CAREERS – TWIST & SHOUT
Hosted by the University of Helsinki
from 6 to 7 May 2026
Our Speakers
Day 1
10:15 Keynote - Are Universities still attractive / still the place to be
Robert A Harris
Professor Robert Harris has been Academic Vice President for Doctoral Education since 2019 at Karolinska Institutet. Prof. Harris completed his undergraduate training at Portsmouth Polytechnic (UK) in 1987, his postgraduate training at University College London (UK) in 1991 and was named Professor of Immunotherapy in Neurological Diseases at KI in 2013. Harris has previously served as Central Director of doctoral education at KI (2008- 2018), working specifically with developing quality control for KI doctoral education through a variety of teaching and organisational activities, and also teaches widely at national and international institutions. He has also served as Director of doctoral education for the Department of Clinical Neuroscience (2005-2018). He was Chairperson of the International Advisory Council at KI from 2019-2023. In 2014 he was one of two recipients of the KI pedagogy prize, the first to receive it for a contribution to doctoral education. In 2024 he received the first ever FEBS Education Award. Prof. Harris was also President of ORPHEUS (2015-2022; Vice-President 2013-2015), The Organisation for PhD Education in Biomedicine and Health Sciences in the European System, which aims to stimulate quality assurance of PhD research and education and to strengthen career opportunities for PhD graduates. Prof. Harris leads the research group Applied Immunology and Immunotherapy at the Centre for Molecular Medicine, a designated translational medicine centre at Karolinska Institutet. They conduct a strongly interconnected research programme aimed at using knowledge gained from projects in basic science to applications in a clinical setting, with focus on understanding why chronic inflammatory diseases of the nervous system occur, and then devise ways to prevent or treat them. Current focus is on Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Multiple Sclerosis. Prof. Harris has served as consultant to the Swedish biotechnology company Diamyd Medical AB with whom he has numerous patents and developed a vaccine for treatment of Type 1 diabetes to Phase III clinical trials.
11:15 Session: Individual Perceptions of the landscape
Vedran Galetic
Vedran is a Senior AI Research Scientist at Airbus UK, where his primary focus is AI trustworthiness – a critical challenge for high-stakes domains like aerospace and defence. Driven by the goal of leveraging AI for aerospace sustainability, his current work involves improving operational efficiency through biologically-inspired computation paradigms, modelling cognitively-plausible knowledge representation and reasoning for safe and effective human-machine teaming, and introducing hybridisation-based explainability techniques to foundation models. He holds an MSc in AI and a PhD in cognitive neuroscience from the University of Zagreb. His dissertation reconciled conceptual semantic theories with distributional approaches in natural language processing. Prior to his work at Airbus, Vedran was a Software Engineer at Ericsson. Throughout his career in industry he has maintained strong ties with academia, currently co-supervising a PhD at Imperial College London.
Maija Urponen
Maija is an expert in urban research with a passion for connecting humanities and social sciences research to practical societal purposes. She is the entrepreneur and CEO of a small research consultancy, Urban Research TA, that provides multidisciplinary research, analyses, assessment, and evaluations in support of urban and regional planning. Previously, she worked for several years at the University of Helsinki, University Services, as a supervisor and project manager in doctoral education services, research services, and international relations. In 2022 she was a Fulbright visiting scholar at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she carried out ethnographic research on activities and strategies for advancing the role of humanities and social sciences in seeking solutions to pressing societal challenges. Currently, she is a member of the board of directors of the Finnish Research Impact Foundation. She holds a PhD in Gender Studies from the University of Helsinki.
14:15 Session: Expectation and Reality. Let’s Talk!
Neda Bebiroglu
Dr. Neda Bebiroglu is a scientific advisor and coordinator at the Observatory of Research and Scientific Careers-F.R.S.-FNRS in Belgium. She began her academic journey in Istanbul, earned a Master’s degree in Applied Psychology from New York University, and completed a PhD in Human Development at Tufts University (USA). Following postdoctoral fellowships at King’s College London (UK) and Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium), she joined the Observatory in 2018. Her current work focuses on projects examining the career transitions of doctorate holders and the value of a doctoral degree in the labour market. For the past five years, Dr. Bebiroglu has served as an expert group member in several initiatives on research careers at the OECD Global Science Forum. She is currently a member of the Expert Group on “Research Workforce: Identifying and Addressing Strategic Capacity Gaps”.
15:45 Session: Roles & Responsibilities
Sabine Hunke
Sabine Hunke is Managing Director of the Humboldt Graduate School (HGS), the central hub for doctoral and postdoctoral researchers at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. In this role, she leads the strategic development of institutional frameworks, programmes and services that support early career researchers across the university. Before moving into research management, Sabine — a microbiologist by training — worked as a mid-career researcher, first as a habilitant and subsequently as a junior professor. In these roles, she supervised doctoral researchers and served on the board of a Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) and its Integrated Research Training Group. Within the Berlin University Alliance (BUA) — the excellence consortium of HU, FU, TU and Charité Berlin representing a research community with over 21,000 early-career researchers — Sabine contributes to alliance-wide policies that support researchers at all career levels, serving on the 'Promoting Talent' Steering Committee and the Postdoc Academy Council. She has also co-developed the strategic concept for the programme’s next funding phase.
Erkki Raulo
Erkki Raulo leads the university-level support unit for researcher training at the University of Helsinki, heading an expert team responsible for its implementation across faculties and doctoral programmes. He works closely with the academic leadership in developing and managing the institutional strategy in doctoral education. His responsibilities include implementing university-level processes related to doctoral programme management, supervision support, progress monitoring, and developing transferable skills. He has played a central role in shaping the University’s doctoral school model and strengthening governance and quality management in doctoral education. Erkki contributes actively to European dialogue on doctoral education as a member of the LERU Doctoral Studies Policy Group. Erkki has a background in research holding a PhD in Neuroscience and a Title of Docent in Biochemistry at the University of Helsinki.
Raphaël Porcher
Raphaël Porcher is a French biostatistician whose work bridges advanced quantitative methods in medicine with national leadership in doctoral education. He earned his PhD in Biomathematics at Sorbonne Université (2002) and has since built a research profile in biostatistics, including causal inference and approaches aligned with precision medicine. He currently serves as Director of the Collège des écoles doctorales (College of Doctoral Studies) at Université Paris Cité, shaping doctoral policy and support across the institution. At the national level, he is President of the RNCD (Réseau National de Collèges Doctoraux / France PhD), contributing to coordination, quality standards, and strategic development of doctoral training across France. Alongside these roles, Raphaël remains active in research and supervision, connecting methodological innovation—particularly at the interface of statistics and AI—with the next generation of doctoral researchers.
Day 2
9:15 Session: Changing the emphasis of the journey
Elena Hoffer
Elena Hoffer holds a PhD in Medicine from Karolinska Institutet. Her work focuses on supporting PhDs and postdocs in navigating career transitions with clarity and confidence. Through individual coaching and institutional collaborations, she has worked with hundreds of researchers across Europe and the US, gaining deep insight into confidence building and how professional identity is often challenged or lost during career transitions.
Lisa Krammer
Lisa Krammer is an exhibit developer and curator at the new Science Communication Center in Vienna, which is currently under construction. She also teaches linguistics and science communication at the Department of German Studies at the University of Vienna. After completing her teaching degree (German, psychology & philosophy, ethics), she did her PhD at the University of Vienna on “Attitudes toward language use at Viennese universities” and worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the citizen science project “VisibLL – High-schoolers investigate the (in)conspicuous multilingualism of the Viennese Linguistic Landscape.
Yolana Pringle
Yolana is Deputy CEO and Director of Programmes and Partnerships at CRAC-Vitae. Yolana leads CRAC-Vitae's strategic development, identifying and driving opportunities to sustain and support the charitable mission. Yolana has particular interests and expertise in research culture, having led major sector consultations and projects in this area, including on the Research Excellence Framework (REF) People, Culture and Environment (PCE). She currently leads teams working across multiple business functions, including research and evaluation, policy and engagement, and learning and development. She sits on numerous advisory boards and groups, including the UK Researcher Development Concordat Strategy Group, the Metascience Alliance, and ReICO.
11:00 Session: The Role of Career Development Units
Liz Elvidge
Dr Liz Elvidge is the Director of Development and Engagement for the Early Career Researcher Institute at Imperial College London. She has spent all her career in Higher Education and is passionate about supporting early career researchers. She co-authored the book- What every postdoc needs to know.(2024) second edition, Elvidge, Spencely and Williams and has other publications on Academic Development in Higher Education and Leadership and Management Practice in Higher Education. Outside the day job Liz sits as a magistrate on the Cambridgeshire bench. The Early Career Researcher Institute (ECRI) was created in October 2024 bringing together the Graduate School and the Postdoc and Fellows Development Centre. Our mission is to attract, develop, empower, and advocate for the next generation of outstanding STEMB talent through learning and development opportunities, events, support, and resources for early career researchers.
Barbara Janssens
Barbara Janssens is Head of Career Service & Alumni Relations at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), where she founded the Career Service in 2011. From 2018 to 2023 she was part of the Helmholtz-wide initiative to set up Career Centers for Postdocs. She specializes in guiding researchers’ transitions in and beyond academia through coaching, workshops, career days, data-driven tools (careercheck.eu) and alumni engagement (https://dkfz-connect.de). A co-founder of the CARE network for career advisers in Europe (together with Sarah Blackford), she is passionate about networking to inspire sustainable career development. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/janssens).
Chiara Lauritano
Chiara Lauritano has over 20 years of experience in doctoral education at the Doctoral School of Politecnico di Torino. Passionate about strengthening the international dimension of doctoral training, she has also served on the Board of PRIDE, the international network of professionals in doctoral education. She currently works at the Career Hub of Politecnico di Torino. After several years as a Training and Development Expert, designing career development and counselling programs for PhD candidates and researchers, since September 2025 she leads a newly established Unit for Researchers’ Careers. This Unit supports postdoctoral researchers in developing sustainable and informed career paths, facilitating meaningful connections with the professional world beyond academia.
12:30 Moving forward: Societal impact
Denis Billotte
Dr. Billotte was Director of CUSO, an association of French-speaking Swiss universities that organises and sponsors joint doctoral programmes, until his retirement in February 2026. He wrote his doctoral thesis on medieval French literature at the University of Lausanne and taught there for ten years. He then moved into academic policy and administration and was appointed to the CUSO in 1997. On behalf of the member universities of Fribourg, Geneva, Lausanne and Neuchâtel, he developed a new framework for their joint doctoral programmes (34 in activity as of 2026). The framework aims to promote the links between the different institutions and offer a combined and collaborative offer of support and training for doctoral candidates. He also initiated and helped create the transdisciplinary programme in transferable skills, which provides training for over 4,500 doctoral candidates in CUSO programmes.
Owen Gower
Dr Owen Gower is the Director of the UK Council for Graduate Education, where he leads the Council’s advocacy on a range of issues in postgraduate education and research. Owen has contributed to books on doctoral supervision, mental health in doctoral research, and developing researcher independence. He is the co-author of the UK Research Supervision Survey Report (2024 and 2021). He is a member of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain, a Fellow of Goodenough College, and of the Royal Society of Arts.
Conference Venue & Host
Founded in 1640, the University of Helsinki is Finland’s oldest and largest university, known for world-class research. Located in the capital, it is a leading European institution in sustainability, innovation, and open science.
