About Christos Vaitsis

Europe's Innovation Infrastructure — 12+ Years Building What Startups Need

EIT Health (2016-2025) — Stockholm, Vienna, Remote

Christos joined EIT Health — Europe's largest health innovation initiative with 140+ partner organizations — when the Scandinavian operation consisted of two people and a mandate to build an ecosystem across five countries (Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Estonia). Over nine years, he progressed from Innovation Manager to Business Creation & Partnership Strategy Manager (EIT Health Scandinavia), to Senior Consultant (to EIT Health HQ), to Innovation Lead (EIT Health DACH), ultimately supporting 218 companies, of which 107 collectively raised €362M in published lifetime funding.

What he built:

• Founded operations twice — Built Scandinavian infrastructure from scratch (2016), then replicated the founding role as advisor to the newly established EIT Health Austria Office (2022)
• Deal flow at scale — Personally sourced, screened, and evaluated 181 ventures across Biotech, MedTech, and Digital Health, spread across mainly pre-seed, seed and Series A, along with Series B and C
• Investment connectivity infrastructure — Co-developed the EIT Health Investor Network Program, aggregating 100+ institutional investors across Europe; sourced and prepared 20 companies to the program through 13-section, 51-item institutional due diligence framework, of which 14 selected
• Program design & delivery — Competed for and won €700K EU funding to lead the Digital Sandbox Accelerator, the first ever pan-European Program that funded and connected 16 startups to European Bionanks and Health Registries to access health data, paving the way for new treatments and medical innovations; managed €1.5M+ annually in total program budgets; co-authored €1M Mentoring & Coaching Network proposal, the EU Network of Experts/Mentors for Health and Healthcare Service and Technology start-ups. Addtionally, co-developed 20+ pan-European Innovation, Incubation & Acceleration programs spanning the entire value chain from teams to scaleups
• Portfolio governance — Strategic oversight of €10M+ EU innovation projects portfolio across 11 companies and 8 countries, from proposal preparation to expert hearings pitch, with 100% final approval rate
• Partnership expansion — In one year as Partnership Strategy Manager at EIT Health Scandinavia, onboarded Helsinki University Hospital, NTNU/Norway Health Tech, Sahlgrenska Science Park, Karolinska University Hospital and Health Tech Hub Copenhagen, as new institutional partners

Technology Transfer Architecture — Building Systematic Commercialization

ATHENA Research Center (2021-Present) — Athens, Greece

As Head of Innovation & Technology Transfer at Greece's largest AI research institution, Christos designed and implemented the institutional frameworks that most research centers lack: equity allocation at spinoff formation, IP filing expense sharing, proceeds distribution, and board governance models that balance institutional interests with venture growth requirements.

What he created:

• Institutional equity framework — Applied as standard across all spinoffs
• Spinoff creation — Created four spinoff companies (Kyklos - digital health, Agora Labs - health data ecosystem, Avisense - XR/AI for connected vehicles, OmniLoc.ai - Global-Scale Localisation/Autonomous Operations); two pending. One secured equity investment pre-incorporation
• Board representation — Serves on boards of 2 spinoff companies representing ATHENA's shareholder interests; regular participant in ATHENA Board of Directors meetings providing expert input on innovation strategy and technology transfer
• IP strategy & patents — Created ATHENA's first comprehensive IP strategy; led prosecution of 4 national patents + 1 European patent (first EPO patent ever granted to ATHENA)
• Industry partnerships — 50+ structured meetings (including Pfizer, Google, HP, EY, Mytilinaios, Motor Oil, TERNA, INTRAKOM) resulting in 10-15 signed MoUs and research contracts
• TTO hub creation — Co-founding member of Science Agora, a four-institution Technology Transfer Hub (ATHENA RC, NCSR Demokritos, AUEB, NTUA) in Athens

European Commission Expert Evaluator — Institutional Verdict Authority

Appointed September 2025

The European Commission appoints independent experts to evaluate research and innovation proposals seeking public funding. Christos holds appointments across various programs, evaluating companies and consortia seeking tens of millions in blended financing.

Recent appointments:

• EIC Accelerator — Evaluating full proposals (50-page business plans, IP/FTO analysis, pitch decks, financial models, LoIs, team CVs) of €17.5M each in blended financing.
• HaDEA Health — Regenerative Medicine proposals (€29.5M total budget allocation)
• EIT Urban Mobility — Urban transformation and mobility innovation programs

ZAZ Ventures — Final Investment Verdict Authority

Senior Consultant (2024-Present)

ZAZ Ventures is Europe's top-ranked EIC Accelerator consultancy with €1.734B raised for clients since 2014 and success rates 4-5x above average. Christos serves as final-stage go/no-go decision authority for proposals seeking up to €17.5M in blended financing.

Karolinska Institutet — Researcher & Course Director (2013-2016)

Before entering innovation infrastructure, Christos was a researcher at Karolinska Institutet (KI), one of the world's top 10 universities in clinical medicine and life sciences. His research focused on Big Data and AI for clinical decision-making, producing 14 peer-reviewed publications and one book chapter (lead authorship on 8), published in PLoS ONE, JMIR Research Protocols, PeerJ, and IEEE CBMS.

As Course Director, he designed and delivered the MSc-level course "Designing eLearning Interventions in Healthcare Education" within the Health Informatics master program. He was appointed by KI as Primary Voting Member of the MedBiquitous Standards Committee — the sole European representative on an international healthcare education standards organization (part of Association of American Medical Colleges - AAMC) that sets standards for healthcare education and competence assessment worldwide (2015-2016).