Irene Norstedt

Director, DG Research and Innovation, European Commission

Speaker Bio

Irene Norstedt works at the European Commission where she is the Director responsible for the People Directorate within the DG for Research and Innovation. The People Directorate  works towards the development of a healthy, safe, more equal, free, open and fair society, where the voice of the citizen and different communities are better heard.


Irene has been at the European Commission since 1996, and has worked on various aspects of research in life sciences and particular health research throughout her career in the Commission. Areas of particular interest have been the set up of the public private partnership the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) and the International Rare Diseases Research Consortium (IRDiRC).


Prior to joining the European Commission, she worked for the Swedish life science company Biacore AB and at the Swedish embassy in London.


Irene studied at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and University of Sussex, and holds a Master of Science (MsC) in Chemical Engineering.