Q: What is your role in the Randwick Health & Innovation Precinct (RHIP) team?
A: I am the RHIP Industry & Innovation Lead. My main objective is to support the creation and development of new health technologies and treatments that will improve outcomes for patients and make healthcare more efficient, affordable, and accessible. At RHIP, those aims begin with supporting collaborative innovation and must ultimately involve strong partnership with industry, so the two elements of my role are intimately entwined.
Q: What attracted you to this type of work?
A: I originally trained in molecular genetics in the UK and spent much of my career in the fundamental research of biological mechanisms but, after a spell in the commercial biotechnology sector, I started to like the idea of being closer to the cutting edge of new treatment development and found new motivation in trying to navigate the complexities of converting good ideas into new life-improving health technologies.
Q: What excites you most about the Precinct?
A: Examples from other health precincts worldwide teach us that integration, collaboration, and purposeful strategic direction can create an engine of innovation and enterprise that energises the internal culture and attracts external partnership to snowball into something that is much greater than the sum of its parts. I would like to think that I could play a part in making that happen at RHIP.
Q: What do the next six months look like?
A: We will see some of the strategies and programs we have shaped over the last 12 months, begin implementation. It may be some time before we can truly test their effectiveness, but I am excited to move into this next stage of development for RHIP’s industry and innovation agenda.
Q: Favourite quote?
A: 'Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards’ (Soren Kierkegaard).
Learn more about Randwick Health and Innovation Precinct’s partners, purpose and impact at rhip.org.au, and follow RHIP on LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube to keep up to date with what’s happening across the Precinct.