Innovation Activities Council

The Innovation Activities Council is responsible for overseeing all ICST activities that promote Innovation. The Council’s mission is to develop and maintain relationships with all innovation related actors such as academic and research institutions, organizations involved in setting ICT oriented policies, national governments, the European Commission, the European Alliance for Innovation, standardization organs, multinational companies and other corporate partners.

Participate in the Innovation Council Activities through Agora.

Afonso Ferreira - Vice Chair

Head of Science Operations, COST Office, Brussels, Belgium

Afonso Ferreira holds an M.Sc. from the University of Sao Paulo (1986), Brazil, and a Ph.D. from the Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble (1990), France, both in Computer Sciences. In October 1990 he joined the French CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), where he is Directeur de Recherche.

From July 2007 to March 2010 Dr. Ferreira held the position of Head of Science Operations at the COST Office, Brussels. In that position Dr. Ferreira managed up to 30 staff in the COST Office and oversaw the operations of more than 200 Pan-European projects in nine scientific domains, regrouping more than 30,000 researchers in such important areas as Information and Communication Technologies, Social, Biological, and Environment Sciences, and Food, among others. Key factors for his successful operations were his mindset that is both interdisciplinary and solution oriented.

Dr. Ferreira's research focuses on the rich interdependence between algorithm design and analysis, modelling, and experimental analysis. He has over twenty years of experience in the area of Communication Networks, High Performance Computing, and Algorithms, having published more than 100 papers in the forefront of scientific research. He has been member of more than 60 Technical Program Committees for international events and is currently an editorial board member for three international scientific journals. Dr. Ferreira has also been member of Technical Committees of IEEE and IFIP and was at the origin of eight European projects from FP3 through FP6.

As of March 2010, Dr. Ferreira becomes the Head of International Relations of the CNRS Institute for Informatics and its Interactions in Paris, France. Dr. Ferreira has a vast array of knowledge concerning ICT Foundations, Applications, Policy, and Human Capital. Lately, he has been specializing in Innovation and Research Policies and in Foresight activities.