Bio Sigi Gruber

Since 1 January 2021 retired European Commission Official, currently still working as Active Senior Advisor for the European Commission. From 2014 until 2021, she was the Head of the Healthy Ocean and Seas Unit, in the Directorate General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission. The Unit defined, implemented and monitored Research and Innovation strategies to support the European Union’s marine and maritime related policies such as the Integrated Maritime Policy, its Blue Economy Agenda and the different Sea basin Strategies etc., thereby contributing to the sustainable and responsible management of marine resources, both in Europe and globally. The Unit also coordinated and implemented for the European Union the All Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance and the Blue Growth calls of the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme. The Unit’s work also co-created the moon-shot Mission on ‘Restoring our Ocean and Water by 2030’; supported the UN Decade for Ocean Science and many other global initiatives; and shaped the Ocean and Seas related parts of Horizon Europe, the most important Research&Innovation Programme of the European Union.

Sigi Gruber started to work for the European Commission in 1991, with different responsibilities in Education and Training, the European Institute of Technologies, Universities and Research, International S&T Cooperation. Prior to joining the European Commission, she worked in the public and private sector in Italy and Germany.