Arjon Van Hengel

European Commission

Dr Arjon van Hengel works for the European Commission in the Health Innovations & Ecosystems Unit within the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation. This unit aims to foster the development and uptake of breakthrough innovations in the field of health and care, and to support citizens in staying healthy, particularly through health-promoting environments and people-centred healthcare systems. He is a member of the Innovative Health Initiative’s Science and Innovation Panel.

Arjon has been with the European Commission since 2005 and has worked on various aspects of research related to human health. He has served as team leader for infectious diseases during the first year and a half of the COVID-19 pandemic, as policy officer for antimicrobial resistance research, and as head of a research group developing and validating analytical detection methods for food allergies.

Arjan received his PhD in molecular biology from Wageningen University (NL). Before joining the European Commission, he worked as a research scientist at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, (UK).