Ms. Kai (Grace) Zhang has solid experience in facilitating international cooperation in research and innovation, education, public/private partnership and social innovation between Europe and other regions.

Currently Kai is leading the activities for EU-China Study on IoT and 5G (EXCITING) project as part of the Coordinator’s team and User Engagement for Large Scale Pilots in the Internet of Things (U4IoT) project as support to the project Coordinator; Kai also provides support to additional projects in Martel. Key activities that Kai has been involved in within these projects include development of market research, open call management, policy analysis, feasibility and benchmarking studies, coordination and implementation of dissemination and communication, among others. Additionally, she is highly skilled in international event management.

Prior to Martel, Kai was a Senior Consultant at a Portuguese consultancy and has efficiently managed activities of mainly European Commission (EC) projects, e.g. DG Research and Innovation – H2020/FP7, DG GROW, DG Education and Culture, DG COMP and EuropeAid. She was among the most successful bid winners for projects related to Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) international cooperation concerning APAC region – mainly China/Southeast Asia/the Pacific.

Kai comes from a multicultural background and has received education in both China (Shanghai International Studies University, B.A. degree in English) and the United States (University of Pennsylvania, M.S.Ed degree in Intercultural Communication).