Speakers

Christina is the Vice Principal Research & Enterprise of the University of Edinburgh. She joined the University of Edinburgh as a Lecturer in 2006. She is a Professor of Politics in the School of Social and Political Science. Christina has served as Vice President for Public Policy of the British Academy since 2021 and was Dean of Research for the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences between 2017-22. She studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford and obtained her PhD at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She has worked with various international institutions including the European Commission (Brussels) and the UN (Geneva and Burundi). She was a recipient of a Marie Curie Excellence Grant (now ERC Starting Grant) having spent some time in Hamburg as an EU-funded post-doctoral fellow. 

Martin leads Wellcome's Policy Lab, which aims to bring creativity and innovation to our policy products and processes. He is passionate about finding workable solutions to policy problems and understanding the political contexts in which they sit. Before joining Wellcome, Martin worked on science policy issues in roles in the UK Parliament and a range of learned societies. He has a BSc in Mathematics from Imperial College London.

Maryline joined the President’s Office of the ETH Board, in charge of EU and International Affairs, in November 2021. The ETH Board is the strategic management body of the ETH domain composed of the two Federal Institutes of Technology ETH Zurich, EPFL and four national laboratories PSI, WSL, Empa and Eawag. She is also the coordinator of the Stick to Science initiative launched in February 2022, the campaign supported by the European research actors calling for a prompt association of Switzerland and the UK in Horizon Europe. Maryline has more than 15 years of working experience in education and research policy at Swiss and EU level. She was S&T Counsellor at the Mission of Switzerland to the EU in Brussels for 6 years, in charge of the fields of research, education and space. Before joining the Mission of Switzerland to the EU, she headed the Research Promotion Service of the University of Fribourg for 4 years. She also worked in Brussels between 2007 and 2011 as Head of SwissCore, the Swiss contact office for Research, Innovation and Education. Prior to these appointments, she contributed to the ranking of Swiss higher education institutions and in the introduction of e-learning courses. Maryline is an economical historian from training and holds a degree from the University of Lausanne.

Ernest is the Secretary-General of the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA), a network of 15 of Africa’s flagship universities. He is a Professor of Economics and former Vice Chancellor of University of Ghana (2010-2016). Ernest was also previously Director of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) (2003-2010) at University of Ghana and the first Director of the Africa Growth Initiative of Brookings Institution, Washington D.C. He has held academic appointments at the School of Oriental and African Studies (London), Yale University and Swarthmore College in the U.S. at various points in time. Ernest Aryeetey was a member of the Governing Council of the United Nations University (2016-2019) and was also previously Chairman of the Advisory Board of UNU-World Institute for Development Economics Research (Helsinki). He is currently Board Chairman of the African Economic Research Consortium. He holds honorary degrees from University of Sussex (UK) and Lund University (Sweden). One of Ernest Aryeetey’s strategic priorities as Vice Chancellor at University of Ghana was to develop the University into a research-intensive institution that supports structural transformation in Africa.