- Published on 19 Feb 2018
- External News
Dr. Sabine Herlitschka elected as new Chair of ECSEL Joint Undertaking
Brussels, 15th February 2018
PRESS RELEASE – Dr Sabine Herlitschka elected as the new Chair of ECSEL Joint Undertaking
The Governing Board of the ECSEL Joint Undertaking is happy and proud to announce the election of Dipl-Ing Dr Sabine Herlitschka as the new Chairperson. Dr Herlitschka, presently Chief Executive Officer of Infineon Technologies Austria AG, succeeds Andrea Cuomo (STMicroelectronics), whose mandate now expires.
Dr. Herlitschka combines a broad spectrum of expertise in industry, university management and funding agencies. Before joining Infineon Technologies Austria, she was Director of European and International Programmes in the Austrian Research Promotion Agency. For more than 20 years she has been involved in strategic international and European research, technology and innovation activities, particularly with the U.S. Since the 4th EU Framework Programme she has been involved in European Research & Innovation Programmes as Coordinating National Contact Point, project coordinator & proposal evaluator, as well as member of influential European & international expert groups. Currently, she is member of the Horizon 2020 High Level Strategy Group on Industrial Technologies that is tasked to provide strategic input for the future development of the 9th EU Framework Programme with respect to Industrial and Key Enabling Technologies.
ECSEL JU operates an ambitious Research, Development and Innovation programme that will combine EU funding (from Horizon 2020) together with National funds from ECSEL Participating States and the Private sector, to leverage a total investment approaching 5Bn EUR over its lifetime: Electronic Components and Systems (ECS), being at the core of virtually all economic sectors, have unparalleled impact for the economy and for society and in Europe, and are therefore a Key Enabling Technology of considerable significance for Europe.
In a joint statement from the three Industry Associations, AENEAS, ARTEMIS-IA and EPoSS, who are members of the ECSEL Public-Private Partnership, they declare “ECSEL’s private members are very happy that Sabine Herlitschka has accepted to be nominated, and are delighted that the Governing Board has today elected her as its Chair. We look forward to benefiting from her experience and guidance as ECSEL JU continues to move onwards and upwards.”
Khalil Rouhana, Deputy Director-General of DG CONNECT at the European Commission, declared:
"We are pleased that the three Industry Associations have agreed to propose Dr. Herlitschka as a candidate, given that she has all the experience and track record needed to perform this task. We would also like to thank Mr. Cuomo for all the work done during his Chairmanship and for his commitment to ECSEL.".
Ben Ruck, Chairperson of the ECSEL Public Authorities’ Board (PAB), looks forward to working closely together with Sabine Herlitschka. “The Chairperson of the Governing Board can provide important guidance to the direction of the ECSEL programme. I will be very interested in exchanging new ideas and views with Sabine, in order to strengthen the impact of ECSEL.”
ECSEL JU’s Executive Director, Bert De Colvenaer, added: “I think I can speak on behalf of all of our stakeholders when I say that we all very much welcome the election of Dr. Herlitschka. Like her predecessor, Andrea Cuomo, she brings a broad base of experience that will certainly consolidate and expand our community, at all levels of the ECS technology supply chain. Joint Undertakings thrive because – like their name says – we do things together. Expanding our community while at the same time ensuring unity around a common vision is vital, and the experience of our new Chair reaffirms this ideal. We also wish to thank Andrea Cuomo for the effort and dedication he has shown to ECSEL JU. As the father of the Lighthouse Initiatives, he leaves ECSEL JU as a strong and focussed organisation, with great ideas, ambitions and prospects for the future.”
Sabine Herlitschka: “I thank the Governing Board for its trust. ECSEL JU plays a central role for a strong Europe in a knowledge-based and increasingly digital economy and society. In a fiercely competitive global environment, ECS as key technologies are particularly challenged. ECS is inseparably linked to many other innovative industry sectors, and thus strongly contributes to keep, or even to bring back, manufacturing in Europe, to master grand challenges like climate change and ageing society, and to improve citizens´ living standards throughout Europe. Therefore, we must succeed in jointly strengthening Europe’s innovative power and set the right course for the 9th EU Framework Programme. I look forward to actively contributing to this important process.”
Dr Herlitschka will take up office as of 15th February 2018 for a one-year mandate, from the end of the meeting until 14th February 2019.
Editor’s contact:
Alun Foster
ECSEL-JU Head of Planning and Dissemination
alun.foster@ecsel.europa.eu
www.ecsel.eu
About ECSEL JU
The “Electronic Components and Systems for European Leadership” (ECSEL) is a Joint Undertaking established in June 2014 by the European Union Council Regulation No 561/2014. It is a public-private partnership that will engage, for 2014 to 2020, up to 1.17 billion euro funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, combining it with a commensurate amount of national/regional funding and participants’ own contributions to leverage about 5 billion euro Research and Innovation investments in nanoelectronics, embedded and cyber-physical systems, and system integration technologies. The R&D actors are represented by the associations AENEAS, ARTEMISIA and EPoSS.
