Thierry Damerval has been appointed as Special Envoy for Science, Technology and Innovation, for the French Ministry of higher education and research, and the Ministry of Europe and foreign affairs, in september 2024.

An alumnus of the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Saint-Cloud, he holds an « agregation » degree in natural sciences and a PhD in microbiology from the University Paris Diderot (now University Paris Cité). He is an alumni of the Woods Hole microbiology course (1985) and of the European summer university in Berlin (1989).

He began his career at the Pasteur Institute, before joining the French Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission (CEA), where he held various research management and supervisory positions including that of manager of biology research programmes, director of strategy and evaluation and director of a CEA biomedical research centre.

Thierry DAMERVAL has been Vice-CEO of Inserm (National Institute of Health and Medical Research) from 2007 to 2017.

Thierry DAMERVAL has been President and Chief Executive Officer of the French National Research Agency (ANR) from 2017 to 2024 and member of the board of Science Europe (2019-2023)

He also has been adviser on biological and medical research to the French Minister in charge of Research (1996-1997), adviser on research and innovation to the Prime Minister (2005-2006) and Director of the Office of the Minister for Higher Education and Research (2006-2007).