María José Herrero Villa holds degrees in business and a PhD in Economics and Innovation Management from the Autonomous University of Madrid. She is the Head of the Innovation Ecosystem Development Unit at the Support Service for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M). Additionally, she serves as the technical coordinator for "Entrepreneurship and Innovation" within the Young University for the Future of Europe (YUFE) European Universities alliance, is a peer reviewer for the Accreditation Council for Entrepreneurial and Engaged Universities (ACEEU), and is a member of APTE (Spanish Association for Technology and Science Parks) and FEI (Innovative Business Forum).
Her professional experience began in the private sector, where she gained a deep understanding of industry factors and dynamics. In 2004, she joined UC3M, where she has held various positions in entrepreneurship, innovation, and University-Business Collaboration. Some of her recent achievements include:
- Participation in European projects such as Revalorised (2020-2023), which fosters knowledge transfer from Social Science and Humanities disciplines, and United for Horizon (2020-2022), which promotes SME-University collaborations in European projects.
- Achieving Entrepreneurial University Accreditation and Engaged University Accreditation from ACEEU (2019-2021).
- Serving as Project Manager for the Getafe Innova Project (2021-2024), aimed at strengthening the innovation ecosystem of Getafe municipality.
- Involvement in the Madrid Regional Programme for Liaison Entities (2019-).