Roz Bird, CEO of Anglia Innovation Partnership LLP, the campus management company for Norwich Research Park, has been appointed Interim Chair of the UK Science Park Association (UKSPA).
The appointment comes at an important point for UKSPA, following the launch of its new strategy to strengthen the UK’s science parks and innovation clusters, build the sector’s collective voice and support innovation-led economic growth. Roz will work alongside CEO Ruth Hall and the UKSPA Board to help deliver the strategy and its priorities.
Roz has long been associated with UKSPA, having worked for the organisation as Business Development Manager at the start of her science park career in the early 2000s.
She went on to hold senior leadership roles at Granta Park and Silverstone Park, where she helped establish the Silverstone Technology Cluster and pioneered the Ox Cam supercluster concept.
Roz joined Norwich Research Park in 2022 to bring her practitioner experience to one of Europe’s largest science-based research clusters. Her marketing and surveying expertise has supported the campus’s continued growth, working with real estate investment partners Vengrove to attract and retain innovative companies in the agri food and health sectors, underpinned by the unique breadth and depth of scientific activity across the campus, and the construction of the first privately funded speculative lab and office building at 63,000 sq ft.
After stepping down as Chair of Silverstone Technology Cluster, Roz joined the UKSPA Board in 2023 and became the Women in IASP Coordinator (International Association of Science Parks) in 2024. She also serves as a member of the Local Innovation Partnership Fund (LIPF) national panel for UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
Roz said: “UKSPA, which represents not only science parks but cluster organisations, areas of innovation and innovation districts, is where I learnt how to operate effectively and maximise economic and social impact in what was then called the ‘knowledge economy’. I have seen firsthand, many times, how jobs are created, and lives changed, by working positively in a local area to support high growth companies with networking, access to finance and the provision of specialist facilities to meet a company’s needs now and in the future.
“I am excited about UKSPA’s future as the wealth of knowledge and good practice within the association can be used to support existing activity and inspire the next generation of knowledge economy practitioners. The Government wants and needs to grow the economy. UKSPA and its members know how to deliver this at a local, regional and national level.
“I am very much looking forward to working closely with our brilliant CEO, Ruth Hall, as she leads the delivery of UKSPA’s new strategy, developed with members and launched at the UKSPA Summer Conference.”
