Dr. Sara Medina
Nationality: Portuguese
Company: Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação (SPI –http://www.spieurope.eu)
Position: Member of the Board, SPI
Email: saramedina@spi.pt
Dr. Sara Medina is a Member of the Board of SPI - (www.spieurope.eu), an international consulting Group with offices located in Europe (Portugal and Spain), North America (USA) and Asia (Beijing and Macao) and SPI Ventures. Dr. Medina contributes to the overall management of SPI, being responsible for managing SPI's activities and services in China since 2004 as well as in the Southeast Asian market.
She has coordinated projects for public and private sector clients in Europe and around the world, including projects for international organizations in innovation management, technology transfer, R&D, internationalization, sector studies, establishment of partnerships and policy development. She also manages projects funded by the European Commission (EC), the World Bank and Inter- American Development Bank. Dr. Medina was an invited member of the Access to Risk Finance Advisory Group appointed by the EC, DG Research and Innovation. Dr. Medina is an invited expert at the EU SME Centre in China and has provided a series of training seminars on issues regarding the Chinese market to representatives of SMEs in Latvia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, and Belgium. Dr. Medina is a Member of the Board of the Portugal Indonesia Chamber of Commerce.
Dr. Medina is an expert and International Committee Member for International Technology Transfer Network (ITTN) in which she promotes international technology transfer and innovation cooperation in China. She is an expert evaluator for EC Horizon 2020 ́s SME Instrument. Dr. Medina also collaborates with Eurostars as an expert evaluator of Eurostars applications and as an expert panel member of the ex-post impact assessment of Eurostars-1.
Currently, Dr. Sara Medina is involved in the coordination of a project in China promoted by the European Commission through Horizon 2020, that resulted in the creation of ENRICH in China - a global network of centres and hubs that promotes the internationalisation of European science, technology and innovation (STI). The ENRICH in China Centre has its headquarters in Beijing, hosted by the EU SME Centre and a regional hub, located in Chengdu.
Dr. Medina has a Bachelors degree in Food Engineering from the College of Biotechnology in Portugal, a European Masters degree in Food Studies from 5 major European Universities and a Ph.D. degree in Food and Resource Economics from the University of Florida, USA. Dr. Medina has concluded courses on Innovation and Leadership at the Universities of Wharton and Harvard and successfully completed the INSEAD Asia International Executive Programme, the Managing Global Virtual Teams Programme and the Negotiation Dynamics Programme in Singapore and France, respectively. More recently, Dr. Medina also finished the Advanced Management Program, a joint course from Católica Lisbon Business & Economics with the Northwestern Kellogg School of Management that took place in Lisbon and Chicago.