Kasia Jurczak is the Head of Unit “Combatting diseases” at European Commission’s Directorate General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD). Together with her dedicated team, she provides strategic steer for the funding available for health research and innovation under Horizon Europe, which covers both infectious and non-communicable diseases.
Kasia has 20 years of experience in the EU-level policy development, implementation and research, in the areas of public health, labour and social policy, civil protection and humanitarian aid. Prior to joining DG RTD, she worked in the private office of Janez Lenarčič, the European Commissioner for Crisis Management, advising on response to COVID-19, scaling up EU’s health emergency preparedness and EU’s humanitarian aid in Latin America and the Caribbean. She also acted as an advisor to Marianne Thyssen, the European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility. Kasia has been working for the European Commission since 2012.
Kasia studied social science at the London School of Economics and Political Science (BSc) in the UK and University of Leuven (MA) in Belgium. She is a Polish national.