Shalini Saxena has been active in the national and international research community for many years and has extensive experience at the intersection of science, administration, and research policy.
After studying law at the universities of Saarbrücken, Maastricht, and Heidelberg, the fully qualified lawyer initially held various positions in the field of European research cooperation, including at Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel and at the Center for European Economic Research (ZEW) in Mannheim, part of the Leibniz Association.
In 2008–2009, she served as a national expert at the European Commission in Brussels, working on the further development of framework conditions for knowledge transfer between public institutions and industry, both in Europe and worldwide.
She subsequently worked for several years at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (now the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space, BMFTR) in Bonn and Berlin. There, she focused in particular on issues of knowledge and technology transfer, as well as the legal structuring of international cooperation agreements and intellectual property matters, but also on inclusion in vocational education and training and the funding provided by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation - among other initiatives - to support top international talent at German universities.
Since July 2016, Shalini Saxena has been working at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), initially in the Management Board’s Legal Affairs section and as the Data Protection Officer. Since April 2018, she has been Head of the Legal Department, which she has built up and successfully developed in this role.
