Profile Category: Board of Directors

Mines Paris - PSL (FR) -
Simon Camal is a Research Engineer and Tenure Track faculty member at MINES Paris – PSL (PERSEE Center). He develops operational solutions for the management of distributed resources—such as renewable energy sources, storage, and hydrogen—within energy systems. His work focuses on optimising decision-making under uncertainty, employing predictive analysis (data science for processing meteorological, physical, and socio-economic uncertainties) and prescriptive approaches (integrated estimation-optimisation).

DLR (DE) -
Michael Kreuz is with DLR since 2010 and represents the organization´s energy research activities at DLR´s Brussels Office since 2016. On national and EU level he holds various positions, e.g. acts as strategic advisor for Hydrogen Europe Research (HER) since 2018.

ORE Catapult (UK) -
Chong Ng is the Applied Research Associate Director in the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult. He is also a non-executive director of TUS-OREC Research Centre in China and an Honorary Professor of the University of Warwick. He and his team are focus on offshore renewable energy technologies, grid integration and novel full scale wind turbine testing solutions research and development. Chong has published more than 40 international research papers, a book in offshore wind farm topic and named inventor on multiple international patents.

RISE (SE) - Monica Axell is Head Research & Business Development at Energy and Resources since 2020. Since 2004 she is General Manager for Heat Pump Centre, the Programme Office and Communication Centre for IEA Heat Pumping Technology. She is Board Member in EUREC since 2020 and is also involved in Mission Innovation #IC7 Affordable Heating and Cooling, in CELSIUS 2.0 with focus on energy transition in cities and in working groups within ETIP-RHC. She has more than 20 years’ experience of R&D in the fields of energy and management.

Forschungszentrum Jülich (DE) - Kaining Ding is the Head of the Department "Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells and Modules" at IEK-5 Photovoltaics, Forschungszentrum Jülich. A materials scientist by training, he has extensive experience in the fabrication and development of silicon heterojunction solar cells. His research interests span across high-efficiency solar cell technologies, module design, and innovative photovoltaic applications—including vehicle-integrated photovoltaics (VIPV) and the integration of PV systems into road traffic infrastructure.

TNO (NL) - Karina Veum is a Senior Consultant and Project Manager at the Energy & Materials Transition Unit at TNO. With a strong background as a senior researcher and policy advisor, she has extensive experience in advancing knowledge and shaping effective policies in the field of sustainable energy. Her expertise covers a wide range of areas, including sustainable development, climate change, policy analysis, and renewable energy. Karina holds a degree from the University of Oslo and is dedicated to driving impactful solutions for the energy transition.

AIT (AT) - Tara Esterl is head of the Competence Unit Integrated Energy Systems at AIT Austrian Institute of Technology. Working at AIT since 2012, her previous research work focused on the operation of flexibility for markets and grids. She is contributing to and leading large research projects such as the Flex+, Hybrid-VPP4DSO and Industry4Redispatch (I4RD). She is the representative of ETIP-SNET for EUREC and is ExCo delegate of the IEA UsersTCP for Austria.

EURAC Research (IT) -
Wolfram Sparber is Head of Institute for Renewable Energy at Eurac Research (Bolzano-Italy) since its foundation in 2005. Since 2011 he is involved as chairman of the executive board and later member of the advisory board of one of the leading renewable energy utilities in Italy (Alperia, former SEL). On EU level Wolfram was Vice President of the ETIP-RHC from 2011 till 2019 and is member of the Clean Energy Industrial Forum since 2021.