Katharina Ladewig is the Managing Director at EIT Health Germany, which manages EIT Health’s network and activities across Germany, Austria and Switzerland. EIT Health is a consortium of more than 150 partners from leading businesses, research centres and universities from across 15 EU countries. The partnership promotes entrepreneurship and develops innovations in healthy living and active ageing, providing Europe with new opportunities and resources. This is achieved through delivering products, concepts and services, including educational programmes that nurture talents and train the workforce of tomorrow. Adopting an investor approach, EIT Health drives the integration of business; research and higher education, boosts innovation, and is thus a catalyst for new solutions for Europe.

Prior to joining EIT Health, Katharina worked extensively in academia both in Germany and Australia, focusing on translational activities and building innovation partnerships between academia and SMEs in addition to primary research. Her past experience includes the bench-to-bedside translation of a number of novel bio(nano)materials, pharmaceutical drug delivery technologies and medical devices and she previously held a prestigious Australian Research Council (ARC) Super Science Fellowship at The University of Melbourne, Australia, where she continues to hold an honorary appointment. She joined EIT Health in Oct 2015 initially as Director (UK-Ireland) and was appointed Director EIT Health (Germany) effective Jan 2018. Katharina was educated in Germany and Australia, and holds degrees in science (MSc – Chemistry 2005), engineering (PhD – Biomedical Engineering 2009), higher education (Melbourne Teaching Certificate 2011), and business management (MBA 2015).