Thursday 14th January 2021
Janka Mátrai, PhD is a scientific officer at the ERCEA - The Executive Agency of the European Research Council (ERC), Life Sciences Unit, Brussels, Belgium (https://erc.europa.eu/). She is at the forefront of scientific regulation and policy, with responsibilities for the whole life cycle of applications, grants and various steps of the grant evaluation process. She is also involved in the widening participation campaign which aims to close the gap between the EU13 countries and the rest of the EU. Prior to this, Janka worked as a scientific/technical project officer at the European Commission, Joint Research Centre – Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements in the Standards for Innovation and Sustainable Development, Reference Materials for Biotechnology and Life Sciences Unit (June 2013 – February 2016).
Her PhD was completed in July 2005 at the Catholic University of Leuven (KUL), Leuven, Belgium, supported by a Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) grant. After which she continued with scientific research as a postdoctoral research scientist in areas of Biochemistry and Bioinformatics in the field of Molecular Modeling and Drug Design at KUL, FWO (July 2005 – May 2006); Fundamental and Translational Medical Research at the KUL-VIB, Vesalius Research Centre (May 2006 – December 2010); Gene Therapy and Regenerative Medicine at Janssen Pharmaceuticals-VIB-KUL, VUB (January 2011 – December 2012).
Janka has earned several national and international prizes and fellowships: EHA, AFM France, J&J-COSAT-IWT, FWO, co-authored two book chapters and contributed to over 18 scientific publications in top international journals (IF>10, 5), many of them in international collaborations. She is also a member of the Association for Glycogen Storage Disease UK, and cofounder of the Belgian Club of Hungarian Scientists (https://www.facebook.com/BMTK2013).