Scientific advisory board

The scientific advisory board provides advice in substantive scientific issues and methodological issues, and provides advice from a users perspective. The advisory board members have made their mark in one or more of the following areas: research into, and the development of theories about changes in the family, designing and implementing large-scale surveys and panel studies, research on changing policies in Europe, and social policy practice. The members are:

Sara Arber, Professor of Sociology at the University of Surrey. Her research focuses on gender and class inequalities in health, ageing and later life and on sociology of sleep. She is co-director of the Centre for Research on Ageing and Gender (CRAG).

Martin Kohli, Professor of Sociology at the European University Institute (Fiesole/Florence), on leave from the Free University of Berlin where he directs the Research Group on Aging and the Life Course.

Trond Petersen, Professor of Sociology at Berkeley University, California. He is an expert on social inequality and quantitative methods.

Clemens Tesch-Römer, Professor of Psychology and Director of the German Center for Ageing (Deutsches Zentrum für Altersfragen). His research focuses on life quality and well-being in old age, social relations and social integration of the elderly, and family and societal solidarity.

Alan Walker is Professor of Social Policy and Director of ESRC Growing Older Programme at the University of Sheffield. He has a long-established international reputation for his research in social gerontology. His specialist subjects include comparative social policies on ageing (pensions, employment, long-term care) particularly within the European Union.

Jan Hoem, Professor of Demography, and Head of the Laboratory of Contemporary European Fertility and Family Dynamics of the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock. He has been involved in the GGP since the beginning, and has a longstanding research interest in the links between demographic behaviour and policies.

Policy advisory board

The membership consists of a mix of policy researchers and senior policy advisors at either the national or European level. The Policy Advisory Board not only provides advice from a users’ perspective, but also accompanies the implementation of MULTILINKS with a view to securing policy relevance as well as outreach to policy makers. The members are:

Agnieszka Chłoń-Domińczak, Vice-Minister for Pensions in the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy in Poland. She is a member of the EU Social Protection Committee.

Silvia Conduto de Sousa, Advisor to the Cabinet of the Minister for Labour and Social Solidarity in Portugal. She is on leave from her position as Assistant Professor in the Economics department at the University Of Minho, Braga.

Astrid Heiberg, Norwegian conservative politician and President of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies from 1997 to 2001. She is professor of medicine at the University of Oslo.

Eleonora (Lore) Hostasch, Department of European, International and Social Political Constitutional Issues of the Federal Ministry of Social and Consumer Protection in Austria. She is the Chair of the European Commission’s Expert Group on Demographic Issues.

René Groot Koerkamp, Advisor on economic issues to the members of the government for Health, Welfare & Sports, and Youth and Family in the Netherlands. He is involved in preparations for the government memoranda on family policy.

Gabriele Müller-List, Department of Senior Citizens in the German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth. She is a member of the Board of Official Representatives of the German Center of Gerontology.

Julius Op de Beke, responsible for the secretariat of the demography Inter-service Group within the European Commission. He is also part of the secretariat of the Commission’s new government advisory group on demographic issues.

Pilar Rodriguez Rodriguez, General Director of the Spanish Institute for the Elderly and Social Services (IMSERSO). She was coauthor of the “Reference Book about the Situation of Dependent People in Spain” which preceded the Spanish Law on the Promotion of Personal Autonomy and Care for Dependent People.