New co-chair of Task Force Competitive Funding

Christian Gerhardts (TU Dresden) will be co-chair of Task Force Competitive Funding together with Wendy Sonneveld (Ghent University).

Christian studied environmental sciences at the University of Essen (Germany) from 1998 to 2006. As a student he was engaged in different areas of higher education policies – for example the university senate, faculty board and rectorate commission for development planning. From 2004 to 2007 he was a researcher in a project at Laboratori Nazionali Gran Sasso (LNGS). Between 2005 and 2007 he was responsible for the strategic and administrative management of the research project.

In December 2007, Christian joined European Project Center (EPC) at TU Dresden as project manager. From 2008 to 2015 he was head of the group ‘Education and Cooperation Funding' and since 2015 he is the head of EPC.

During his tenure at EPC, Christian has been involved or project leader in projects with partners from the EU, Balkan countries, North Africa, Middle East, Central Asia and South America (TEMPUS IV, ALFA III, ERASMUS+). Within the area of EU structural funds he also provided support for projects funded by European Social Funds and binational programs with Poland and Czech Republic. He is also an expert on Horizon 2020, and now Horizon Europe, at TU Dresden.

In addition, he works as external expert and is responsible for cross-sectorial tasks. He is an active member in various committees and workgroups on regional, national and international level and has been actively engaging with our association since 2017 (as Institutional Liaison, member of Task Force Competitive Funding and in a range of in advocacy efforts).

The appointment of Christian as co-chair of Task Force Competitive Funding further strengthens our association under our current work plan, and for the upcoming Work Plan from 2022 to 2023.