Our Team

Claudia has been working in international research and innovation projects for more than 15 years, supporting successful applications to a wide array of national and international funding programs such as BMBF, MRC/UKRI, NIH, the EU Framework Programmes, IMI, EDCTP or EIT Health. She has guided more than 40 resulting projects with funding of up to 28 million EUR through grant preparation and implementation, and many of those to successful follow-up initiatives. Claudia has strong people skills and thrives on new challenges. Her particular focus in recent years have been clinical studies and collaboration with industry.

At LINQ, Claudia uses her experience in supporting international research projects primarily to facilitate the planning and preparation of new initiatives. She guides and coordinates project design and proposal writing and supports new consortia in their set-up phase. Moreover, she develops actionable risk mitigation strategies and monitors their implementation to ensure successful completion of each project and help maximise impact. Claudia supports stakeholder management and guides networking both within the context of individual projects and beyond.

Phone. +49 (0)175 927 16 31

Vera did her PhD in the field of Molecular Biology and Tropical Medicine at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, and the Department of Infectious Diseases & Tropical Medicine at the LMU, Munich, Germany. As part of her PhD she developed diagnostic PCR assays for mycobacterial diseases under tropical and field conditions and established field laboratories in several countries in Africa. Vera has more than 15 years of experience in the field of collaborative research and innovation management. In her previous position, she oversaw project planning, proposal management and proposal writing and supported large interdisciplinary consortia in a variety of different funding schemes, including BMBF, the EU Framework Programmes, and IMI/IHI.

At LINQ, Vera will be involved in the final steps of the Horizon 2020 project EUCANCan and support two new projects funded by the EDCTP and Horizon Europe, respectively. She will also be involved in the planning and set-up of new initiatives, providing strategic advice and hands-on proposal management support.

After obtaining a degree in languages and communication, Britta started working in the administration of international projects and has now accumulated over 12 years of experience in managing collaborative research and innovation projects under a variety of funding frameworks such as FP7, Horizon 2020, EDCTP, and BMBF. She draws on her strong people skills, broad knowledge about specific funding requirements, and a detailed understanding of what it takes to efficiently plan and execute complex initiatives. Britta is committed to creating an atmosphere of collaboration, forging strong partnerships between diverse players from across the world, and helping them to successfully implement their projects.

At LINQ, Britta uses her broad range of expertise to support the TrENDxTB study, facilitating close collaboration between the EDCTP-funded TriageTB project and the NIH project ENDxTB,  EUCANCan, a Horizon 2020 initiative which forms part of a larger international cluster. She is also leading our efforts to optimally prepare for the new funding programmes, including Horizon Europe and EDCTP3.

Alessia holds a Master of Science in Industrial Biotechnology from the University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy. Before joining LINQ, she worked as an Associate Director, Research and Development, for a drug development company in Berlin, Germany, where she managed various scientific projects. In this role, she collaborated with scientists at universities, research centers and pharmaceutical companies as well as with a German patent office on two patent applications. Her portfolio included a drug-development project focused on the treatment of depression, a drug-repurposing study focused on schizophrenia and an observational study looking at Parkinson’s disease. While still in this job, Alessia completed a one-year traineeship with the Contract Research Organisation CCDRD AG. She later joined the organisation as a Clinical Project Manager, managing several phase I studies for generics, a phase I study with patients with schizophrenia and two phase III studies on patients with endometriosis.

At LINQ, Alessia uses her experience in managing diverse international research studies to support impact presentations and the final reporting of a multi-project grant related to COVID-19. She is also involved in the set-up of LINQ’s new Horizon Europe-funded projects, for which she will provide project management and communication and dissemination support. Moreover, Alessia is involved in the proposal process for new initiatives.

Erika has over seven years of experience developing and implementing effective communication strategies for diverse international companies in the pharmaceutical and media industry, including the European Parliament’s two youth programs European Youth Event and European Youth Press and the Swedish Educational Broadcasting Company. Prior to that, she studied journalism in both her home country Sweden and in the US. With a passion for multichannel communication, Erika is comfortable producing all types of texts, including website copy, articles, social media posts, and press releases. Having worked as an Art Director and Graphic Designer in the past, she is also a strong designer of both print and online layouts.

At LINQ, Erika develops and implements dissemination and communication strategies for several projects in the LINQ portfolio and oversees that projects follow the guidelines provided by these strategies. Erika collaborates with project partners’ communication departments and scientists to design and execute communication activities, crafts promotional content for the media and the web, and drafts, reviews, and edits communication deliverables. She supports Anna-Lena in coordinating communication efforts for EUCANCan, works with Malte and Christoph in IMPRINT, and drives dissemination activities in TriageTB together with Julia.