At some time in your life, it's probably a good time to stop working and I chose November 2024. My last work for Hydrogen Scotland was at the FRIC in Methil when with support form Hydrogen Scotland members and those working in the sector, we looked at how Fife-based businesses could get involved with hydrogen either as a fuel or as a business opportunity.

CeeD was awarded the contract to manage the Advancing Manufacturing Cluster Builder programme by Scottish Enterprise, on behalf of Scottish Government and Highlands and Islands Enterprise. My role as Programme Manager, is to support small and medium sized companies to access free support and state-of-the art facilities and technologies provided by the 12 Advancing Manufacturing Challenge Fund (AMCF) projects which operate in a range of sectors and on a regional or national basis across Scotland. We also support businesses to collaborate with the new National Manufacturing Institute Scotland (NMIS), research institutes and leading Scottish manufacturing businesses. The overall aim of the programme is to stimulate the innovation performance of SMEs by providing services focused on improving manufacturing capabilities across Scotland. https://ceed-scotland.com/advancing-manufacturing-cluster-builder. There are twelve projects supported by grant funding from European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Scottish Government funding and these can be seen at:, https://www.scottish-enterprise.com/support-for-businesses/develop-products-and-services/innovation-support/advancing-manufacturing-challenge-fund

RIE at Edinburgh Napier University provides advice and expertise to businesses and organisations of all sizes, from start-ups and SMEs to multinationals. Each School has its own Business Development and Relationship Manager and he/she is responsible for building sustainable relationships for the purpose of transferring knowledge to and from the University. My role was to do this on behalf of the School of Engineering and Built Environment.

What we tried to do with the Energy Academy was to aspire to be a world leading centre for energy research, innovation and education. Our objectives were to bring together other universities and institutions, SMEs and larger companies and organisations researching and supporting the development of renewable energy with engineers and researchers in Heriot-Watt who have expertise that ranges all the way from forecasting the cost of carbon credits, renewable energy and hydrocarbons, through energy generation, energy efficiency, storage, DSM, the social impact of energy on the community, environmental impact and even designing virtual environments in which to train the next generation of engineers.As long as it remains on the Energy Academy site, you can see how we did by clicking through to https://www.energy.hw.ac.uk/news/the-energy-academy-2015-2018-how-did-we-do.html

In June, I finally de-registered CGPL at Companies House. It was great fun at times..CGPL was a small business consultancy that helped SMEs, universities, HEIs and RDAs convert academic inventions into business opportunities.CGPL worked with clients including the Roslin Foundation (Roslin Cellab Limited), the Institute of Knowledge Transfer, City University, London and the City of Edinburgh Council, the Biosciences Knowledge Transfer Network, CrowdMission Limited, the Edinburgh Science Triangle, the Roslin BioCentre Ltd, WellCow Ltd, the James Hutton Institute, the Scottish Environmental Research Network, BioCity Scotland, the Scottish Association for Marine Sciences, Heriot Watt University and Marketing Edinburgh.CGPL also actively supported the work of STEM ambassadors to raise awareness of science as a career option for young people and I will continue to do this..CGPL developed an enterprise and entrepreneurship training programme which we targeted at PhD-level and post-doctoral scientists. We taught at the Universities of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Heriot Watt, St. Andrews, the James Hutton Institute, Moredun, Roslin and in England at the Institute for Animal Health and the universities of Leeds, Newcastle and Sheffield. Nowadays, everyone has something like this but I think we were, if not pioneers, early adopters. It's still something I aspire to do.

Until May 2015 I was a non-executive director for Roslin BioCentre Ltd when I resigned my post. The Biocentre provides quality accommodation and laboratory facilities for SMEs involved in commercialisation and life-science focussed business. It houses an impressive array of some of Scotland's fastest growing life science companies and has strong links with the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Roslin Institute.

Until it ceased to trade on 30th September 2012, Genecom supported the commercialisation of academic science with a particular emphasis on animal health. Over its life span, it worked with the Roslin Institute, Moredun Research Institute, the James Hutton Institute and Institute for Animal Health. It managed the Orphan Grant fund, which I created as an instrument to promote collaboration between Scottish SME's and Genecom Members to try to increase their impact on economic benefit and wealth creation particularly in Scotland. Commercial clients included the Edinburgh Science Triangle, Nexxus, Roslin Cells Limited, the Scottish Agricultural College and the Genomia Seed Fund.

For 7 years, Nexxus was the focal point for life science networking activity across Scotland. In addition, it promoted the strengths of the region within the media, the Scottish Parliament and in the wider business, public and academic communities. Nexxus acted as a facilitator to encourage communication and rapid transfer of knowledge between organisations involved in life science and related activities in Scotland and raised the profile locally and nationally of Scotland as a life science centre. Asa member of the Steering Group (East) I provided input and ideas for activities that Nexxus could carry out and for the last 6-months of the Nexxus project, I won the contract for Genecom to provide administrative assistance to the Management Team.

The Edinburgh Science Triangle is a collaborative project designed to attract new investment and build a scientific community with unrivalled levels of interaction and knowledge exchange between academic research and industry in the Edinburgh and surrounding regions.

Given a broad remit within Edinburgh Research and Innovation, then the sole commercialisation company of the University of Edinburgh, I provided support for commercialisation and identification of Intellectual Property assets arising from research from within the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine. A lot of what I did was to facilitate collaborative r&d often with industry but I also was involved in promoting and facilitating consultancy and contract research and in winning translational grants and investments and in acting as liaison between the University and the NHS Trust so that clinical trials could run smoothly..

In 1997, I took up the role of Operations Manager for a private sector laboratory called Cleveland Life Sciences Ltd (now dissolved) and put into place a clinical Trails support unit involving laboratory management and Quality Assurance unit, Laboratory Information System (LIMS) and business development team before the company was liquidated in 1998. The Company recruited me from Ravenscourt Laboratories Ltd when that Company was liquidated in early 1997, asking me to salvage the clinical trials business then undertaken by Ravenscourt at the time.

In 1994 I was asked to join the Haemophilia Directorate of Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Trust to design, equip, manage and develop a small clinical laboratory, conforming to industry standards and to secure accreditation of the laboratory to the standards demanded by CPA (UK) Ltd, GLP and MCA (GCP) so that the Directorate could expand its outreach into the pharmaceutical sector. I also managed the operation of the Laboratory and the business development activities. During this time, I worked with the management team to realise the potential of the directorate to be the leading tertiary referral centre for the diagnosis and treatment of coagulation disorders in SE England.

Working alongside Professor Robert Flanagan, I provided operational management for a section of the world renowned Medical Toxicology Unit of Guy's and St.Thomas' Hospital. The. Laboratory was a multi-district analytical toxicology service for the health-care profession and provided guidance and advice on treatment of patients and in poisoning. Whilst there, I was responsible for a number of analytical test developments including the HPLC assay of clozapine which is now offered widely as a guide to clinical management.

In a short academic career, I studied the role of selenium and vitamin E as essential components of cell membranes and as antioxidants working with Professors Catherine Rice- Evans, Tony Diplock and Jack Lucy.I developed a number of novel methods for the measurement of trace element, established an analytical facility in the department and helped develop wider external links between it and other London Medical colleges. I enjoyed it very much but chose to move on to practice what I most enjoyed, HPLC as a tool for toxicological measurement

My second experience of research finally resulted in the award of my PhD, the thesis being on the role of vitamin K in the aetiology of vitamin K deficiency bleeding in the new-born. My research was the first report of the concentrations of this vitamin in the newborn and helped to develop strategies for vitamin K prophylaxis and the formulation of infant feeds. The novel methods I helped develop, underpinned the research activities of the group with which I worked for many years. My work with Dr. Martin Shearer was recognised by a "special award for an outstanding contribution in the field of haemostasis" in Brussels in 1987.

This was called the City of London Polytechnic when I was there and was my first experience of a research laboratory. After three-years, I wrote up my research which was founded on an untenable premise and was given a Masters degree by thesis for the project on the aetiology of cholesterol gallstone disease in the vitamin C deficient guinea-pig which was carried out with a view to gaining a better understanding of this disease in man.