Partnerships lead joins Innovation Board

Cardiff University’s Strategic Partnership lead, Nadine Payne, has been appointed to the board of the Innovation Advisory Council for Wales (IACW).

Established in 2014, the Council advises Welsh Government on a broad range of innovation matters to help grow and sustain Wales' economy and improve the wealth and wellbeing of the people of Wales.

Nadine leads Cardiff University’s Strategic Partnerships Team, developing mutually beneficial, long-term collaborations, offering external partners a holistic service that supports their research, talent, and civic mission agendas.

‘I’m delighted to be appointed to the Council, and look forward to working with Welsh Government to deliver a prosperous, cohesive, innovation-led nation,” said Nadine.

“I hope the work I’ve been doing to translate our research excellence to support the development of successful clusters, creating talent pipelines, highlighting regional excellence and opportunity for growth to attract significant investment, is the kind of experience that can benefit the IACW. Wales has the opportunity to catalyse activities and interventions around key areas to drive future prosperity, raising the profile in Wales, the UK and beyond to deliver economic and societal benefit.”

Nadine has over 15 years’ experience working across the innovation agenda in Wales. She has been a central figure in driving projects, implementing strategy, and delivering large scale innovation activities across a variety of sectors including cyber security, data and AI, life science and manufacturing.

Her current portfolio includes the Cyber Innovation Hub, a £21M consortium to create a step-change for Wales’ existing cyber security excellence with a coordinated innovation pathway, the Wales Data Nation Accelerator (WDNA), an £18M first phase, pan Wales programme, to deliver new insight and foresight from data science and AI and accelerate industrial transformation and the emerging development of a significant Brain Health cluster with regional and international industrial partners, the NHS, Welsh Government and CCR.

The co-chairs of the Innovation Advisory Council Wales, David Notley and Karen Cherrett, welcomed the appointment.

"We are delighted to welcome Nadine to the Council and look forward to working with her and the other stakeholders represented, on the increasingly important innovation agenda in Wales. Innovation takes many forms and can play a vital role in impacting all of the grand challenges that Wales faces from the environment to the economy and the public sector.

Nadine's track record and experience in the Higher Education innovation and knowledge exchange sectors will be invaluable."

Dr Dave Bembo, Director, Research & Innovation Services, Cardiff University, said: “Nadine’s three-year appointment to the Council will add depth and insight to Welsh Government’s ‘smart specialisation’ approach identified by the European Commission. Nadine’s work with Cardiff already involves supporting development of industrial ‘clusters’ of expertise. She is passionate about creating a more prosperous and innovation led Wales, an active member of the regional innovation ecosystem, and a steering board member for Cyber Wales.”

The IACW serves to monitor progress against the delivery of the Welsh Government's Economic Action Plan: Prosperity for All. It will advise and update on emerging trends and developments, including identifying areas of existing strength and future opportunity.

Nadine Payne graduated from Swansea University with a BSc in Psychology and holds qualifications from the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) and Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM).