After 23 years of dedicated employment at the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut, including an impressive 18 years in the position of Head of Administration, we say goodbye to Dr Michael Frieser.
The range of tasks involved in managing the administration of a Federal Institute such as the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut is extremely diverse and always challenging. As the central internal service division, administration does not just involve the typical aspects of handling the budget, personnel, procurement, facility management, and technical operations, but also areas such as occupational health and safety - especially during a pandemic - and information technology. The tasks are as diverse as the employees and their functions within the Institute. As one of the pioneers of digital transformation at the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut, he successfully implemented improvements and modernisation projects, such as the introduction of a comprehensive workflow and document management system. Mr Frieser mastered his multifaceted responsibilities with great commitment and high professional competence.
In her more than 17 years at the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut, Ms Stefanie Prokopp made valuable contributions to the Institute in multiple key areas of administration, such as the budget and personnel units.
She played an important role in the comprehensive organisational assessment project at the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut, especially in her approximately two years as head of the Organisation Unit in the Administration Division. She was responsible for the project's technical and organisational management. Ms Prokopp was responsible for both functionally implementing a personnel demand assessment with an external organisational consulting company and optimising the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut's organisational structure and procedures as part of a target concept model. One result of this work was the reformulation of the schedule of responsibilities. The reformulation was completed in the course of a comprehensive restructuring of the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut's divisions with the clear goal of adapting regulatory flexibility to the challenges of a modern, biomedicines-focused, research-based medicines authority.
Jörg Sanio was closely involved with digitalisation measures during his six years at the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut. He represented the IT interests of the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut in nationwide bundling and consolidation efforts and campaigned for a technologically functional Paul-Ehrlich-Institut. The information technology (IT) sector was also affected by major challenges in the past few years due to the global pandemic. During this time, the digital transformation experienced an innovation boost, which Jörg Sanio and his team in the Information Technology Unit of the Administration Division took advantage of to make the Institute fit for the coming years. He significantly advanced the development of additional IT infrastructure to provide sufficient work from home opportunities and to increase data availability. Mr Sanio also mastered the growing challenges in the field of IT security and cybercrime. During preparations for the divisional reorganisation, he provided assistance with his knowledge of the technical processes and IT infrastructure.
Dr Katrin Völler made valuable contributions to the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut for 14 years with her intensive, expert-level work and she received widespread recognition both internally and externally. She was the head of the EU Cooperation Unit for the last seven years. This unit plays a key role in the preparation and coordination of the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut's regulatory tasks. The Institute is an important player in the committees and working groups at the European Medicines Agency (EMA). Her work included not only closely communicating with EMA and other medicines authorities of the EU/EEA Member States, but also assisting with European procedures. As an experienced regulatory expert, she was closely involved in the formulation of guidelines for the development and authorisation of biomedicines, including coordinating and communicating the guidelines to colleagues within the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut. She and her team also successfully provided support to the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut's representatives on the European committees.