Section: Research Policy & Development

Function: Researcher

Contact:

• Email: gavarane@zsi.at

Work and research focus:

Research, science and innovation policy, technology transfer policy, IPR, socially engaged research in Life Sciences, research and laboratory management and evaluation, infrastructure, science communication, school education, higher education, lifelong learning, development of funding programmes, internationalization, European integration.

Running and completed projects:

• LUKE - Linking Ukraine to the European Research Area – Joint Funding and Capacity Building Platform for Enhanced Research and Innovation Cooperation (2025)

Education and career:

Inese has a Doctor degree in Biology (sub-branch Ecology) obtained in Latvia with research stays at the European Union Reference Laboratory for Parasites (Rome, Italy). Later during M.Ed. studies, she focused on lifelong learning and training needs assessment. Inese also holds an MBA, and the main interest was on strategy development. Inese is a certified laboratory quality manager (ISO/IEC 17025). Inese received nine awards for studies, research, and innovation development.

Over the last ten years, Inese worked at the Institute of Life Sciences and Technology of Daugavpils University, Latvia. She held research, teaching, and leading positions. She participated in different national and international projects as researcher, expert, task leader or coordinator. She coordinated strategic development of the Research and Business Centre “REBUS” in the Special European Economic Zone (Latgale, Latvia). She was a member of the national technology transfer working group of Latvian universities and WIPO Baltic TTO network. She represented university at CERN Baltic Group. She participated in the project Better Life “Bringing Excellence to Transformative Engaged Research in Life Sciences through Integrated Digital Centres” implementation and engaged in organisation of the series of the events in Latvia.

 Inese has hands-on proficiency on the assessment of both research and testing laboratories as well as specialized knowledge in aquaculture and agriculture sectors worldwide. She worked at the Institute of Food Safety, Animal Health and Environment “BIOR” (The National Reference Laboratory, Riga, Latvia). In 2020, she was a key expert and a task leader in the World Bank project “Assessment of the current status of Moldova’s laboratory infrastructure in view of its compliance with EU requirements”. Inese had provided expertise on One-health and Green Deal within TAIEX activities in Kyrgyzstan.

From 2020 till 2023, Inese worked as a Resident Twinning Advisor within EU DG NEAR Twinning project “Supporting inter-sectoral collaboration possibilities between research and industry” in Tbilisi (Georgia). The project aimed at enhancing the working capacity of the Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia (SRNSFG) by revising and improving existing programmes and operational activities.

In 2023-2024, Inese provided expertise and participated in coordination of EU DG NEAR Twinning Light “Strengthening the Science and Research Ecosystem in Albania”. The project contributed to strengthen the capacities of the National Agency for Scientific Research and Innovation (NASRI) to address the inadequacies in the transposition and implementation of the acquis related to scientific research and innovation.

Before joining ZSI in 2025, Inese was coordinating the Erasmus+ project “BioSustainED: Teacher Capacity Building in Biodiversity” to develop a training programme and methodological guidelines on integration the topic of biodiversity in Latvian and Lithuanian schools.

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