Dr. Olaf Heilmayer

Dr. Olaf Heilmayer has been working for more than 10 years as Marine Biologist at research institutions in Germany, USA and the UK. His research was dedicated to investigate the adaptation of marine invertebrates to extreme environments. In total he published 40 studies in international scientific journals.

In 2008 he joined the Project Management Agency at the German Aerospace Center (DLR PT). With 1000 employees, DLR PT is one of the largest project management agencies in Germany. Accordingly, it serves the broadest possible range of topics. Managing research funds totalling approximately one billion euro, in 2014 DLR PT supported 9500 scientific projects in the areas of education, society, healthcare, key technologies, environment and European and international collaboration.

Starting as Senior Scientific Officer Olaf Heilmayer was mainly responsible for various EU funded projects aiming at Eastern Europe. After a 6-month internship at the Federal Ministry of Research and Education (BMBF) he returned to DLR PT. Since 2010 he is Head of Unit for Multilateral Cooperation and Monitoring in the Department for European and International Cooperation. He supports the BMBF in providing strategic and operational assistance with respect to the international dimension of the European Research Area. His unit oversees and coordinates the 50 EU-funded Coordination and Support projects of the Department. He was managing coordinator of the INCO-DEV FP6 project (CENSOR) and actively involved as work package leader in the implementation of a variety of International Cooperation projects within FP6 and FP7, mainly focusing on North and Latin America.

Besides his duties at DLR PT he is coordinator of the BILAT USA 4.0 project and the EU “Service Facility in support of the Strategic Development of International Cooperation in Research and Innovation”, a 25 Mio EUR 4-year framework contract supporting the Directorate General for Research and Innovation.

“Working as a science manager - at a funding organisation, a university or a project management agency - is a satisfying way to use my skills developed during my career as scientist, which are e.g. project management, knowledge about review processes and understanding for the way researchers think.”