Brigid Laffan is a leading thinker on the dynamic of European integration. Until earlier this month, she was director and professor at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies and director of the Global Governance Programme at the European University Institute (EUI), Florence.

In the last eight years, Laffan has been the convenor of the State of the Union, the annual summit for high-level reflection on the European Union, which acts as a bridge between academia and policy making at the highest level in Europe.

In 20‌18, Politico ranked Laffan, a long time professor of political science who grew up in Ireland, among the women who shape Europe.