Marc Heijde

Marc Heijde is a plant molecular biologist and bio-technologist. In 2008, he obtained his PhD in molecular life sciences from the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, France. After post-doctoral research stays in Germany (University of Freiburg) and Switzerland (University of Geneva), he joined the VIB as a Marie Curie fellow in 2013. In 2015, he joined the VIB-International Plant Biotechnology Outreach (IPBO) team as a science advisor and became later the IPBO program manager. With the IPBO team, his mission is to accelerate international scientific cooperation on agro-biotechnology with Africa. Marc Heijde develops partnerships for research, innovation, and capacity building in the field of biotechnology and related biosafety with the ambition to further encourage the set-up of more sustainable and science-based agriculture. Marc is coordinator the EU-LEAP-Agri funded “Climate smart bananas” (CLISMABAN) project and is coordinator of the Plant Biotechnology and Breeding International network (PlantB+B). Besides, he is administrator of the Marc and Nora Van Montagu fund and in 2022, he became chair of the advisory board of the Biotrust consortium (previously ISAAA).

More information on the work and activities of IPBO can be found here: https://ipbo.vib-ugent.be