Ms. Maria Pilar Aguar Fernandez joined the European Commission in 2001, beginning her career by auditing national food safety control systems at the Directorate-General for Health & Consumers. Between 2005 and 2012, she managed European research programmes in industrial technologies, focusing on nanotechnology safety and new materials. From 2012 to 2017, she led the Joint Research Centre’s Unit on Chemical Assessment and Testing, where her teams developed testing methodologies for EU chemicals, consumer products, nanomaterials, and supported health technologies legislation. In 2017, Ms. Aguar returned to DG Research & Innovation, where she supervised research programmes related to health and environment, health innovations, and health systems, also representing the European Commission at the Innovative Medicine Initiative board. From 2021 to August 2025, she headed the Health and Food Audits and Analysis Directorate (DG SANTE), monitoring and ensuring compliance with EU legislation on food safety, animal and plant health, animal welfare, and certain areas of human health protection. Since September, she serves as Director at DG Research and Innovation for the Directorate "People: Health and Society", guiding EU research and innovation efforts to address health, well-being, and democratic challenges in a world facing environmental and socio-economic changes. Ms. Aguar holds degrees in Pharmacy and Food Science, with specialisation in toxicology and public health. Before joining the European Commission, she worked at Spain’s Ministry of Health.