We work with companies, academics and entrepreneurs to explore markets and funding opportunities to bringing their ideas into commercial practice.Led by Anke Lohmann, our founder and chair, our team has years of experience working at the intersection of technology and business, helping SMEs, universities, funders, policymakers, and governmental bodies maximise their innovation investments and achieve their strategic goals.In my role I am focussing on shaping and expanding Anchored In's international portfolio.

Job Purpose:To support KTN’s programme of European engagement including Horizon 2020 with the main emphasis to increase business engagement with appropriate European programmes and ultimately grow UK return on investment.Scope: European Programmes, particularly H2020.In this role I will provide technical and project management capability with a primary focus on the theme of European programmes, across KTN and with main areas of activity and delivery being as follows:• Identification and prioritisation of relevant European programmes for UK business and KTN itself. Scoping and development of project proposals.• Support to UK companies seeking to participate in European programmes, including delivery of themed workshops in partnership with KTN colleagues, relevant National Contact Points and Enterprise Europe Network.• Management and delivery of selected projects that are cross-cutting in nature (i.e. span most of KTN activity)

"Place" is one of the five foundations of the Industrial Strategy, which makes it clear that UK economic growth will be innovation driven and delivered locally. As the UK's Innovation Network, KTN is responding to the UK Government's new place agenda by increasing its focus on place-based innovation support and joining up of the local innovation landscape. Place will also play an important role in meeting the UK Government’s target of increasing public and private R&D spending to 2.4% of GDP, and new place-based interventions, such as the Strength in Places and Shared Prosperity Fund, are potential pots for innovation funding. In my role as Knowledge Transfer Manager - Place, I am currently building and shaping KTN's activities in this new area. This includes coordinating a group of Local Leads, who are based across the UK and help to deliver activities locally, developing KTN's Place Strategy and its Operational Plan for Place.

As Stakeholder Engagement Manager for the Hub I have established close relationships with LEPs across England. I have supported Innovation Strategy development workshops, Strategic Economic Plan refreshes and provided advice to a number of Science of Innovation Audits (SIAs), becoming a member of various SIA Steering and Working Groups. As the Hub is an ERDF Technical Assistance Project, I have also worked with applicants and reviewed and provided feedback on ERDF proposals and helped ensure strategic alignment with England's Smart Specialisation Strategy.

As Hub Project Manager I was responsible for the operations and smooth running of the day-to-day Hub activity, looking after the Hub team, the delivery, measurement and reporting of KPIs against budget, the coordination of Hub Governance meetings (Programme Board and Advisory Group), and the organisation of external stakeholder activities such as Innovate UK in the East of England 2017, workshops for LEPs and other local stakeholders. The KTN’s primary role is to nurture, develop and scale up innovation within business to create wealth and grow the UK economy.The Smart Specialisation Hub complements this and offers a great opportunity to better understand and strengthen innovation in the UK. It encourages and works towards better synergies at local, regional and national level.The Hub aims to support local areas in several ways:• Informing better investment decision making by providing trusted expertise and insight of comparative data sources;• Delivering a portal of available data at local and national level and a new analytical framework that can inform local strategies and decision making;• Mobilising collaboration across geographical boundaries and sectors.I got involved with Smart Specialisation as it offered an exciting opportunity to make an impact on regional economic development in England. I believe Smart Specialisation is a methodology which simply makes good business sense. It’s about finding evidence that tells you the key strengths for your region, and then prioritising investment. It also helps you to understand who your competitors are, and how you compare nationally and internationally.Smart Specialisation is also about identifying and establishing the relevant collaborations within and across regions and sectors, which can make all the difference and turn a strong offering into an even stronger, globally competitive one.

I was part of the Energy Team of the KTN for over 5 years, before taking on my new position as Project Manager for the Smart Specialisation Hub. In the Energy Team I had various responsibilities starting with Operations, Community and Events Management to taking on responsibility for the delivery of European activities, including building up links with the Energy Europe Networks and the National Contact Point, delivering the Communications and Dissemination work package for the OCEANERA-NET and supporting and accompanying a Newton Fund Mission to Malaysia in July 2015.

I was an employee of TWI Ltd for 8 years working in various positions as per below and got involved in the delivery of the EG&S KTN in 2010. TWI had the Directorship of the EG&S KTN, one of 15 KTNs funded by Innovate UK at the time, before all KTNs were merged in April 2014 into a new company limited by guarantee, KTN Ltd. I was offered and took the opportunity to move and join KTN Ltd. At EG&S KTN: - responsible for the operations of a multi-stakeholder knowledge transfer network - responsible for internal and external communications of knowledge transfer network (with KTN delivery partners as well as with KTN members and external stakeholders) - events organisation - social media At TWI: - carrying out Membership survey of TWI's Membership from survey conception to results analysis and reporting - managing the implementation of new customer satisfaction surveying process across various TWI products - analysis and quarterly reporting of customer satisfaction survey results - establishing best practices and identifying areas of improvement - responsible for maintenance of TWI's CRM based prospect monitorOperations Manager for the EG&S KTN and Customer Satisfaction Manager for TWI Ltd01/01/2013 – 31/03/2014Operations Manager for the EG&S KTN and Senior Project Leader Business Support for TWI Ltd01/01/2012 – 31/12/2012Communications Manager for EG&S KTN and Senior Project Leader Business Support for TWI Ltd01/06/2010 – 31/12/2011Business Development Project Leader for the Structural Integrity Technology Group of TWI Ltd14/08/2007 – 31/05/2010PA / Administrator for the Business Development Group of TWI Ltd01/03/2006 – 13/08/2007