Supporting the transition to biobased chemicals panel session

About this Session

Organised by BioVale and hosted by Green Rose Chemistry this session brings together leading bioeconomy organisations and entrepreneurs to discuss the opportunities and challenges of bringing new biobased chemical products and services to the market. The session will cover facilities and capabilities in the UK, the finance and funding landscape, and provide case study examples of start-ups and SMEs who have scaled up, scaled down, and scaled out.

Yvonne Armitage is Director of the Biotechnology Business Unit at the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI). CPI is a leading independent technology innovation centre and a founding partner of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult. CPI uses years of market sector expertise and state-of-the-art assets to drive forward innovation and reduce risks and costs associated with product and process development. The Biotechnology BU delivers (bio)-process design, development and scale up projects in a number of market sectors for customers and collaborators.

Immediately prior to joining CPI Yvonne worked as an Innovation Manager, focused on developing external connections and partnerships and supporting the academic staff of the Industry and Innovation Research Institute at Sheffield Hallam University. Yvonne also worked for several years leading industrial biotechnology and bioeconomy activities at the Knowledge Transfer Network, contributing to the development and delivery of national strategies in bioeconomy and

biotechnology.  Yvonne spent 20 years in industry (Ciba, BASF, ISP) where she held various research and management positions, developing biotechnology-based products and processes for various chemicals and market sectors. Here she gained first-hand experience of taking bioprocesses from design to full scale production.

Yvonne has a degree in chemistry and a PhD in microbiology and biochemistry. She is a member of a range of scientific and management boards at national. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.