Annual I3 Instrument Forum 2026

Hugo Sobral
Deputy Director-General, DG REGIO

Hugo Sobral is the Deputy Director-General of DG REGIO, responsible for programme implementation. From 2019 to 2024, he served as Head of Cabinet to the European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms. Previously, he held senior positions at the European External Action Service, including Deputy Managing Director for the Americas and Principal Adviser leading the Iran Task Force. Between 2009 and 2014, he served as Member of Cabinet, Diplomatic Advisor, and Deputy Head of Cabinet to the President of the European Commission. Before joining the European Commission, Hugo was a Portuguese diplomat, with assignments including a posting at Portugal’s Permanent Representation to the EU. He holds a degree in International Relations from Universidade do Minho.

Moderator
Sander van der Molen
Managing Partner of Startup & Innovation Ecosystems, CIVITTA

Sander van der Molen is Managing Partner of Startup & Innovation Ecosystems at Civitta and a member of the I3 Instrument Support Facility team. He has extensive experience in innovation policy, digitalisation, technology transfer, innovation ecosystems, and startup and scale-up development. Within the I3 Instrument Support Facility, he contributes to stakeholder engagement and networking activities, helping to strengthen connections, collaboration, and knowledge exchange across the I3 Instrument community.

Jose Carlos Caldeira
Advisor of the Presidency, INESC TEC

José Carlos Caldeira is advisor of the Presidency of INESC TEC. He is member of the MANUFUTURE High Level Group and Chairman of its Implementation Support Group. He is also member of the Board of EFFRA – European Factories of the Future Research Association and member of the Association Delegation of IAM-I – The Innovative Advanced Materials Initiative. He is invited professor at Porto Faculty of Economics, on Innovation Policies. Between October 2014 and January 2018, he was the President of ANI – the Portuguese National Innovation Agency.

Eva Nussmüller
Head of Unit, DG REGIO

Eva Nussmueller is acting Head of Unit at the European Commission's Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO), currently leading work on smart and sustainable growth, regional competitiveness, and the Just Transition Fund. With over 15 years of experience in EU cohesion policy, she has contributed to key initiatives including urban policy, the New European Bauhaus, or cross border cooperation. Eva holds a Master’s degree in Economics from the Vienna University of Economics and Business and has lectured on regional innovation.

Francesca Doria
Head of Unit, EISMEA

Francesca heads the unit implementing placed based innovation support schemes for the benefits of regions, cities, clusters and other ecosystems in Europe and beyond. Her team is responsible for the European Innovation Ecosystem programme in Horizon Europe and for the I3 programme in the European Regional Development Fund.

Jan-Philipp Kramer
I3 Support Facility

Dr Jan-Philipp Kramer heads Prognos AG’s Brussels office and is responsible for its EU Services Competence Centre. He is also part of the I3 Instrument Support Facility team, contributing expertise on EU funding, regional innovation and programme implementation. His work focuses on European funding policy, strategy development and the evaluation of funding programmes, as well as transformation topics such as digitalisation and the circular economy. His clients include the European Commission, European associations, the European Parliament, and national and regional ministries in Germany.

Moderator
Susana Elena Perez
Senior Researcher & Policy Analyst, EFIS Centre

Susana Elena-Pérez is a senior researcher and policy analyst with over 18 years of experience in research and innovation policy, smart specialisation, regional innovation ecosystems, interregional cooperation and knowledge transfer. As a senior expert at the EFIS Centre, she has contributed to several European Commission initiatives, including the S3 Community of Practice, the Policy Support Facility and the I3 Support Facility. Currently, she coordinates the I3 Support Facility Policy Lab and its Discussion Groups. Previously, she worked for over eight years at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in Seville.

Karolien de Bruin
Teammanager Innovation Energy & Europe, Regional Development Agency East Netherlands Oost NL

Karolien de Bruin is Team Manager Energy & Europe for the Regional Development Agency of the East Netherlands, Oost NL. Responsible for accelerating regional innovation in SMEs driving the energy transition and European collaboration, based on the Think East Netherlands Innovation Compas on the themes Smart Energy, Digital Industry & Technology, Smart Food Production, Circular, and Medtech& Prevention. Proud to represent two European Regional Innovation Valleys: Gelderland and Overijssel. She has extensive experience in European collaboration, as former chair of the Vanguard Initiative. Active in EURADA, the European umbrella organisation of RDAs.

Adam Priechodsky
Project manager, Autoklastr

Adam Priechodsky is Project Manager at Autoklastr, the Czech Republic’s automotive cluster organisation, where he leads European initiatives supporting innovation, resilience and competitiveness in the automotive sector. He coordinates the Bridge & Shift project, bringing together partners and automotive ecosystems across European regions and overseeing strategic implementation, work packages and EU grant requirements. His expertise spans cluster development, regional innovation strategies, and facilitating knowledge exchange between advanced and emerging automotive ecosystems.

Cristina Baghiu
Hub coordinator, Digital Innovation Zone

Cristina Baghiu is an innovation ecosystem builder and Coordinator of Digital Innovation Zone, the European Digital Innovation Hub for North-East Romania. She has over 25 years of experience in business management, digital transformation and cross-sector collaboration. As founder of Atelierul de Idei and GoodTech Living Lab, an ENoLL-accredited Living Lab, she supports SMEs, public organisations and innovators in responsible AI adoption, societal readiness and access to innovation funding. Her work focuses on connecting European instruments, regional ecosystems and practical experimentation to accelerate sustainable digital transformation.

Marcello Colledani
Full professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Politecnico di Milano

Moderator
Wolfgang Münch
Senior Expert, DG REGIO

Wolfgang is a Senior Expert and acts as Deputy Head of Unit in DG REGIO's Smart and Sustainable Growth Unit.

Jekaterina Novikova
Deputy Head of Unit, Innovation Policy and Access to Finance, DG RTD

Jekaterina Novikova is Deputy Head of the Innovation Policy and Access to Finance Unit at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation. Her team works on the European Innovation Act, the European Innovation Ecosystems Work Programme and actions under the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy. A European Commission official since 2005, she has worked across policy and finance domains. As an EU Fellow, she spent a year at UC Berkeley researching how governments, universities and industry facilitate the transition of research to market. She is a Chartered Accountant and holds an MA in European Affairs from Lund University.

Ročāns Kristaps
Senior policy officer, Interreg Europe Joint Secretariat

Senior Policy Officer in Interreg Europe Joint Secretariat, focus on the topics of S3, Innovation, Digitalization and Industrial transformation. Previous experience in Project management in various EU fund programmes and Bioeconomy Cluster coordination and internationalization role.

Marek Przeor
Team leader Cluster Policy, DG GROW

Marek Przeor became a team leader for cluster policy in the European Commission DG GROW in 2020. Before he worked 11 years in DG REGIO developing smart specialisation strategies across EU and managing ERDF national and regional operational programmes. He started to work in the European Commission in 2004 after eight years in banks and management consulting companies. He holds MSc in Banking and Finance, MBA and graduated PhD studies. He speaks Polish, English, Italian, German, French.

Moderator
Rene Wijlens
Executive director, Cluster Sports and Technology

René Wijlens, MSc in Biomedical Engineering (University of Twente), is Director of Cluster Sports & Technology and Executive Director of the European Platform for Sports Innovation (EPSI). With over 25 years of experience in innovation ecosystems, cluster development, and SME support, he has led numerous regional and European initiatives connecting industry, research, and public authorities. René co-leads European Smart Specialisation Partnerships in Sport & Vitality and Health Resilience and is Coordinator of the I3-InShape project, building a network of Innovation Hubs to accelerate business creation, scale-up, and market uptake for SMEs across Europe.

Paolo Sospiro
CEO, Director, Assistant professor, adjunct professor and associate researcher, EUInnova, EUAbout, Università eCampus, Università Politecnica delle Marche

Bachelor in Political Economy and PhD in Development Economics. Assistant professor of management enginnering at università ecampus. Adjunct professor at università politecnica delle marche and associate researcher at the Centre for innovation and entrepreneurship of the università politecnica delle marche. director of the think tank euabout brussels which is specialized on twin transition on services of general interest. Ceo of the consulting company euinnova brussels which is specialized on supporting SMEs, local authorities and research centres on twin transition.

Sebastian García Galán
Full professor, University of Jaén

Professor García Galán holds a PhD in Telecommunications Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Madrid and is a Full Professor at the University of Jaén. His expertise focuses on the application of artificial intelligence to engineering. He served as Dean of the Linares School of Engineering from 2012 to 2020 and has been an advisor to the Spanish National Agency for Evaluation and Foresight (ANEP) since 2009, contributing to the assessment of research projects in the field of Electronics and Communications Technology. He currently coordinates the I3 project “Sustainable Innovation Investment Catapult for Permanent Magnets” (SICAPERMA).

Lucia Gusmaroli
EU Projects & Internationalisation Area Manager, Catalan Water Partnership

Lucia Gusmaroli is EU Projects and Internationalisation Area Manager at the Catalan Water Partnership (CWP), the cluster for the sustainable use of water in Catalonia, Spain. CWP brings together over 170 water-related organisations to promote R&D and innovation, networking and internationalisation. Lucia leads the development and implementation of EU-funded projects within the cluster as well as internationalisation activities. She has a background in Chemistry, a PhD in Water Science and Technology and an MBA. Before joining CWP she was a researcher at the Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA), focusing on emerging contaminants in wastewater and surface water.

Michail Chalaris
Associate professor, Democritus University of Thrace

Michail Chalaris is Associate Professor at the Department of Chemistry, Democritus University of Thrace, and Coordinator of the I3 projects IRM HUB and IT4EST, advancing interregional innovation, resilience and digital transformation. He is Director of the MSc in Quality, Safety, Security, Health & Environmental Management (QSSHE) and leads interdisciplinary research on risk, hazards, crises, civil protection, CBRN, safety, climate resilience, environmental protection, AI-enabled decision-support, geospatial analysis, simulation and advanced training, bridging science, technology, policy and operational practice. He is also a retired Lieutenant General of the Hellenic Fire Corps.

Tomislav Pinter
Policy analyst, DG REGIO

Tomislav Pinter works at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO), focusing on interregional innovation and smart specialisation within Cohesion Policy. He contributes to the development and implementation of the Interregional Innovation Investments (I3) Instrument and its Support Facility. Originally from Croatia, he has a background in regional development, public administration and EU funding instruments.