Team

Founder and chairman of L-up

Philippe Bellier

Dipl. Eng. SUPELEC, Master in Physics, MBA (HEC), CPA

Philippe holds an engineering degree (Dipl. Eng.) from Centrale Supélec (a highly reputed university in Paris), a Master of Physics and an MBA from HEC (School of Management, Paris); he also graduated from CPA (Centre de perfectionnement aux affaires / Paris, France).

Philippe started his career at the Thales Group in 1977 as Technical Department Manager, then Director of Complex Projects in France and Abroad (Thales, Sintra-Alcatel, Sagem), Quality Director (Thales) and Senior Consultant (Thales Consulting). In over 25 years he gathered vast expertise in managing complex projects, including ten years of R&D in radar technology, making him a renowned expert in this field.

In 1979, Philippe published a book on microprocessors to make this technology popular.

Philippe currently teaches Project and Quality Management as well as Design and Management of European Projects at the University of Cergy-Pontoise near Paris. In former missions, he lectured in project and quality management, certification processes, implementation of continuous improvement approaches and lean management in companies (Thales, Air France) and at universities (Enset Cachan, Centrale Supélec, Technological University of Compiègne, INRIA (French national research institute for digital sciences and technologies) and Ecole doctorale Paris-Sacla (university for doctoral studies in Paris).

Philippe is our S&T expert for Information Technology.

Consultant

Dominika Behrendt

Bachelor in Geography; Master in European Studies and International Relations

Dominika enrolled in a bachelor programme in geography at the University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznan, Poland. In 2008, she participated in the Erasmus students’ exchange programme and continued her studies at the University CY Cergy Paris, France. She holds a Master’s Degree in European Studies and International Relations with a strong focus on research and innovation.

Dominika joined L-up in 2011. Since then, she has acquired experience in EU R&D programmes in terms of proposal preparation, grant agreement preparation, project management, communication, and dissemination. She has been leading management and dissemination tasks and work packages in several projects starting from the Framework Programme 7 (FP7).

Dominika has been involved in more than ten EU-funded projects: SSL4EU, HYSOP and AFLoNext (funded under FP7), as well as AIRMES, Be-Smart, ECO-COMPASS, FIBRE4YARDS, INREP, MADELEINE, SENS4ICE and SuCoHS (funded under Horizon 2020).

Dominika is experienced in the administration of large international project consortia with up to 40 partners and important budgets ranging from €6 to €37 million. Two of Dominika’s projects even involved partners from China, Brazil, Russia, and the USA.

Dominika is our expert for Circular Economy and Communication/Dissemination.

Business Developer / Expert

Céline Germain

International Business Management; Master in Molecular and Cellular Biology; Master in Structural Biology.

Céline holds a research-oriented master’s degree in molecular and cellular biology from the University Joseph Fourier of Grenoble (UJF) in France. After graduating, she participated in a one-year research programme in the renowned LEDSS- UJF laboratory and earned a second master’s degree in structural biology. Subsequently, she enrolled in a one-year programme at IAE – Grenoble Management School to develop her management skills.

As a young graduate, Céline worked in a pharmaceutical company in the area of diagnosing allergic and auto-immune diseases for three years. In 2000 she became a consultant – specialised in the health sector – for national and European RD&I funding programmes. She has been involved in setting up 20 national and FP5 / FP6 projects as a junior consultant and 80 national and FP6 / FP7 projects as a senior consultant.

Today, Céline can look back on 21 years of experience in national and European funding programmes. She advises L-up’s customers in terms of matching existing and emerging calls with project ideas and performs pre-audits to assess the funding potential of project ideas. She is also an expert in the field of funding instruments dedicated to SMEs (H2020 SME Instrument, EIC Accelerator, SME Innovation Associate, FTI, Eurostars, …) and has been involved in the preparation of more than 40 proposals for SMEs under H2020.
She is also in charge of L-up’s business development.

Céline is our expert in national (Bpifrance, PIA, ANR) and European R&D framework programmes (FP), and in the health sector.

Senior Consultant / Expert / Chief Quality Officer

Anamul Andy Hoque

BEng (Hons) in Mechanical and Environmental Engineering, Master in Total Quality Management, graduate of the IBM Training Scheme (ICT)

Anamul (“Andy”) holds a BEng (Hons) in Mechanical and Environmental Engineering from the University of Brighton (UK) and a Master in Total Quality Management from ENSAM (Paris, France), a leading science & technology Grande École with an international reputation specializing in mechanical, industrial, and energy engineering. He also completed the IBM ICT Training Scheme.

Following initial project management experiences in multidisciplinary, international teams in various companies (Renault-Nissan, IBM, Michelin, ST Microelectronics), he started his career in EU-funded projects in 2002 and joined L-up in 2007. In his 19 years of experience, he has set up over 40 proposals and managed 20 EU collaborative projects (worth over 145 million Euros), as work package leader and co-project leader; the most recent ones in H2020 being HIPERION, Be-Smart, FIBRE4YARDS and ACASIAS. He assisted the preparation of project applications and management in the fields of ICT, energy/environment, materials and processes, aeronautics, space, and defence (FP7, H2020, including CS2). He is also acknowledged by BpiFrance to perform diagnostics in the defence sector.

Andy is our expert for Energy / Environment and Defence and our Chief Quality Officer.

Senior Consultant / Expert

Jetta Keranen

PhD in Materials Sciences, certified PMP® project management professional

Jetta holds a PhD in material science and is a certified PMP® Project Management Professional.

For over 15 years, Jetta has been involved in innovation financing consultancy, from evaluating first ideas to preparing project applications and finally managing granted projects.

She has accompanied the setting-up of more than 80 projects, notably within the European framework programmes (FP6, FP7, HORIZON 2020, Erasmus+, FEDER), but also within transnational (Eureka / Eurostars) and national (ANR, ADEME, Bpifrance, …) schemes, covering a large range of technology readiness levels and sectors, from materials science, energy and environment to aeronautics.

Her fields of expertise and interests especially encompass:

– Strategic consulting and training

– Engineering of innovative projects, setting-up of strategic business partnerships

– Establishing institutional and professional relations

– Project management in more than 20 European projects.

Jetta is also an Expert Evaluator mandated by the European Commission (MSCA & Science with and for Society).

Jetta is our Materials Sciences expert.

Senior Consultant

Magali Mares

Master in Cellular Biology, Master in Journalism and Scientific Communication

Magali holds a master’s degree in cellular biology (University III of Toulouse) and a master’s degree in journalism and scientific communication (University of Marseille EJCM).

Magali started her career working abroad and joined L-up in 2016. For the past ten years, she has been working in the field of setting up and managing interdisciplinary research projects. She has accompanied more than 30 projects since the 7th framework programme, including SME projects.

She also has been involved in the management of three H2020 projects in the fields of aeronautics, space propulsion and earth observation technologies, and one in photovoltaics, where she assisted project consortia with her legal and administrative expertise in EU funding procedures and her strong project management competencies. She regularly gives lectures on European projects (Master II) at the University of Cergy-Pontoise (France).

Magali is our expert for Health and EIC accelerator.

Consultant

Sofia Santi

Master in European Studies and International Relations, Integrated Trinational Bachelor in Germanic and Romance Studies

Sofia holds a Master’s Degree in European Studies and International Relations with a specialisation in European projects from the university of Cergy-Pontoise (France), and a Trinational Bachelor’s Degree in German and Romance Studies from the Universities of Bologna (Italy), Mainz (Germany) and Dijon (France).

Sofia joined L-up in 2019 as a Project Management Consultant. She has been involved in several collaborative projects financed under Horizon 2020. She has assisted the preparation of ten project proposals (financial, legal, and administrative procedures) as well as dissemination and communication activities in four running H2020 projects (LEMON, SENS4ICE, HIPERION, FOCETA).

Sofia has previous experience as a European and International Affairs Officer at Bpifrance, the French Public Investment Bank, where she advised SMEs in their efforts to access European funding programmes for innovation, such as Horizon 2020 and Eureka Eurostars. She also managed calls for proposals on joint innovation projects between Bpifrance and its international partners.

Sofia is our expert in Social and Human Sciences and Communication.

Consultant

Elisabeth Rouiller

Dipl.-Ing. (FH) in Leather and Footwear Engineering, Editor (German Journalists’ Association)

Liz is an engineer in leather processing and footwear production (Dipl.-Ing. (FH); University of Applied Sciences, Kaiserslautern/Germany) and a journalist (German Journalists’ Association).

She started her career as editor-in-chief of trade publications for industrial footwear production and then joined the adidas Group, where she held several communication positions in RD&I, IT and Corporate Communications.

In 2004, she moved to France and took up a new job for a testing and research institute for consumer goods as communication specialist, researcher in national and European projects, and trainer, particularly in the field of sustainable products and sustainable value creation chains.

Liz joined L-up in January 2021 and is our expert for Communication and Circular Economy.