Sirkku Heinimaa has graduated from the University of Helsinki on food sciences and in addition studied food sciences in Portugal, UK and Ireland. Since 1997, she has worked for the European Commission in the area of EU food legislation, for example on food additives and novel foods. Currently, she is the Deputy Head of Unit in the Unit E3 Biotechnology in the Health and Food Safety Directorate General. Among her tasks and responsibilities, she coordinates the work on policy development regarding new genomic techniques.