Staff

Yves Paul Firmin PUNIE

Tel: +34 954 48 8229

Yves.Punie(at)ec.europa.eu

Yves Punie is senior scientist in the IS Unit, leading the IPTS research and policy activities on "ICT for Learning and Skilling" and is also involved in projects on ICT for Inclusion and Governance as well as on assessing the socio-economic impact of web 2.0 or social computing. A number of these projects have a strong foresight component.  

Before joining the IPTS in 2001, he was interim Assistant Professor at the Free University of Brussels (VUB) and senior researcher at SMIT (Studies on Media, Information and Telecommunications). He holds a Ph.D. in Social Sciences from the VUB on the use and acceptance of ICT in everyday life also coined as "domestication". In general, Yves' expertise is on the social impact of ICT, its potential and use.

Patricia-Ann FARRER

(Publications)

Tel: +34 954 48 8211

Patricia.Farrer(at)ec.europa.eu

Norma RIVERO

(Communications Officer)

Tel: +34 954 48 8361

Norma.Rivero-Cabeza(at)ec.europa.eu

Michail Batikas joined the IS Unit in November 2012 to work in a team which is investigating Electronic Identity Services and Market Dynamics. He is also collaborating in the SEA-SoNS project, looking at the adoption and use of social technologies by European SMEs. Before joining IPTS, he was a visiting lecturer at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, where he also completed his PhD in Management of Information Systems. His thesis focused on the participation of Catalan SMEs in Free Libre Open Source Software communities from a behavioural perspective. He also holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from the University of Crete and a Master's degree in Business Administration (Athens University of Economics and Business). His main research interests are the areas of Innovation Management, IT Adoption, Social networks and Social psychology.

Clara Centeno is senior scientist at the JRC-IPTS in the Information Society Unit, where she is leading since 2005 the research activities of the Socio-Economic Analysis of ICT for Learning and Inclusion Action to support the European policies that aim at applying Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to increase socio-economic inclusion of groups at risk, address the key challenges of education and training in a Lifelong learning context and enhance public services in the EU.

She has degrees on Telecommunication Engineering and Business Administration, and prior to joining IPTS in 2001, she worked 13 years on the banking business services sector, managing emerging technology projects and providing technology, systems and business strategy advice on the use of ICTs across Europe and abroad, including from her own company.

Giuditta DE PRATO

Tel: +34 954 48 8422

Giuditta.De-Prato(at)ec.europa.eu

Giuditta De Prato joined the IS Unit as a post doctoral researcher in January 2009 to contribute to projects on the economic aspects of the Information Society and on the impacts of Information Society Technologies, mainly focusing on ICT R&D, the software sector, patents and innovation. She has a PhD in Economics and Institutions from the University of Bologna (Italy).

Before joining IPTS, she was a software developer and IT consultant from 1992 to 2005. From 2005 to 2009, she was a contract research assistant, focussing on research activities on local development, evaluation, ICT and open source at the University of Bologna, where she also lectured on macroeconomics and environmental economics.

Paul DESRUELLE

Tel: +34 954 48 8329

Paul.Desruelle(at)ec.europa.eu

Paul Desruelle is a senior scientific officer in the IS Unit and coordinates the activities of the team in charge of producing the annual "PREDICT" report on research and development (R&D) in information and communication technologies (ICT) in the European Union. The PREDICT report, jointly published by JRC-IPTS and by the Information Society and Media Directorate General, provides an analysis of EU R&D investments and performance in the ICT sector and benchmarks them at world level.

Prior to joining the IS Unit in 2008, Paul worked for several years in the IPTS Knowledge for Growth Unit. Before joining IPTS, he worked at the European Commission in Brussels, first as a project officer for the ESPRIT and then the Information Society Technologies R&D programmes. Paul is an engineer, with degrees obtained in France and at University of Wisconsin-Madison, U.S.A. (M.S. and Ph.D.).

Paul Desruelle is a senior scientific officer in the IS Unit and coordinates the activities of the team in charge of producing the annual "PREDICT" report on research and development (R&D) in information and communication technologies (ICT) in the European Union. The PREDICT report, jointly published by JRC-IPTS and by the Information Society and Media Directorate General, provides an analysis of EU R&D investments and performance in the ICT sector and benchmarks them at world level.

Prior to joining the IS Unit in 2008, Paul worked for several years in the IPTS Knowledge for Growth Unit. Before joining IPTS, he worked at the European Commission in Brussels, first as a project officer for the ESPRIT and then the Information Society Technologies R&D programmes. Paul is an engineer, with degrees obtained in France and at University of Wisconsin-Madison, U.S.A. (M.S. and Ph.D.).

Gabriele ESPOSITO

Tel: +34 954 48 8258

Gabriele.Esposito(at)ec.europa.eu

Gabriele Esposito started working in the Information Society Unit at IPTS in October, 2012. He joined the team working on projects under the heading ‘Techno-economic Implications Enabling Societal Change’. He will participate in European research projects on behavioural studies, including a study of people's behaviour in the Information Society, such as their responses to policy interventions.  

He has a Ph.D. in Economics from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Marseille), where he studied computational and experimental/behavioural approaches to cooperative game theory. He then joined the European Commission (DG Justice) in March 2011, where he was involved in the preparation of Impact Assessments on Contract Law (Common European Sales Law Regulation) and Consumer Law (Package Travel Directive). In the case of the latter impact assessment, he supervised the behavioural study associated with it.

Panagiotis KAMPYLIS

Tel: +34 954 48 8412

Panagiotis.Kampylis(at)ec.europa.eu

Panagiotis Kampylis joined the IS Unit in January 2012 to work on projects related to modernising and innovating Education and Training in Europe, in particular on up-scaling creative classrooms in Europe, in support of the policies of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Education and Culture. 

He graduated from the Faculty of Primary Education at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and has 12 years experience as a primary school teacher. He also studied Music Theory at the Apollonian Conservatoire of Athens and did refresh-training pedagogical studies at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

Panagiotis holds a Ph.D. from the Faculty of Information Technology, Department of Computer Science and Information Systems of the University of Jyväskylä (Finland) thanks to a scholarship from the Greek State Scholarships Foundation. The title of his Ph.D. dissertation was “Fostering creative thinking - the role of primary teachers”.

He authored and co-authored several books (in Greek) as well as several articles and book chapters (in English) in the fields of creativity, music education and ICT-based learning. In addition, Panagiotis is a member of the board of the Greek Association of the Primary Music Education Teachers (GAPMET), associate editor of the Hellenic Journal of Music, Education and Culture, and a member of the board of experts for the European Music Portfolio (a multilateral Comenius project).

Maria LLUCH

Tel: +34 954 48 8318

Maria.Lluch(at)ec.europa.eu

Maria Lluch joined the IS Unit in April 2010 to carry out research on ICT for Health in general and Personal Health Systems and Mobile Health in particular.

She has an MPharm from the Universidad de Barcelona, an MBA from IESE Business School, an MSc International Health Policy - Health Economics and was a PhD reader at the London School of Economics (LSE). Maria started developing her career as a project manager for a London-based consulting firm focusing on health-related projects with customers such as Alliance Unichem and the National Health Service (NHS). She then moved to journalistic projects developing country reports for different media (The Economist, BusinessWeek and Fortune magazine) and lived for 3 years in different countries, mainly on the African continent.

During the last seven years, Maria has developed solid experience in EU-funded projects in the health sector at IESE Business School and at LSE Health. She is a member of the Spanish National Jury for the 2010 EU Health Prize for Journalists. Prior to joining IPTS, she combined both management and research, focusing on cost effectiveness studies, regulatory frameworks in health systems with a specific focus on the pharmaceutical sector and ICT for Health (the latter was her PhD topic).

Bertin MARTENS

Tel: +34 954 48 8366

Bertin.Martens(at)ec.europa.eu

Bertin Martens joined the IS Unit in September  2011. He is team leader for the Digital Economy Research Programme at the IPTS, his current research projects revolving around the economics of online trade, copyrights in digital media and privacy issues.

He was previously deputy Chief Economist for Trade in the European Commission in Brussels and carried out various other assignments in the European Commission, working extensively on international economic issues. He holds a PhD in economics from the Free University of Brussels. His research interests focus on institutional economics and the role of technological and cognitive change in economic development.

Gianluca MISURACA

Tel: +34 954 48 8209

Gianluca.Misuraca(at)ec.europa.eu

Gianluca Misuraca joined the IS Unit in February 2009, focusing on the research area of ICT for governance. He coordinated the participation of IPTS in the EU-FP7 CSA CROSSROAD – A Participative Research Roadmap on ICT for governance and policy modelling, being the lead author of the JRC Report Envisioning Digital Europe 2030. He is currently leading the exploratory research on ICT-enabled governance models in EU cities (EXPGOV), in collaboration with EUROCITIES. Gianluca also contributed to the research on The Impact of Social Computing on the EU Information Society and Economy and he is providing policy support and dissemination at international level. Before joining IPTS, Gianluca was the Managing Director and Scientific Coordinator of the Global Executive Master in e-Governance, organised by the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland. Previously, he worked for the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), acting as Liaison Officer for Africa on e-Governance and knowledge management. Being seconded to the African Training and Research Centre in Administration for Development, in Tangier, Morocco (CAFRAD), he was responsible for coordinating the implementation of the United Nations Online Network in Public Administration and Finance (www.unpan.org) and the design of the e-Africa initiative for good governance, placed under the banner of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) of the African Union. During his career, Gianluca held several positions as lead consultant and policy advisor for different UN agencies, the World Bank, the European Commission, and bilateral cooperation agencies.

Earlier in his career, Gianluca was a Manager at Ernst & Young International where he provided advisory services in the area of public administration reform and regional development. He started his career as an intern for the European Commission's Directorate General for Development and as a consultant for the APRI Spa – International Research Centre for Industrial Cooperation, where he was also a Member of the "Task Force Innovation" at the Italian Ministry of Research and Technological Development.

Gianluca holds a Degree in Business Administration, a Specialisation Diploma in EU Economics and Law, an Executive Master in e-Governance and he is finalizing his PhD in Management of Technology at EPFL. He has several publications in the area of ICT for Governance and ICT for Development, including the book "e-Governance in Africa, from Theory to Action".

Shara MONTELEONE

Tel: +34 954 48 8342

Shara.Monteleone(at)ec.europa.eu

Shara Monteleone graduated from the Law Faculty of Florence (Italy), and after a Masters degree in Communications Law, she obtained a PhD in Law and Information Technologies from the Media Integration and Communication Centre (MICC) of the University of Florence in 2007. She worked as post-doc researcher at INRIA (Grenoble, France), involved in particular in the PRIAM project (Privacy Issues in Ambient Intelligence). As university lecturer, she carried out several studies and participated in research projects in Media Law (with a constitutional and comparative law perspective) at the Department of Public Law (University of Florence and Universitad Autonoma de Barcelona), focusing on privacy and data protection issues. She took part in several European research projects including: a project on “Support to the reform of Serbian media legislation towards EU standards and strengthening of legal and technical skills of media professionals” under the Cards Programme 2004/2005 (during which she contributed to the drafting of the Serbian legislation on Data Protection and of the Code of Conduct for Journalists); and a project on the European legislation and praxis on electronic evidence ("Admissibility of electronic evidence before Court", 2006).

Recently, she obtained a LLM in Comparative, European and International Law from the European University Institute of Florence (EUI), focusing on Ambient Intelligence and the right to privacy - the case of detection technologies. Her previous working experiences include collaboration with the ITTIG-CNR (Istituto di Teoria e Tecnica dell' Informatica Giuridica, Centro Nazionale di Ricerca italiano), the Chamber of Commerce and with the Trade Union of Journalists of Florence. Shara has published several articles and participated as speaker in various conferences and workshops (among which: e-Privacy, Florence 2007; LSPI, Prague 2008; La disciplina delle varie forme di comunicazione, Rome 2008; ICIL, Thessaloniki, 2011).

She joined the IS Unit in May 2011, to work on the techno-economic assessment of e-ID services issues. She will focus on legal gaps in the existing digital identity regulatory framework. She will contribute to identifying favourable conditions for safe and effective personal data management, and also look into the future impact of possible eID architectures and suitable policy options.

Daniel NEPELSKI

Tel: +34 954 48 8265

Daniel.Nepelski(at)ec.europa.eu

Daniel Nepelski joined the IS Unit as a post doctoral researcher in March 2009 to contribute to projects on the economic aspects of the Information Society and on the impacts of Information Society Technologies, mainly focussing on innovation dynamics in the context of the knowledge economy.
Before joining IPTS, he worked at DIW Berlin, the German Institute for Economic Research, as a research associate and policy consultant between 2002 and 2008. His research interests are in the area of Industrial Organization with a particular focus on Innovation Economics and Competition Policy. He holds a PhD in Economics from the Humboldt University Berlin.

Smaranda PANTEA

Tel: +34 954 48 7185

Smaranda.Pantea(at)ec.europa.eu

Smaranda Pantea joined the IS Unit in June 2012, to focus on examining barriers to e-commerce, patterns of internet usage and estimating consumer demand for different types of internet services in the EU using Nielsen clickstream data.

She has a PhD in Economics from the University of Nottingham (UK) and her PhD thesis examined the relationships between firms' participation in international activities and their productivity and workforce skills.

Smaranda worked as a teaching assistant at the University of Bristol (UK), where she taught tutorials for different courses in Macroeconomics, Microeconomics and Econometrics at undergraduate and postgraduate level and at University of Nottingham, where she taught tutorials for European Integration courses.

Christine REDECKER

Tel: +34 954 48 8492

Christine.Redecker(at)ec.europa.eu

Christine Redecker joined the IS Unit in February 2008. She is primarily working on eLearning, conducting a major study on the impact of web 2.0 applications on learning.  She is also working on eInclusion, where she is contributing to research on the use of ICT for ethnic minorities and older people.

She has a PhD in Philosophy of Mathematics from the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Germany, and a Teaching Diploma for secondary education (Erstes & Zweites Staatsexamen). She has worked as a practitioner of eLearning at different institutions in Germany and Denmark and as a lecturer for didactics at the Humboldt-Universität Berlin. Her current scientific interests centre on the impact of ICT for inclusion, the future of teaching and learning, pedagogical innovations, lifelong learning, ageing and demographic change.

Anna SABADASH

Tel: +34 954 48 8462

Anna.Sabadash(at)ec.europa.eu

Anna Sabadash joined IPTS in January 2011 to contribute to projects on the economic impact of ICT, with a specific focus on labour demand and supply. Anna is primarily interested in micro- and macroeconomic aspects of labour economics, such as the effect of ICT-enabled innovation on the structure of employment and wages; changes in age-specific demand for and supply of different skill-groups of labour; high-skilled migration; effects of education, family background, socio-economic environment and intrinsic personal and behavioral characteristics on occupational career, wage premiums and other aspect of human capital development and well-being; college wage-premium and wage inequality.

She has a Degree in Banking and Finance from the Odessa State Economic University, a Master in Advanced Studies in Economics from the Catholic University of Leuven and a PhD in Applied Economics and Quantitative Methods from the University of Genoa. After completing her PhD (on the impact of technological progress on employment and education), she was involved in several research projects as a researcher at the Centre for Economic Studies, Faculty of Business and Economics, K.U.Leuven (Belgium) and was a research fellow at the Department of Public Economics, University of Pavia (Italy). She studied the pattern of labour demand and labour market polarization (as a result of skill-biased technological change and globalization), and carried out empirical research on the polarization of the European labour market. In addition, she participated in the Steunpunt Fiscaliteit & Begroting research project, conducting an empirical investigation which aimed to estimate the region-specific pattern of the Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment (NAIRU) and the potential employment in Belgium. Anna later worked on another project to test the predictive power of the demand-supply framework in explaining variations in the economy-wide average returns to college, using the UK panel data. She also conducted an empirical investigation to establish a link between the changes in labour market opportunities and the demand for treatment of illicit drug abuse.

Before joining the IS Unit, she worked on integrating a traditional human capital approach and a capabilities approach in an empirically-testable framework for measuring the value of education.

Ramon SABES FIGUERA

Tel: +34 954 48 8265

Ramon.Sabes-(at)ec.europa.eu

Ramón Sabes Figuera started working in the Information Society Unit at IPTS in October, 2012. He will be working on the Digital Living project, part of the Unit’s work on ‘Techno-economic Implications Enabling Societal Change’. He will be involved in the development of a monitoring and assessment framework for the ‘European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing’ policy initiative. He will also be working on the SIMPHS3 project and a project on benchmarking deployment of e-Health services through a European hospital survey.

Ramón graduated in Economics from University Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona and then joined the Centre for Research in Health and Economics (CRES) at the same university. He worked there for 6 years on projects that covered a wide range of health economics topics with a special focus on economic evaluation of health technologies. In 2004, he took up the post of Senior Economic Policy Analyst at the Health Technologies Assessment Unit of the regional government of Madrid, Spain. In 2007, he completed an MSc programme in Biomedicine, Bioscience and Society at the London School of Economics. Before joining IPTS, he held a research position for 5 years at the Centre for the Economics of Mental and Physical Health, at King's College London.

His research interests lie in the field of the economic impact of health care technologies and health policy, with a special focus on the impact of developments in genetic technologies on public health care systems.

Juraj STANCIK

Tel: +34 954 48 8415

Juraj.Stancik(at)ec.europa.eu

Juraj Stancik joined IPTS in June 2010 to work on the International Digital Economy Analysis project.  He will carry out research on the ICT industry, ICT R&D expenditures and employment, ICT-enabled innovation, ICT economic impacts and the contribution ICT could make to the transformation of the EU economy in the future.

Juraj has a Ph.D. in Economics from the Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education in Prague. He spent 5 months in the Economic and Financial Studies division of the European Investment Bank as a research intern. In 2007, he was a visiting scholar at the School of Arts and Sciences of the University of Pennsylvania. Juraj also holds a M.Sc. in Mathematics of Economy and Finance from Comenius University in Bratislava. His areas of interest cover international economics and econometrics.

Wojtek SZEWCZYK

Tel: +34 954 48 8276

Wojciech.Szewczyk(at)ec.europa.eu

Wojtek Szewczyk joined the IS Unit in March 2010 to work on the quantitative and modelling aspects of the Digital Economy. He has a degree in Engineering (Materials) from the Silesian University of Technology in Poland, a Masters degree in Engineering Management from the University of Western Sydney and a PhD in Economics ("APEC Digital Divide: Economic Policy Implications'') from Macquarie University in Sydney.

Since then, he has worked on a variety of research projects related to the impact of ICT technology on production and consumption, and measuring the sectoral productivity flow-on benefits of innovations in IT. Wojtek's interests focus on economic growth and dynamics, the impact of ICT and other General Purpose Technologies (GPTs) on socio-economic development and Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) modelling.

Cristina TORRECILLAS

Tel: +34 954 48 0561

Cristina.Torrecillas(at)ec.europa.eu

Cristina Torrecillas joined the IS Unit in April 2012 to investigate, from a socio-economic point of view, the current use and impacts of existing and emerging ICT-based applications for socio-economic and digital inclusion. She also analyzes the policy implications (opportunities, challenges and recommendations) in the relevant policy areas (Information Society DAE, Skills and Employment, Migrants Integration, Youth, Education and Training and Social Inclusion).

After graduating in economics, she completed several postgraduate courses related to evaluation and quantitative analysis. Cristina started working at the Economic and Commercial Office of the Spanish Embassy in London. Afterwards she worked as Research Manager at both the Madrid and London offices of Ecorys, an international company that carries out socio-economic research.

During her career, she has conducted numerous studies at local, regional and national level, some of which were for European institutions on social issues such as education, immigration, employment and youth. These studies have allowed her to acquire a broad knowledge and experience in design methodologies and analytical tools for qualitative and quantitative research.

Geomina TURLEA

Tel: +34 954 48 8219

Geomina.Turlea(at)ec.europa.eu

Geomina Turlea joined the IS Unit in April 2005 as a Research Fellow working on a research training project entitled 'R&D in the ICT sector: Situation, outlook and impact on the European ICT sector'. She has a PhD ('Econometrics of short and volatile time series') from the Romanian Academy of Sciences (2003).

She was previously employed by the Institute for World Economy in Bucharest, Romania and has worked with various national and international institutions and organisations in academic research projects. She has also carried out consultancy for policy makers and private agents. Her main interests are in macromodelling and applied econometrics, particularly as regards the knowledge economy and endogenous growth.

René van BAVEL

Tel: +34 954 48 8367

Rene.van-Bavel(at)ec.europa.eu

René van Bavel re-joined the IS Unit in November 2011 after spending 7 years working elsewhere in IPTS as a researcher, policy analyst and team leader (mainly in the policy area of research and innovation). At the IS Unit he works on the social and economic aspects of electronic identity and co-ordinates JRC-IPTS's activities on behavioural economics. He also has an interest in qualitative methodology for supporting EU policy-making.

Prior to joining JRC-IPTS in October 2003, René was a lecturer in social psychology at the University of Cambridge. He has an undergraduate degree in economics from Queen's University, Canada, and an MSc and PhD in social psychology from the London School of Economics.

Elena VILLALBA MORA

Tel: +34 954 48 8313

Elena.Villalba-Mora(at)ec.europa.eu

Elena Villalba Mora joined the IS Unit in January 2012 and is focussing her work on the technological and social evaluation and modelling of Personal Health Systems (SIMPHS Project).

She holds a Masters Degree in Telecommunications Engineering and a PhD in Biomedical Engineering, both from the Technical University of Madrid (Spain). As a researcher at the Technical University of Madrid (2004-2009), she was involved in several EU R&D Projects related to the model, design and validation of the user interaction of platforms and personal systems to monitor chronic diseases, based on wearable and mobile technologies.

Elena's main interest focus on the design of ubiquitous user interaction and the human factors in personalised healthcare delivery and empowerment of patients, including service platform design and security and interoperability issues.

From 2009 she worked at the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, where she was a National Expert in the 7FP ICT Theme Programme Committee, the FP7 PEOPLE Programme Committee and the ICT Policy Support Programme for CIP Committee. She was also a nominated member of the Ambient Assistant Living (AAL) Forum Programme Committee. In addition, she was a technical advisor for the participation of the Ministry of Science and Innovation in the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing Steering Group.

Elena also lectured User Interfaces Design, Telemedicine, Medical Images and Usability in Software Design Process both at Degree level and Master level.

Maria Bernarda ZAMORA TALAYA

Tel: +34 954 48 8385

Bernarda.Zamora(at)ec.europa.eu

Maria Bernarda Zamora Talaya joined the IS Unit in November 2011 to collaborate on an IPTS project on the role of ICT in health and quality of life.  In particular, her research is focussed on the assessment of market and innovation dynamics in relation to Integrated Personal Health Systems (IPHS). The project aims to collect evidence and assess the potential impact of the use of IPHS deployment to support the new eHealth Action Plan (aHAP) and other policy initiatives in the area.

Maria Bernarda holds a PhD in Economics from the University Carlos III of Madrid (Spain). After obtaining her PhD in 2000, she moved to Washington DC (U.S.), to work as an Economist for the African Department of the International Monetary Fund. In 2003, she returned to Spain to work in academia, lecturing for seven years at the University of Alicante, University Jaume I, Castellón, and University CEU-Cardenal Herrera, Valencia. During this time, she did research on labour and consumption in Spain, and religion and education in India. She then worked as a Researcher at the School for Policy Studies of the University of Bristol (UK) in a project for the English Department of Health, which measured aspects of quality and innovation in public and private hospitals. In addition, she also worked as a development consultant, carrying out assignments for the United Nations University, and as a Technical Advisor, setting up a professional training centre based in Mauritius which was devoted to regional economic integration in Eastern and Southern Africa.