Stephen has nearly 30 years of EU project experience, starting as a manager of an FP4 technology transfer project in 1996. He has since been involved in more than 100 successful EU proposals and implementation of 30+ EU projects as partner, as Dissemination, Exploitation & Communication leader, project manager or coordinator. He also has had more than 10 years’ experience as evaluator and panel vice chair at the European Commission. Stephen has BSc in Geology from Univ. of Canterbury (NZ), an MSc in Engineering Geology from Cardiff (UK) and a PhD in Environmental Risk Management from the BOKU in Vienna. Beyond technical sciences, Stephen has an MBA and a Master of Law (LL.M) in Intellectual Property Rights and is founder and CEO of RTDS Group, since 22 years, Austria’s leading EU project consultancy, specialised in circular and bioeconomy, as well as digitisation projects funded under Horizon Europe.