Status: Visiting researcher (former)

Duration: September, 2015 to December, 2016 (part-time)

Working with: Tomas Ulrichsen

Currently: Independent expert advisor on university-industry partnering 

Catherine is working with Tomas Ulrichsen on better understanding how strategic university-industry partnership approaches are evolving, and examining their value proposition to the different partners involved.  Of particular interest is how this value proposition varies for different parts of the industrial partner, and what more universities, firms and government agencies can do to strengthen these types of relationships.

Catherine Coates spent many years working for the UK Research Councils developing and supporting university-industry-government partnerships.  Past positions have included Director of Business Innovation for the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, lead for UK Research Councils in strategic partnering with business and government departments, and Director of Strategic Planning and Communication at the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.  Catherine was directly involved in leading and shaping the pathways to impact agenda at the EPSRC.  She also has extensive experience working with government on business growth and technology foresight resulting in in-depth knowledge of UK government research and innovation funding, innovation policy, and best practice in business/university partnering.

Commenting on her visiting researcher position, Catherine notes “I am looking forward to working with Tomas and CSTI more widely on this collaborative project to better understand the value proposition for strategic company / university partnering from the company perspective.  I am bringing my Research Council and wider experience of what makes such partnerships work for all concerned, to add to the Centre's extensive research base in this area.  I am particularly interested in tracking the evolution of such partnerships, including into the future and believe the project will provide important insights to help inform government policies in this area.”