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University of Brighton

University of Brighton

The University of Brighton launched the Green Growth Platform in 2014, a low carbon innovation network serving Sussex. In 2018, the University founded Clean Growth UK in partnership with Liverpool John Moores University and University of Portsmouth.

Since 2014, we’ve helped businesses raise over £2 million in R&D funding, created over 300 green economy jobs, and helped develop over 70 new products and services.

Clean Growth UK builds on the University of Brighton’s strong track record in working with businesses and supporting low carbon and environmental business growth.

We’ve got a wide range of expertise businesses can access, including circular economy business, engineering, product design, materials science, buildings, and more.

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Meet the team

Robb Cunningham
Marketing and Communications Manager

Robb is responsible for the marketing of Clean Growth UK and the Green Growth Platform. He has a masters in Economics and French and a PG Cert in Social marketing, and has held marketing and project management roles at a variety of public and private organisations.

Dan Baverstock
Digital Officer

Part of Clean Growth UK’s marketing team, Dan is responsible for the design and maintenance of the CRM database, helping maintain the website and monitoring the site analytics. With 10 years of Local Government Experience around the South East, Dan also holds a ECT Galileo Renewable energy certificate.

Liz Johnson
KTP Manager

Liz focuses on KTP business development activities and developing funding applications for CGUK projects. A qualified PRINCE2 Practitioner with over 10 years experience in project management and delivering government funding schemes, Liz also has extensive business/university collaboration experience from her previous role at Newcastle University.

Cassie Galbraith
Marketing Assistant

With previous experience in digital marketing for a Brighton-based recruitment firm, Cassie works as part of the Clean Growth UK’s marketing team. She holds a degree in International Tourism Management from the University of Chester, having previously completed a internship focusing on destination marketing.

Ian Smallwood
Grant Manager

Ian has worked with small and medium sized businesses for more than 20 years, spending much of that time in business finance, specialising recently in grant programmes. Ian has also had his own businesses and is very aware of the challenges and joys of running a business. Most of all though, Ian gets a great kick from seeing businesses grow, succeed, and do amazing things.

Dougal Fleming
Innovation Adviser

Dougal’s driving passion is to drive greener regenerative business practices. He has worked extensively with individuals and organisation to help them focus on aligning commercial, consumer & environmental incentives. His role is to connect businesses with the expertise and facilities at the university, to help develop and commercialise clean and green products and services faster.

Zoë Osmond
Director, Clean Growth UK

An MBA and Development Studies degree holder, Zoë has over 15 years’ experience of developing business opportunities and facilitating innovation in low carbon and environmental sectors.

Jo Carpenter
Network Manager

Jo’s role is to coordinate the activities of the Green Growth Platform and to support the development of the Clean Growth UK network. She holds Environmental Sciences degree from the University of Brighton and has previously worked in local government waste management, including leading on the development and expansion of recycling services.

Marco Picco
Innovation Lead

A qualified Civil Engineer, Marco has a PhD in Industrial engineering – Technologies for Energy and Environment. Active researcher in the fields of sustainability and Energy efficiency in Buildings, with a focus on whole building energy performance evaluation and integration of advanced simulation tools in the design process of buildings.

Mark Riminton
Business Development Manager

Mark is responsible for Clean Growth UK’s Rapid Decarbonisation Consortium, a forum in which large corporates collaborate on solving problems on the road to Net Zero. Mark leads the Clean Growth Fast Track, an accelerator for SMEs bringing low carbon products & services to market. A former consultant & business coach, Mark has experience of working with businesses & investors.

Kerry Byott
Business Growth Manager

With previous experience working with the Business East Sussex Growth Hub, Kerry has also sat on the FSB 1066 Branch, FSB East Sussex Regional Committee, FSB East Sussex Policy Group and FSB Membership. A music lover and keen outdoorswoman, Kerry also ran her own Recruitment business.

Contact Us

Clean Growth UK, University of Brighton, Watts Building, Lewes Road, Brighton, BN2 4GJ