Cansu joined Anglia Innovation Partnership in 2025 as the Science Collaboration Manager, focusing on health, food, and nutrition in August 2025.
What does your role involve?
I work with researchers, clinicians, and business/third sector professionals to frame global and sectoral challenges, and initiate collaborations towards addressing them. Maintaining stakeholder input to ensure industry relevance, I support to accelerate science translation at Norwich Research Park.
I look after a large portfolio spanning from food/nutrition to diagnostic tools and medicines. Key breakthroughs in molecular biology and genetics —particularly Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS), CRISPR gene editing, and “multi-omics”— are reshaping prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. These advances generate public interest and require new policies to ensure people’s best interest. It is incredibly exciting to be supporting the Norwich Research Park ecosystem who are at the forefront of this research and innovation efforts.
What is your favourite thing about your role?
Working with fantastic people who are at the front of cutting-edge science and innovation. It is fascinating to see how research and innovation in health and wellbeing can impact our quality of life and change patient outcomes. I feel privilege to be a part of this work.
What is challenging about your role?
Staying up to date with the fast-paced mixture of research, innovation and policy in food and health.
Where have you worked before?
I had to privilege to work across the world in various roles. I worked as a researcher aboard several research ships. Before joining AIP, I worked at UEA and ran my own consultancy company specialising in stakeholder engagement in climate change adaptation and mitigation, and its impacts on health and wellbeing.
An interesting fact about yourself?
I hold an MPhil in Microbial Oceanography from the University of East Anglia (UEA) and an MSc in Marine Biology from Turkey.
What do you like to do outside of work?
Travelling, baking, and crocheting. I love going to new places and meeting new people, though I also love staying in at home, baking or crocheting, ideally in that exact order(!) while listening to audio books or podcasts.
