Director, Biocenter Finland; Member, Gender in the Nordic Research and Innovation Area Programme Committee, NordForsk.

Promoting women innovators and advancing people’s quality of life through research-based invention
Plenary: Role of policy in achieving societal well-being through science and technology

Strategies to tackle gender inequalities in STEM in the Nordic countries
Plenary: Strategic priorities for regional STEM gender equality policy

Professor Marja Makarow is Director of Biocenter Finland and Governing Board Member of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). She is the former Vice-President of the Academy of Finland – the Finnish Research Council (2012-2016) and Vice-Rector for Research (2003-2007) and Professor of Applied Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of the University of Helsinki. Between 2008-2011, she served as Chief Executive of the European Science Foundation (ESF) in Strasbourg, France.

Marja Makarow advised the EU Commissioner for Research and Innovation as a member of the European Research Area Board (ERAB), and the Finnish Government as a member of the Council for Research and Innovation Policy from 2008-2012. She has served as president of the European Molecular Biology Conference (EMBC/EMBO), as the delegate of Finland in the council of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), and she established the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland (FIMM), a member of the Nordic EMBL Partnership for Molecular Medicine. She served as chair of the European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grants panel on genomics, genetics, systems biology and bioinformatics until 2013. She is a member of the governing board of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) and chairs the board of Technology Academy Finland, which awards one of the world’s largest innovation prize, the Millennium Technology Prize. Marja Makarow chaired the board of NordForsk from 2013 until June 2016 and is a member of the NordFrosk programme committee for the Gender in the Nordic Research and Innovation Area Programme. She serves on strategic councils of several European top universities and has steered research assessments of a number of them. She is a member of Academia Europaea.