Dr Maria Matsangidou is a senior research fellow at the CYENS Centre of Excellence. She has a PhD in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) (fund: ~70k). She has also obtained an MA in Social and Developmental Psychology, an MA in Communication and New Journalism and a BS in Communication and Internet Studies.

Dr Matsangidou has an international research profile of more than 40 publications in top-tier conferences (maximum h5-index: 122) and journals (mean impact factor ~ 6) as well as professional service as a Guest Editor (impact factor ~ 4.6) and as a Program Committee Member (h5-index: 122) of high-index journals and conferences. Her work is oriented on the use of VR technology in pain management, severe dementia, cancer, patients with amputees, burn injuries, motor impairment and mental health disorders.

Dr Matsangidou has been involved in numerous projects in her research area funded by the EU and other bodies, with total funding managed to exceed 2.5 million euros. In particular, Dr Matsangidou is the principal investigator of two Horizon Europe programs, titled HoloSurge (Multimodal 3D Holographic tool and real-time Guidance System with point-of-care diagnostics for surgical planning and interventions on liver and pancreatic cancers, fund: ~ 8M), and VELES (Strengthening the South-East Europe Smart Health Regional Excellence and Boosting the Innovation Potential, fund: ~ 5M). Dr Matsangidou has also served as the pilot leader (and/or co-leader) for two Horizon2020 named GATEKEEPER (Smart Living Homes – Whole Interventions Demonstrator for People at Health and Social Risks, fund: ~23M) and CAPTAIN (Coach Assistant via Projected and Tangible Interface, fund: ~4M). Dr Matsangidou is also the co-author and pilot leader of the following Erasmus+ projects titled STTech (Digital Tools and Methods for Safe Transfer Techniques for Caregivers in Today’s Health Care Sector, fund: ~250k), CEPEH (Chatbots Enhance personalized European Healthcare Curricula, fund: ~400k), and CoViRR (Co-creation of Virtual Reality re-usable e-resource for European Healthcare Education, fund: ~300k). Finally, Dr Matsangidou played an instrumental role in the submission of this successful proposal, for the TWINN program, titled NOTRE (Network for Social Computing Research, fund: ~1M) and the awarded CCRI program named CARE focusing on the development of virtual reality rehabilitation interventions in breast and testicular cancer patients (fund: ~200k).