As a senior manager with the Courtaulds Group (later Acordis PLC) he led business development activities within a wide variety of chemical, fibre and polymer products businesses and initiated several new ventures both within Europe and the USA. In 1999 Dr. Farren and his team were awarded the Akzo-Nobel prize for commercial innovation.Dr. Farren joined the University of Nottingham in 2001 to set up a Business Partnership Unit; the first such unit to be embedded within an academic School of Chemistry. The Unit aims to generate an entrepreneurial culture among staff and students and strengthen links with industry. In this role he has initiated and managed a complex portfolio of research, knowledge transfer and outreach projects which have generated over thirty patents, several licenses and numerous interactions with industry. Dr. Farren has also initiated several innovative training courses in business / entrepreneurial skills aligned to the Chemistry Using Industries.Dr. Farren has been responsible for the formation of four spin-out companies. He chaired the board of directors of CellAura Technologies Ltd. and has successfully led the company through two investment rounds. Dr. Farren also acts as a director / professional advisor to three other businesses. He also leads the Chemistry Innovation Laboratory project, which promotes links between the School and regional SMEs.Dr. Farren is a keen champion of knowledge transfer. He has mentored over twenty post doctoral Business-Science Fellows, helping to develop their innovation and entrepreneurial skills. Many of these individuals now hold key positions within industry or as knowledge transfer professionals.Outside of his professional commitments, Dr. Farren is a strong advocate of the performing arts, chairing the board of trustees of a registered charity that encourages individuals to play musical instruments and to bring music to a broad cross-section of the public.

Nottingham Analytical is the platform enabling businesses to access the University’s analytical services and expertise. They work with small business through to large multi-national companies helping to develop their new ideas, solve problems and perform routine analysis. Nottingham Analytical allows businesses to capitalise on the advanced analytical equipment and world-leading academic expertise held within the University of Nottingham for their own benefit. 

Harry joined the BPU in 2022 as a Business Science Fellow, focusing on the development of Photene, a business unit within the University of Nottingham. Photene enables the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industry to map the regions of a protein’s structure which bind to small molecules or other proteins via an advanced mass spectrometry method. These binding sites offer critical insight to early stage products in development. The project continues to develop and grow with new business partnerships.

Harry holds a PhD in the development of novel ambient ionisation sources for mass spectrometry and an MChem in Chemistry from Nottingham Trent University. His background also includes experience from industry, where he has spent time in both the Pharmaceutical and Agrochemical sectors.

Tom manages the delivery of some of the lab-based activities for the BPU and a variety of service projects with companies ranging from sole traders to multi nationals. Using my expertise in complex method development, problem solving and analytical/synthetic chemistry to deliver high quality research for our customers.

Tom is also involved in the delivery of Nottingham Research Chemicals (NRC), bringing novel compounds to market that have been developed within the school using cutting edge research. Through our partner Key Organics Ltd, the compounds are available for purchase as high-quality synthetic building blocks and reagents.

Tom obtained his PhD in organic synthesis from the University of Nottingham in 2019, researching the total synthesis of the marine alkaloid Halichlorine. After completing his studies, he joined the Covid-19 lighthouse screening laboratory in Loughborough, supporting the pandemic effort as a deputy supervisor in the specimen processing and accession teams. In 2021 he returned to the University of Nottingham, joining the BPU as a Business Science Fellow.

As a Business Science Fellow, she works to support activities relating to Nottingham Analytical, as well as supporting academics within the School of Chemistry form successful collaborations with industry, as well as identifying new opportunities.

She manages the EPSRC Funded Prosperity Partnership between Nottingham, York and Croda focusing on ensuring that new biodegradable materials achieve equivalent performance benefits to existing synthetic polymers.

As part of Nottingham Analytical, Lucy works with external clients to address complex, business-driven challenges using state-of-the-art analytical equipment. This frequently involves advanced spectroscopy and chromatography techniques to deliver bespoke research solutions to clients through comprehensive, high-quality reports.

Within the Prosperity Partnership, Lucy facilitates collaboration between stakeholders and funding bodies to achieve project objectives. Her role within the BPU additionally involves auditing and supporting academics with their research and promoting engagement to Nottingham Analytical.

Lucy obtained an MChem (with a year abroad) from the University of York, having completed her master’s research at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Her research focussed on developing a novel inorganic nanoparticle for cancer therapeutics, specifically for application in photothermal and immuno-therapy. Her interest in the interface between business and academia was sparked by a module titled “Technology and Business Strategy in the Chemical Industry”, ultimately leading her to joining the BPU. Outside of work, she is a competitive figure skater and enjoys playing musical instruments.

Harriet hold an MSci with a Year in Industry from the University of Nottingham. Her year in industry was focused around stability testing of active pharmaceutical ingredients using analytical techniques. Harriet’s master’s research project, conducted with the BPU, assessed the techno-economic feasibility of producing second-generation bioethanol from invasive plant species. This project reinforced her interest in applied research and led directly to her current position. Outside of work, she enjoys all kinds of sport, reading, baking, and spending quality time with friends and family.

Currently, Chloe is working with Professor Neil Oldham where she focuses on the scale-up and optimisation of a novel protein footprinting technique. The technique uses a diazirine label to map non-covalent protein-ligand and protein-protein interaction sites, analyzed by LC-MS/MS. Additionally, Chloe works within the BPU which involves the analysis of commercial samples using protein footprinting and mass spectrometry techniques.

Katie completed her MChem degree at the University of Bath including an industrial placement year within the pharmaceutical industry. Following this she completed her PhD at the University of Warwick on the development of novel ruthenium catalysts for asymmetric hydrogenation applications. During her postdoctoral positions at the University of Leeds and then Southampton, she worked closely with industrial partners to develop efficient and sustainable synthetic methods for key transformations, particularly focusing on continuous flow reactions. Katie subsequently worked within the pharmaceutical industry for a short time before taking up her role within the School of Chemistry at Nottingham in 2019. She was promoted to Assistant Professor in Chemical Education in 2022.

At the University of Nottingham Katie teaches organic chemistry and also business/entrepreneurial skills on undergraduate and apprenticeship Chemistry programmes. Along side this, she is also the School Careers Officer and Course Director for the MSci Chemistry with A Year in Industry programme, linking closely with employers within the sector. Her research focuses on pedagogical developments, with a particular interest in incorporating industry partnerships within teaching activities to contextualise learning and promote skills development and greater commercial awareness for students.

Tom's role as a Senior Research Fellow is two-fold. Firstly to mentor 4th year MSci chemistry students who are engaged in a research project in collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline, to design and synthesise novel compounds targeted at a poorly treated respiratory target and secondly to use my knowledge and experience of industry in interactions with SME’s in the East Midlands.   Tom has a broad knowledge of the key aspects of the drug discovery process and  recently have experience of working in collaboration with scientists in Japan, in the field of Toll Like Receptors (TLR) agonists. This research project  identified a compound now undergoing clinical trials as a novel treatment for allergic diseases. He also has a long standing interest and expertise in high throughput synthesis and purification equipment and techniques.In the BPU Tom hopes to be able to use his experience to maximise interactions with other academic groups and industrial parties especially in the field of drug discovery.