Arbeits- und Forschungsschwerpunkte

Work and research focus

Désirée Pecarz is senior project and communication manager within the Research Policy and Development Unit of ZSI GmbH. She joined ZSI in March 2007. Her work focuses on international RTD/S&T co-operation, R&I policy and networks’ coordination, SME competitiveness, sustainability and social innovation aspects. In the last 5+ years, her work consistently centres on the Western Balkans region—coordinating policy dialogue, training programmes, capacity building and even logistics for ministerial meetings. Désirée has indeed been providing technical assistance to the EC DG RTD for the Support of the Western Balkans Steering Platforms to foster the integration of the WB6 into the European Research Area via several initiatives such as the Service Facility and most recently through the POLICY ANSWERS PROJECT. Her activities range from the organisation of  high-level ministerial events and policy dialogue or training workshops, to studies and analyses, and dissemination and communication. She is also part of the editorial staff of the Western Balkans Info-Hub regularly informing on key R&I dynamics such as sustainable development and bio-economy, responsible research and innovation, gender equality, RTDI capacities, etc.
Her work has previously focused on the SME innovation capacity to allow the transformation of knowledge into products and services for a more sustainable society in the Danube region (DTP project “Made in Danube”). In such a framework, she designed a social innovation training course for SMEs, early stage R&I project managers, and young graduates as first time applicants to transnational projects from business sector to offer solid conceptual foundations in the search for innovative solutions, while reinforcing and developing the vision, knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to face current and emerging challenges. A series of best practice workshops were also conducted within the project, to help organisations from the academia and industry sectors to share good practice examples and to exchange knowledge on cross-cutting issues related to the bio-economy field such social-, services- and eco-innovation.
Her educational and professional background includes a degree in Economy of the international trade and value markets at the University of Trieste (Italy), a specialisation in International Marketing at MIB–School of Management, and a position at INFORMEST – Italian Agency for International Economic Cooperation. She speaks Italian, English and German.