Jodi-Rae joined Anglia Innovation Partnership in April 2026 as the Science Collaboration Manager, focusing on agri-biotech.
What does your role involve?
I act as the interface between academic researchers, across the Norwich Research Park campus, and businesses. I am involved in the delivery of initiatives to support new business activities, helping industry partners to develop long-term, strategic relationships, with the campus, and helping start-up companies to access our wide range of technology platforms and specialist skills.
What is your favourite thing about your role?
I am a people person through and through, so will make the most of any opportunity to talk with industry representatives, entrepreneurs and scientists. I get to be curious and always learn something new, which is my favourite part of the job.
What is challenging about your role?
Probably the most common challenge in stakeholder management is getting diaries aligned to get the right people in the room together.
Where have you worked before?
I previously worked in proposal management in early drug development at a multinational contract research organisation. Before that I was a GLP study director in an environmental fate lab within the same company. Early in my career, when I was still figuring out what I wanted to do, with my biomedical science degree, I worked at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, then the Norfolk County Council. In a strange way joining AIP LLP, the management company for the campus, bridges the gap between academia and commercial activity and this feels like a homecoming.
An interesting fact about yourself?
I was born in Jamaica and moved to Norfolk at 9 years old when my parents decided to upend their comfortable lives and embark on an adventure to the UK. The plan was to be here for three years…that was 25 years ago! My parents are fully embedded in the local community, and I am completely enamoured by the charm of the place.
What do you like to do outside of work?
A very millennial answer… I walk outside in the woods. One of the joys of living in Norfolk is that there is no shortage of natural beauty, and my husband and I love nothing more than taking our daughter to explore it.
