Engelbert Beyer entered the former Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Division for R&D Policy, in Bonn (Germany), in 1989. Since 1998, Mr. Beyer became in charge of various divisions on “Innovation Policy” issues, and since 2005 Head of Division "Innovation Policy" of the BMBF, Berlin (Germany). His work in the recent years was significantly stamped by the planning and the coordination of the German Hightech-Strategy. Since 2009, Mr. Beyer is Head of the Directorate “Innovation Strategies” of the BMBF, in Berlin (Germany).

Hendrik Van Brussel is full professor in mechatronics and automation at the Faculty of Engineering, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (K.U.Leuven) in Belgium. He is fellow of SME, IEEE and of CIRP (International Academy for Production Engineering Research) of which he served as President (2000-2001). He is a Member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Sciences and Fine Arts and Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA).

Bertrand Collomb is Honorary Chairman of Lafarge, a world-wide leader in building materials. He joined Lafarge in 1975 and was Chairman and CEO from 1989 to 2003, and Chairman from 2003 to 2007. He is also a director of Total, ATCO and DuPont. He is Chairman of IFRI (French Institute of International relations), and Chairman of IHEST (Institute for Studies in Science and Technology). He is a member of the Governing Body of the European Institute of Technology (EIT) and a member of the European Corporate Governance Forum (ECG). He is a member of the "Institut de France" ("Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques").

Anne Flierman has been President of the Executive Board of Governors of the University of Twente since 2005. He is a member of the Twente Innovation Platform and a member of the board of the Dutch Federation of Technical Universities. Also, he is speaker of the board of European Consortium of Innovative Universities (ECIU) and chairman of the committee for human resources of the Dutch universities association. He is member of the Hochschulrat of the TU Hamburg-Harburg, and of the Dutch First Chamber of Parliament (the 'senate').

Reinhard Hüttl is member, and since 2008 President of the German Academy of Science and Engineering. He is member of science academies in Germany, Sweden, Austria and Switzerland. Since 2007, Reinhard Hüttl is the Scientific Executive Director of the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences in Potsdam and Director of the collaborative research programme “Transregio” (SFB/TRR) 38 “Structures and processes of the initial ecosystem development in an artificial watershed” at the BTU Cottbus.

Miguel A. Lagunas is the director of the Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (CTTC) since 2001. He was Senior IEEE (1991) and IEEE Fellow (1997), as well as Member at large of Eurasip since 1990. He was elected Member of the Engineering Academy of Spain in 1998, holding awards from UPC, Generalitat and Chamber of Commerce for technical merits. He is member of the Royal Academy of Science and Arts of Barcelona and of the Real Academia de Ingeniería.

Anton Menth, CEO of Oerlikon-Contraves from 1991 to 1995. In 1995 he changed to Tornos S A, Moutier, Switzerland, as CEO and deputy of the administrative board. He was Chairman of the Board of Swiss Post from 2002 until 2009. He is member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences.

László Monostori is Deputy Director Research of the Computer and Automation Research Institute (SZTAKI), Hungarian Academy of Sciences, professor at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, and director of the Fraunhofer Project Centre on Production Management and Informatics at SZTAKI. He is Council Member of the International Academy for Production Engineering (CIRP); Full Member of the European Academy of Industrial Management (AIM); Chairman of the Coordinating (CC) on Manufacturing and Logistics Systems, International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC). He is a corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and member of the Hungarian Academy of Engineering.

Björn O. Nilsson is the President and member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA). He has held top management positions at Genentech, Pharmacia & Upjohn, Amersham Pharmacia Biotech, KaroBio and Biacore International.

Bernd Pischetsrieder was chairman of the board of BMW from 1993 to 1999. He was also chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG from 2002 to 2006 and chairman of Scania AB until 2007. He serves currently as Vice-President of acatech - German Academy of Science and Engineering.

Martin Schuurmans was Executive Vice President of Philips Research / Philips Medical systems (PMS). From 2002 until 2005 he was also part-time professor of Innovation Management at TU/e. In 2005 he co-founded the Sino-Dutch Biomedical School of Information Engineering (BMIE) in Shenyang, China. Martin Schuurmans is currently Chairman of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).

Mr. Rudolf W. established the Bavarian Information Office in Bruxelles in 1987 and became its first director. In the same year he became member of German Commissioner Peter Schmidhuber's first Cabinet. Having served also in Commissioner Schmidhuber's 2nd and 3rd Cabinet he became Deputy Head of Cabinet of the first Austrian Commissioner, Dr. Franz Fischler. Having worked in DG Agriculture and as Adviser in the Commission President's Cabinet, Italian Prof. Romano Prodi, he became Head of the 2nd Cabinet of Luxembourger Commissioner Viviane Reding. On February 17, 2010 he was nominated as Deputy Director General of DG R&T.

Lena Treschow Torell is Chairman of Euro-CASE (European Council of Applied Sciences and Engineering), MISTRA (The Foundation for Environmental Strategic Research) and The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA). She is also Director of the Board of the Chalmers University of Technology Foundation, Investor AB, Dagens Industri AB, Micronic Laser Systems AB, Saab AB, AB SKF and AB Ångpanneföreningen (AF).

William Wakeham was until 2009 Vice Chancellor at Southampton University. Other roles include the membership of the board of the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA); chair of the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA); membership of the EPSRC Council and chairing its Resource Audit Committee. William Wakeham also chaired the 2008 Review of Physics in the UK at the request of the then Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills. Currently, he serves as Vice President of the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng).

Walther Christoph Zimmerli is President of the Brandenburg University of Technology. He is member of the following bodies: the World Corporate Ethics Council (WCEC), acatech (German Academy for Science and Engineering), the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences and the senate of The Foundation of Lower Saxony.

Fred van Houten is full professor of Design Engineering and the head of the research group Design, Production and Management of the University of Twente. He is also Scientific Director of IMPACT, the University of Twente Research Institute for Energy and Resources. He is President of the International Academy for Production Engineering (CIRP) and member of the German academy of Science and Engineering (acatech).