Dr Els Torreele is a biomedical researcher and global health equity and medical innovation expert, working to re-imagine the global pharmaceutical R&D and manufacturing ecosystem to prioritize people’s health needs and ensure equitable access to knowledge and technologies where and when needed. She is the Founding Director of æqua, a think space on Equity and Economic Justice for Health. A Bio-Engineer and PhD from Brussels University (VUB), for over 20 years she has combined scientific research, pharmaceutical R&D, policy analysis and research, and advocacy at VUB, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) where she was among the founding members, and Open Society Foundations, including in senior leadership positions. From 2017-2020, she was the Executive Director of MSF’s Access Campaign. Since 2020, she’s independent researcher and advisor working the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, the WHO Council on the Economics of Health for All, Bio-Manguinhos and others, focusing on novel pharmaceutical business models and financing, and advocacy for locally-driven innovation and production of biopharmaceuticals. A 2022 Rockefeller Bellagio Centre resident, she has been a Visiting Policy Fellow at the Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose, University College London from 2020-2024, is Honorary Science Fellow at the VUB since 2016, guest lecturer at the Antwerp Tropical Medicine Institute, VUB and other academic institutions, member of several Technical Advisory Groups and (co-)author on over 50 international journal publications including in the Lancet, BMJ, Nature, and Vaccines.