Florence Balthasar studied translation at the University of Geneva and then completed her training with a Master’s degree in Multilingual Communication and International Relations at the University Libre de Bruxelles. She began her career in Brussels in the field of European training, research and innovation policies and programmes (FRI). As an education advisor and then co-director of SwissCore, she developed close contacts with Swiss actors in the FRI field, both at an operational and strategic level. The vote on mass immigration on 9 February 2014 gave a highly political turn to FRI issues. In her current position as Head of International Relations at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (ZHdK), Florence continues to follow developments in the CH-EU relationship with great interest. She was a member of the board until April 2023