Anitta Riihimäk

iMona-Anitta Riihimäki is Dean of the School of Biotechnology and Natural Resources. Mona is Chair of the Committee for Natural Resources Education, of the Rectors’ Conference of Finnish Universities of Applied Sciences. In October 2024 she started to act as a chair of ICA Community of Practice for Bioeconomy Education (CoP Bio-Edu). Lately she has been involved in national assessment of Bioeconomy Higher Education as a evaluation team member (Finnish Education Evaluation Centre FinEEC). In 2025 she’ll continue the work, when the role of sustainability in all education levels will be in FinEEC’s focus.

George Sakellaris

George Sakellaris is a board member of the Bioeconomy BioEast Hub in Czech Republic. He is Biochemist by training and his domain of expertise is Bioeconomy and the sustainable implementation of this technology for development and growth in a wide spectrum of sectors particularly Regional Development Entrepreneurship and Education. In parallel, he is the vice chair of the European ICA-CoP Bioeconomy Education and active in the BioEast platform on Bioeconomy, being a member of the Advisory Council and head of the Thematic Working Group on Bioeconomy Education. From this position he participated in the initiative of the creation of UniNet, a network on Bioeconomy-focused Universities in the CEE region. He is currently involved in numerous ongoing EC funded projects on Bioeconomy many of them focusing on Bioeconomy Education. In the past he has participated as elected and/or ad-hoc expert in numerous committees and Task Groups of the EC. He has also been a consultant on National level in Greece and in Czech Republic. He has participated in over 30 Research funded consortia and projects as a partner or coordinator. He has also contributed in more than 200 International events worldwide.

Matthias Scholz

Matthias Scholz is medicinal chemist by training. He graduated in 2005 and received his PhD in 2009 in the field of inorganic and biochemistry at the University of Leipzig. After a Postdoc at the Vanderbilt University in Nashville (USA) in computational drug discovery and structural biology he moved to field of pharmacy. At the University of Bonn he was exploring as PI small molecule drugs, at the University of Cologne he was performing peptide chemistry and at the University of Zurich radiochemistry. He has several years of university teaching experience in the field of chemistry, pharmacy and radiation protection courses. In 2021 he moved to Munich to Chemical Cluster Bavaria to support the technology transfer of the Bioeconomy TUM Campus in Straubing. Additionally, he was coordinator of the innovation council of the Bavarian chemical Industry Association. Since 2023 he is heading (form TUM-Institute for LifeLong Learning) the TransBIB network which he was initiating by funds from at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. Since 2024 he is start-up mentor for Start2 – German Accelerator where he supports start-ups from all over the world. Additionally, he is farmer and forester cultivating novel plants for bioeconomic applications.

Raymond Sparreboom

Raymond Sparreboom works at the Academy for Technology and Innovation at Avans University of Applied Sciences and is a researcher at the Centre of Expertise ‘Perspective in Health’. His research focuses on the co-design of human-centred AI within the healthcare and welfare domain. One example is a project exploring how AI-driven technology for cognitive stimulation, can be co-developed with people in the early stages of dementia, with the aim of supporting independent and dignified living at home for as long as possible. Raymond is also founder and program leader of Urban Living Lab Breda —a city-wide strategic partnership between higher education (both education and research), vocational education, and the municipality of Breda. With a background in Communication Science and Civil Engineering, Raymond has previously focused on the social acceptance of technology.

Christain Theel

Christian is a geographer with a diploma from Bonn University and a phD from Humboldt-University Berlin. He researched on land use conflicts before being responsible for rural development on the island of Rügen/Germany. After working two years as a senior advisor International Affairs for a regional development agency in Denmark, he joined the Leibniz-Institute for Plasma Science and Technology as project leader for technology transfer. Between 2016 and 2019, he was CEO of two companies producing plasma devices for the use in human and veterinary medicine. He joined the University in Greifswald 2019 to build up a regional bioeconomy cluster, which includes around 120 partners by now.