Vilija Balionyte-Merle (G1)

She is a Programme Manager with around 20 years’ experience in leading and managing the large-scale digital transformation projects funded by the EU Framework Programmes within adaptation to climate change, energy and defence sectors. During her career she worked in a number of public and private organisations including six years’ experience at the European Commission in five countries in Europe, namely Belgium, France, Lithuania, Norway and the UK. Since May 2022 she works with SINTEF Digital, as Senior Business Developer EU. Vilija is a strategic coordinator of the RESIST project, which is an- EU project funded by the EU Mission - Adaptation to Climate Change with 26.7 m€ budget and 57 partners involvement and contributes to a number of EU-funded projects such as ENFIELD which builds an European Lighthouse to Manifest Trustworthy and Green AI. Vilija has an education background focused on IT, economics and mathematics, and is owner of a PhD in Economics obtained in 2001.