In other research Neil explores plant and microbial metabolism of xenobiotic compounds and characterisation of the enzymes mediating these metabolic processes. His group has discovered a diverse range of enzymes that have environmental and biotechnological applications. He has directed large and complex multi-national projects, including two multi-partner EC Marie Curie programmes.

Neil is Director of the Phase 2 BBSRC NIBB, the Biomass Biorefinery Network. He has served on numerous Committees and Panels for the BBSRC and is currently a member of the BBSRC’s Appointments Board. He serves as a Board Director for the Biorenewables Development Centre at York (part of BioPilots UK).

Dimitris was the Director of the BBSRC Network FoodWasteNet (2014-2019) and is currently a Co-Director of the BBSRC Biomass Biorefinery Network (BBNet, 2019-2026) and a Co-Investigator in the UKRI Agri-Food Net Zero Network (2022-2025). He is a member of the Food Standards Agency (FSA) Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes (2022-current) and serves as Senior Editor of the journal Food Chemistry (2020-current).

Her research interests focus on sustainability assessments of energy systems, evaluating the environmental, economic and social consequences of implementation pathways at the interface of the academic, policy and industrial communities. She is an appointed member of the Department for Transport’s Science Advisory Council, Defra’s Tree and Woodlands Scientific Advisory Group and the Royal Society’s Intnernational Strateigc Prioriteis Fund. In 2021 she was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering and serves on its Green Futures steering committee.

Prior to that Lucy worked at the Biorenewables Development Centre, managing ERDF and economic development funding programmes supporting local businesses to scale up their innovative projects and processes.

Lucy’s background in the arts ensures she applies a creative approach to her work, and having completed a BA in drama with a specialism in stage management she is well equipped to manage a network of scientists and advocates alike.

Lucy has held several voluntary positions; most recently she spent seven years as the treasurer of her children’s primary school PTA raising much needed funds for enrichment activities and equipment, and whilst at University she spent two years as the Chair of the Raise and Give committee.

Yvonne is passionate about engineering biology and industrial biotechnology having spent 30 years in the field, 20 of those in large company research, where she gained first-hand expertise in taking bioprocesses from design to full scale production as well as roles in technology transfer and strategy. Prior to her current role at CPI, Yvonne was Director of the Biotechnology Group, home to the National Industrial Biotechnology Facility.

Yvonne has a degree in chemistry and PhD in microbiology and biochemistry and is a member of a number of scientific and management boards, including the Industrial Biotechnology Leadership Forum. Yvonne is a mentor and coach, especially keen on supporting women working in STEM roles.

He is a Principal Fellow at WMG, and Head of Innovation at the Society for Chemical Industry.  He has been  a non-executive Director of Oxford Advanced Surfaces, a member of Sheffield University Council, chaired Oxford Biomaterials and throughout has engaged in a wide variety of activities involving materials, design, sustainability and innovation.

Simon has over 20 years’ experiences of novel enzyme discovery, development, production, characterisation and commercialisation. He completed his PhD in 1998 under the supervision of Prof. H. J. Gilbert FRS at the University of Newcastle. After postdoctoral studies at the University of York with Prof. Gideon Davies FRS, he briefly lectured before co-founding and heading-up the Molecular Biology Division at Megazyme International, before co-founding Prozomix. He has published approximately 30 associated peer-reviewed publications and holds two enzyme technology patents.

In her day job, Sarah indulges her passions for science and sustainability, through her role as Technology Development Lead at Croda. In this role she coordinates Croda’s external collaborations, building a vast external network. Prior to this, she has had various roles in Croda in R&D and Corporate Sustainability, following the completion of her Master’s in Chemistry with Industrial Experience from the University of Sheffield. She sits on the BBIA board and chairs their Biochemicals and Biomaterials group.

Mark specialises in innovation support through technology transfer – up and downstream processing, winning public funding and proof of concept through to prototype development in the bioeconomy, waste valorisation and chemistry sectors.  His research interests include adding value to biomass, sugar platform and novel technology development.

Mark is a Chartered Chemist and Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He has previously been a member of the RSC Industry and Technology Division Council, JetZero Council and Industrial Biotechnology Leadership Forum.  He currently sits on the Circa Renewables Chemical Institute advisory group and is a Royal Society of Chemistry Change Maker mentor.

Claire is passionate about the opportunities offered by plant breeding and biotechnology for future crop improvement. She is editor of the Transformative Plant Biotechnology Section for the journal New Phytologist and convenes the Plant Biotechnology and Synthetic Biology group of the Society for Experimental Biology. She has served on numerous BBSRC panels and committees and on EFSA and EPSO working groups related to plant biotechnology and new breeding technologies.

Gavin’s 20+ years in the agri-food sector include roles in supply chain, operations, commercial and product development and he currently sits on multiple industry and academic advisory boards. He has developed and delivered Masters-level content on evaluating environmental sustainability for Cranfield University, covering the theory and practice of Lifecycle Assessments, and lectured on supply chain accounting at the Triple-Crown accredited Sheffield University Management School.

He Chairs the Sustainability Steering Group at the IFST, where he is a fellow, and has worked with clients in aerospace, agri-food, construction, energy, engineering, healthcare, packaging and retail. Project roles include regulatory advice and technical support.

A former programme leader of the BBSRC Sustainable Bioenergy Centre (BSBEC), Nigel has held US NIH and NCI funding and has previously coordinated seven EU projects.  He is currently the Director of the BBSRC ‘Carbon Recycling Network’ and co-leads the ‘Next Generation Therapeutics’ theme of Nottingham’s NIHR-funded BioMedical Research Centre (BRC).

Nigel has been awarded doctor honoris causa by the University of Helsinki for his contributions to combating botulism, held a Royal Society Wolson Merit Award and served on the scientific advisory boards of Cobalt, Deep Branch Biotechnology Ltd and LanzaTech. He is a co-founder and chairman of the genome editing company Forge Genetics Ltd.

Andy gained his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford and, after gaining his DPhil (also in Biochemistry), continued at Oxford as a Research Associate studying the structural biology of the extracellular matrix using NMR spectroscopy as his principal research tool. He joined the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Portsmouth in 2005, and has been Professor of Molecular Biophysics there since 2020. Having benefited himself from enthusiastic and inspirational teaching, Andy delights in passing on that enthusiasm to his own students in lectures, tutorials and the laboratory, in the hope that it will inspire them to pursue a career in biological science.

Andy also leads the Preventing Plastic Pollution with Engineering Biology (P3EB) Mission Hub, a UKRI-funded consortium aimed at advancing enzyme and microbial solutions for efficient plastics recycling and upcycling.

He also works on the application of model-based methods for plant safety assessment and risk analysis. He has published widely in these areas and is particularly interested in the transfer of technology from academia to industry. He has provided consultancy services on systems optimisation to a large number of process industry companies.

He is a chemical engineer by background and has been the recipient of a number of awards including IChemE Junior Moulton Medal (1996), an RAEng/ICI Engineering Fellowship (1997-2001), the Royal Society of Chemistry Beilby Medal and Prize (2005), the Imperial College Rector’s Award for Research Excellence (2006), RAEng MacRobert Award (as part of a team, 2007), Imperial College Engineering Teaching Excellence Award (2009) and IChemE Hutchison Medal (2012). He is a Fellow of the IChemE and Royal Academy of Engineering.