Anglia Innovation Partnership, the campus management organisation for Norwich Research Park, has announced two new appointments to help maximise the impact of the publicly-funded research happening across its campus.
Bernie Williams has been appointed as the new Enterprise Network Manager and Jodi-Rae Green as the new Science Collaboration Manager for agri-food.
Bernie is responsible for leading the incubator programme and supporting the BioTransitions accelerator programme, helping campus-based start-ups and spin-outs develop, commercialise and scale, while also attracting innovative companies from elsewhere in the UK and internationally to establish and grow at Norwich Research Park.
She works with founders and growing companies to identify and access the specialist support they need at each stage of their journeys, including pre-seed and seed funding, investment readiness, intellectual property (IP), market and customer development, commercial strategy, finance and cash flow, legal and regulatory expertise, leadership, recruitment and building the right team.
Through the incubator and BioTransitions programmes, Bernie also connects companies with investors, corporates, experienced founders, specialist advisers and wider networks, helping them access the expertise, funding, partnerships and commercial opportunities they need to accelerate growth.
Bernie has previous experience of this from her most recent role as an Ecosystem Innovation & Growth Specialist with Innovate UK Business Growth, based at St John’s Innovation Centre in Cambridge, where she supported ambitious, innovation-driven SMEs with tailored one-to-one support to help them achieve commercialisation, investment readiness and international growth. She supported more than 70 businesses from spin-outs, early-stage start-ups through to growing SMEs who subsequently secured millions of pounds in grant funding and private investment.
Bernie also has first-hand experience of setting up a business at Norwich Research Park. In 2014, she funded a personalised health technology company, where she worked with the Earlham Institute to develop a genomics platform and later collaborated with the Quadram Institute and the University of East Anglia.
Bernie said, “I am relishing the opportunity to make it my mission to support early-stage entrepreneurs explore the validity of their ideas in the marketplace and then work with them on their journey at Norwich Research Park that will ultimately lead to Series A funding, scale up and full commercialisation. I hope that by having experienced the entrepreneurial journey first-hand I will be well placed to help the companies I will be working with here”
Jodi-Rae Green’s role as Science Collaboration Manager for agri-food is critical in bridging the gap between academic research and the broader business community, both within and beyond Norwich Research Park’s campus. She is responsible for facilitating meaningful partnerships, encouraging knowledge exchange and driving innovation by connecting leading scientists with industry partners. She will also organise collaborative projects, oversee joint research initiatives and identify opportunities for commercialising research outcomes.
Jodi-Rae brings over eight years of experience working at the interface of scientific research, project coordination and stakeholder engagement. Before joining Anglia Innovation Partnership, Jodi-Rae spent over seven years at a contract research organisation in scientific and industry-facing roles. She has also held positions in the NHS and local government and has a Master of Biomedical Sciences degree from the University of Southampton.
Jodi-Rae said, “It has been a joyful experience joining the Anglia Innovation Partnership team. Not only do I get to work with the most professional and dedicated colleagues, but I also get to do my favourite thing every day which is to use my natural curiosity to build connections with a wide range of stakeholders. I am excited to be at the forefront of the efforts to highlight and drive innovation in our region.”
Roz Bird, CEO of Anglia Innovation Partnership, said, “I am delighted to welcome Jodi-Rae and Bernie to our team. Both bring a wealth of experience, expertise, and energy, and that is what is needed in order to deliver the vision for the campus. Both roles are crucial in helping and encouraging start-up companies which, if successful, will create new jobs for the local area, and engaging with local, national and international industry partners who want to access the specialist technology and skills of our research community.”
