International Conference EU Funding for Defence and Security Projects

Oliver CusworthSenior Policy Advisor, The European Investment Bank

Oliver Cusworth is Senior Policy Advisor at the European Investment Bank based out of the EIB Brussels Office with responsibility for Competitiveness and Innovation lending policy. He has ten years at the EIB with several previous roles in the Bank’s Luxembourg headquarters. Previously, Oliver Cusowrht has worked for the World Economic Forum in Geneva and the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London.

Colonel (HAF ret.) Georgios KanterakisPh.D., National Representative HORIZON 2020/Secure Societies Programme Committee, Ministry of National Defence, Greece

Colonel (HAF ret.) Georgios Kanterakis is an aeronautical engineer, who concluded his PhD studies at the National Technical University of Athens. Further to his participation in R&D projects and scientific publications in the field of composites, he has been repeatedly invited by the European Commission as Evaluator of R&D projects in “Aeronautics”. Apart from his active duty in aircraft maintenance and support, he has been assigned from 2011 to 2015 as Section Head to the Directorate for the Management of European and Development Projects of the Hellenic Ministry of Defence (HMOD), coordinating the participation of HMOD in several co-funded R&D projects (FP7, H2020 etc.), mainly focusing in the “Security” area. Colonel Kanterakis has been appointed since 2013 as the National Representative to the HORIZON2020/Secure Societies Programme Committee by the General Secretariat for Research and Technology (GSRT).

Dr Juha MarteliusDirector of Research, Ministry of Defence, Finland

Dr. Juha Martelius is the Director of Research in the Finnish Ministry of Defence. In this role he is responsible for the MoD's research, evaluation and foresight as well as defence community RDI policy. Previously, he has worked as the Special Advisor to the Minister of Defence; as Counsel of the Defence Committee of the Parliament of Finland; as Head of Analysis Unit in the Finnish Security Intelligence Service and as Intelligence Analyst in the ICTY and held various posts in the academia.

Cyril MesseinSenior Auditor, European Court of Auditors

Cyril Messein is a Senior Auditor at the European Court of Auditors in the department in charge of external actions, security and justice. He has a 15 years’ professional experience in auditing (financial, compliance and performance) in both private sector and at the ECA. In particular, he led an ECA review product related to European Defence.

Emilien WateletChairman, Enterprise Europe Network

In 2012, Emilien Watelet was elected Chair of a sector group dedicated to Aeronautics and Space and enlarged the focus to dual-use technologies and defense. He manages today a group of 30 European regions active in Aerospace and/or defense and works in close collaboration with EDA and DG Grow. He joined a Business Innovation Center and became coach for startups in 2008. In the same time he worked for the European program Enterprise Europe Network where he became a member of the sector group dedicated to Aeronautics and Space.

Alessandro ZanasiPresident, Zanasi & Partners

Alessandro Zanasi has been working as a researcher, advisor and public speaker in the defence, security and intelligence areas for over 30 years as a Carabinieri Officer, IBM Researcher, University Professor and ‘Zanasi & Partners’ President. He has been Scientific-Technical Coordinator of two of the first PADR programme (EU Preparatory Action for Defence Research) projects: PYTHIA (Predictive methodologY for TecHnology Intelligence Analysis) in 2018 and SOLOMON (Strategy-Oriented anaLysis Of the Market fOrces in EU defence) in 2019. Alessandro Zanasi had been previously appointed full member of ESRIF (European Security Research and Innovation Forum) and of ESRAB (European Security Research Advisory Board), to advise European Commission in Security Research.