Prof. Dr.-Ing. Ina Schieferdecker is Director-General for Research for Technological Sovereignty and Innovation at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Initiatives related to modern key technologies including for example quantum technologies, material technologies, microelectronics, communication, software and AI technologies as well as future of work and value creation are located in this directorate. Before joining the BMBF, Schieferdecker was Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems (FOKUS), Professor for Quality Engineering of Open Distributed Systems at TU Berlin and Director of the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society – The German Internet Institute. She is a member of the National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech) and has been a member of the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU), the Hightech Forum 2025 (HTF), the Science Platform Sustainability 2030 and the Board of Technologiestiftung Berlin (TSB). She has received various awards for her scientific work such as the EUREKA Innovation Award and the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Award for Young Professors.