Alba de la Vara, PhD

She holds a Master’s degree in Analysis and Management of Mediterranean Ecosystems, specialising in the marine environment (Universidad de Alicante), and a Bachelor’s degree in Marine Sciences with an honours distinction for academic excellence from the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Alicante. She also holds a University Expert Certificate in Educational Technology (UNED).

Since 2011, she has been involved in research in the fields of Oceanography and Climate, with a specific focus on Climate Change since 2016. She co-supervised a PhD thesis on climate, defended in 2023 (Universidad Complutense de Madrid). She has taught both theoretical and practical courses at various levels (undergraduate, final year thesis, and doctoral level) in European public universities (University of Utrecht) and Spanish institutions (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha). She has delivered presentations at numerous international conferences and has published extensively in high-impact international scientific journals.

In 2021, she joined the Kveloce team, where she led the ECOAZUL-MED project as Principal Investigator and has been actively involved in the implementation of various Horizon Europe projects.

In her consultancy work, she focuses on European programmes for scientific excellence, particularly ERC, MSCA, and Pillar II of Horizon Europe. Since 2024, she has been Head of the ERC Area at Kveloce, where she coordinates and delivers proposal review services, ERC interview simulations, and training activities at both national and European institutions. She provides strategic and technical guidance for the drafting and review of ERC proposals (StG, CoG, AdG, SyG, PoC), and has extensive experience preparing interview simulations for ERC StG, CoG, and AdG calls—offering insight both from a scientific and science communication perspective. She has participated in several training activities related to ERC, covering key topics such as programme structure, evaluation criteria, proposal preparation, and communication strategies for the interview stage.