Dr. Katharina Stummeyer studied biochemistry at the Leibniz University Hannover and graduated with a PhD from the Institute of Cellular Chemistry at Hannover Medical School. She gained extensive experience in national and international science management. Her professional career began as a researcher in structural biology at the Hannover Medical School.

In 2009, she moved to Cologne as an expert at the project management agency of the Gesellschaft für Anlagen- und Reaktorsicherheit (GRS). She was initially responsible for initiating and managing national and international research projects as part of federal project funding. Since 2013, she has been head of the GRS project management agency. In this position, Dr. Stummeyer was responsible for the technical and administrative implementation of federal research and innovation funding programs. Another focus of her work was project support and controlling for the funding body of publicly funded large-scale projects.