David Oliva Uribe is currently the Head of the EUA Council for Doctoral Education. His work is focused on global trends in doctoral education, doctoral programmes and researcher career development. Before joining EUA, David worked for 15 years in research and academia in Belgium, Germany and Mexico. As researcher and team leader of a research group specialised in mechatronics, he gained experience in Germany working and establishing industry projects, as well as participating in the preparation and conduction of EU-funded projects in different university environments. His personal research work is on the development of intelligent surgical tools to improve the safety of brain tumour’s operation with focus on the use of tactile sensor technologies. This research work has been conducted in cooperation with German and Belgian partners. David, as a pro-bono activity, has participated the last 10 years in the development of professional networks of highly skilled Mexicans living in Europe to promote academic and scientific cooperation between the European Union and Mexico.