Over the past 20 years, I have contributed to the development of the Research Service and Career Development Department at the University of Vienna and am currently in charge of a team of 45 professional and dedicated employees. In this role as head of the central service unit, I report directly to the Rectorate and support strategy development and implementation.

I hold a PhD in Mathematics from the University of Vienna and have conducted postdoctoral research in complex analysis, statistics, and econometrics at the Vienna University of Technology and the University of Mid Sweden. In 2002, I expanded my expertise by joining the Austrian Science Foundation (FWF) as a programme manager, where I gained in-depth knowledge of research evaluation processes. This experience proved invaluable when I returned to my alma mater in 2004 to serve as deputy director of the Research Services and International Relations Office. In this role, I helped establish a Research Services Office, including Technology Transfer.

Since 2007, in addition to the further development of research services, I have been focussing on the reform of doctoral education and have been involved in the restructuring process in Europe and at my home university. In 2008, I was commissioned by the Rectorate to set up a university-wide centre for doctoral studies in accordance with European standards and recommendations. This centre, which was established in 2013 as part of the newly created Department of Research Services and Career Development, has been under my leadership since its launch. As an expert in doctoral training, I was delegated by the Austrian Ministry to the European Commission's ERA Working Group on Innovative Doctoral Training and have participated in several missions as an expert on higher education reform. Recently, I have been actively involved in setting up doctoral schools at the University of Vienna and am currently working on establishing a dedicated postdoc office.

Outside the University of Vienna, I am engaged in numerous international activities related to higher education policy, research, and doctoral education. Thanks to my diverse experience, I am repeatedly invited to take on evaluation tasks for funding bodies at programme and project level as well as for higher education institutions. I am a regular speaker at international conferences in Europe and beyond, such as the meeting of the Council of Deans and Directors of Graduate Research (DDOGS) of Universities Australia, EUA-CDE events, and the Regional Training Workshop for Quality Supervision in East Africa in Rwanda. Additionally, I have taken on advisory roles, including for the CREST online training course for supervisors of doctoral students at African universities at Stellenbosch University, and for the Horizon Europe projects DocEnhance or Beyond Bad Apples.

I like to combine my theoretical knowledge with practical applications. For example, I'm writing competitive proposals with my team to attract third-party funding, or organising workshops for doctoral supervisors abroad. I currently have a project with universities in East Africa on local capacity building for doctoral supervisor workshops in the region. Within doctoral training, I'm also particularly committed to professionalising staff who contribute significantly to quality assurance and developing doctoral training from an operational perspective. In 2017, I founded the PRIDE network association for professionals in doctoral education, of which I am currently the chairperson. In this role, I represent the network externally, share responsibility for regular training courses for the international community of professionals, and organise conferences on doctoral-related topics.