Annual Event 2023

We are pleased to welcome you at our annual meeting on the 14th of June 2023 in Louvain-la-neuve.

The industry is challenged by multiple changes : societal, environmental, geo-political, and the consequences on supply chain, consumer needs and wants, new financial and non-financial reporting and the increasing need for people to make sense of their work.

More than ever, this is an opportunity for everybody to contribute and to address those challenges.

Please join us to learn how this is shaping up the industrial R&D work environment. We will cover 4 themes with a variety of information sharing, testimonials, and discussion panels. Subject Matters Experts from the Universities, the Industry and the whole Innovation Ecosystem will share their thoughts and experiences.

LOCATION

Hosted by AGC Glass Europe – Av. Jean Monnet 4, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve

PROGRAM

• Challenges and Needs
  Both point of views: Industry and Young Graduates
• Transition from the academia to Industrial R&D
  How does it feel like? Testimonials
• Future of works
  How does the way we work (in the industry) change?
• Diversity, Equity, Inclusion
  Walk the talk
• Interactive session & Networking
  Exchange ideas, learn and build common ground for action

SPEAKERS

• Nicole Wedell von Leupoldt, KULeuven – Liaison external labour market
  Nicole works at the Career Center of the university of Leuven as a liaison external labour market, where she aims to connect the non-academic labour market with PhDs and postdocs. In this role, she gives trainings on several topics and organizes various career networking events and programs.
  Prior to joining KU Leuven, Nicole was a founding member of a university in Hamburg, Germany. This experience fostered her entrepreneurial spirit and helped solidify her belief that one can tackle and improve anything. Under the motto ‘Detours broaden horizons’, Nicole co-developed the first Dual Career Program at KU Leuven and subsequently founded Talent Interlock, connecting international talent with the labour market.
  What makes her tick? Proactivity, daring to go out and try things, speaking to people, and risking to fail but taking it as a learning opportunity.
• Laurence Jacobs is a business relationship officer at Agoria
  Laurence is instrumental in driving growth and success of digital first businesses. As an ambassador for ‘Women in Tech’ it is her mission to increase the representation and retention of women in the technology industry. She will talk about how inclusive company cultures are key in attracting, advancing, and retaining talent in tech.
• Geertrui Bosmans, Research Manager at Puratos.
  Geertrui has an expertise in cereal derivatives and their functionalities in baked products. She uses this expertise for developing innovations in the bakery and patisserie area. She adds a twist of science to the “cook and look” (trial and error) approach to reach the next level of quality and efficiency in the Food industry. She will talk about her transition from university to the industry and the opportunities for scientific profiles in Belgian industry.
• Ata Fallah, Research Leader at Vesuvius.
  Ata obtained his PhD from The University of Queensland, Australia in the field of high temperature metal productions. He worked eight years as a production/R&D steelmaking engineer at his first job, followed by eight years of academic/research career, and industrial research in the last six years. His current focus is to improve quality and productivity of steel via providing research-based refractory products to the steelmaking customers.
  Ata’s publication includes over 60 articles in journals and conference proceedings that received three international awards for contribution to the scientific understanding of extraction and processing metallurgy of metals.
• Neda Bebiroglu, Scientific Advisor and Coordinator at F.R.S. – FNRS.
  Neda builds on her research experience across countries and expertise in psychology.
  Drawing on data from over 3,500 doctorate holders and 600 non-academic employers, Neda will examine the job transitions of doctorate holders and provide insights on the added value they bring to the labor market.
  She will share her findings about develop quantitative and qualitative data on the career trajectories of researchers
• Marie Flourié – DEI Program Manager at Solvay
  Marie is a graduate from ESSEC Business School Paris who joined Solvay in 2009 while completing her MBA.
  Since then, she held various roles within Solvay, managing projects, processes and teams. She acquired a comprehensive experience of the company working in Finance, Regulatory Affairs and Information systems, in France, England and the USA before moving to Belgium in 2014.
  She now brings her hands-on experience of Solvay’s diversity to the implementation of their ambitious accelerated Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and program, which she manages since 2021.
• Jeroen Franssen, Senior labor market expert & Lecturer at Agoria.
  Jeroen is passionate about redesigning the Belgian labor market so that it combines and maximizes both prosperity and well-being. We will learn from Jeroen what New Ways of Working look like and what we should be ready for the future.
• Eric Pelkmans, Director Agile Workforce Strategy at Janssen Pharmaceutica.
  Eric is responsible for development & implementation of innovative, flexible work and collaboration models that enable organizational agility, speed and value across different functional domains.

And many more subject matter specialists from across the Industry, the Universities and our Ecosystem.

Moderated, energized and mixed by Ramon Vullings Keynote speaker, cross-industry expert & ideaDJ. Ramon will join us again. He will share his observations about New Ways of Working and DEI across industries and across continents.