Dr. Irina Meln is a Project and Innovation Manager at the European Vaccine Initiative (EVI). Irina has a scientific background with 15+ years of experience in biomedical research and 10+ years in project coordination.

Irina holds a PhD in Biosciences (Dr. rer. nat.) from the Ruprecht Karls University, Heidelberg. During her scientific career, Irina focused on advanced cell models and big data analysis. Additionally, she is a certified project manager by the German Association for Project Management (PM-ZERT) and has a Level A License on European Business Competence (EBC*L).

Irina coordinated multiple international clinical projects across different organisations (research and public health care organisations, pharma industry, and more). Before obtaining her PhD degree, she also worked at a grant office and gained substantial experience in securing funds from national and international programmes (as FP7, BMBF).

Irina aims at expanding current collaborations and bringing in new partnerships to EVI, strengthening the alliance management capabilities towards increasing innovation in the vaccine field.