Meet the keynote speakers
ENCORS brings together leading experts from across Europe. Our speakers represent universities, research institutions, expert centres and policymakers, sharing their insights and best practices on how to keep academic collaboration both open and secure.
In four different plenary session rounds, keynote speakers will address the "why", "what", "how" and "which next steps" of research security. The break-out sessions provide insights on specific topics related to those questions.
Stéphanie Balme
Stéphanie Balme is Director of the CERI (Sciences Po/CNRS) and Professor at Sciences Po. Her research focuses on EU–US–China relations, science and tech diplomacy, and global China in both its domestic and foreign dimensions.
Science at Risk: Science diplomacy between research security and academic freedom in the US–EU–China Triangle.
Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik
Susanne Weigelin-Schwiedrzik is Professor Emerita of Sinology at the University of Vienna and one of Austria’s leading experts on China.
Susanne will explain how the current geo-political constellation is prone to make science and technology an increasingly important field of great power competition. Scientists all over the world therefore must learn to reflect on how to position their respective research and their career plans in the current geo-political setting.
Francesco Cupertino
Francesco Cupertino is Full Professor of Power Converters, Electrical Machines and Drives at the Polytechnic University of Bari, Italy. From 2019 to 2025, he served as Rector of this university. He is a member of several scientific councils and Italy’s representative in the OECD Working Group on Research Security and Integrity.
This keynote argues that open science and research security should not be understood as opposing objectives, but as complementary dimensions of a resilient and responsible research ecosystem. The key question is not whether openness should be reduced, but how it can be adapted to contemporary conditions, ensuring that collaboration remains possible while risks are identified, assessed and mitigated in a proportionate manner.
Teija Tiilikainen
Dr. Teija Tiilikainen is the Director of the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats in Finland. She is an expert on European integration and security policy.
Teija will discuss the importance of research-based knowledge for the resilience of democracies, emphasizing trusted knowledge production and its institutions. She will also explore the vital role of knowledge security in building public trust in government. The discussion will focus on the risks and threats to democratic resilience, particularly arising from geopolitical competition and authoritarian states, while examining their implications for knowledge security through concrete examples of recent threats.
Frans Geraedts
Frans Geraedts is a philosopher. He works for the Foundation for Justice, Integrity and Anti-Corruption and at Governance&Integrity International. He is one of the founders of both.
Frans will situate the (re-)emergence of knowledge security within the dark times that are upon us, that is, upon the democracies. He will give a sketch of the relevance of integrity-system thinking and practice for the field. He will pay specific attention to the application of moral judgment and -deliberation to the difficult decisions that because of knowledge security considerations arise for organisations, leadership, teachers and researchers. At the end of his exposé Frans will bring these thoughts together under the heading of “the university as a true global institution".
Peter Mathieson
Professor Sir Peter Mathieson assumed the role of Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh in February 2018. In 2023 he was knighted for his contributions to higher education. For the past four years, he has been the Lead for Research Security for Universities UK and The Russell Group.
Peter will moderate a panel discussion on the next steps we can take in our collaborative efforts in Research Security across Europe. The panel members will be announced shortly.