Governance

The Earlham Institute (EI) has four Members, who work with the Board of Trustee Directors to lead EI.

The Earlham Institute Board has two subcommittees - the Audit Committee which has responsibility for overseeing the areas of audit; financial reporting, internal systems and controls (including the integrity of financial controls) and risk management; and the Remuneration Committee, which is responsible for executive remuneration matters.

We produce an annual report with supporting financial figures in line with our legal requirements.

Board of trustees.

Chair of the Board: Professor Deborah F. Smith OBE PhD FRSB FHEA

Deborah Smith trained as a biochemist at the University of Southampton and carried out postdoctoral work at MRC Mill Hill, NIH Bethesda (USA) and Imperial College London before joining the academic staff at Imperial. Following promotion to a personal chair (1999), she moved to the University of York (2005) to establish the Centre for Immunology and Infection and further her research interests in neglected tropical diseases. Her research career has spanned molecular and cell biology, biochemistry and genomics, latterly focusing on the translation of fundamental research to drug and vaccine development. Deborah was Head of the Biology Department at York before appointment as Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research (2014-21), with responsibility for institutional research strategy and policy. In that role, she sat on the University Executive Board and Council and was York lead for Athena-Swan activities, while also representing the university externally at the Russell Group, N8 Research Partnership and the World Universities Network. Deborah has chaired the Medical Research Council Infection and Immunity Board, the Wellcome Trust Science Interview panel, been a member of the Wellcome Trust/Royal Society Sir Henry Dale Fellowships committee and the Council of Research England. She has also participated extensively in evaluation of international research programmes. Deborah joined the Earlham Board as a Trustee Director in 2021 and was awarded an honorary DSc by Imperial College in 2023.

Dr Laura Barter

Laura Barter is a Reader in Plant Chemical Biology at Imperial College London. She is also Director of the Institute of Chemical Biology, which brings together more than 165 research groups across Imperial College along with over 65 external partners. Other roles include co-director of AGRI-net, an international agri-science chemical biology network, and the AGRI futures Lab at Imperial college. She is Director of the recently renewed £26M EPSRC Centre for Doctoral training (CDT) in Chemical Biology: Empowering UK BioTech Innovation, which will train over 100 PhD students over the next 8 years. Laura obtained a BSC in Chemistry and PhD in Biochemistry from Imperial College, before embarking on a Royal Society University Research Fellowship. Her research interests focus on the application of chemical biology tools to qualitatively understand the rate limiting steps and regulatory controls in photosynthesis and ultimately enhance photosynthetic efficiency and crop yield. She is also keen on supporting student entrepreneurial activities through the CDT.

Dr Mike Csukai

Mike Csukai is Head of Lead Characterisation at Biotalys a biotech scale-up based in Ghent Belgium. Mike received his BSc in Microbiology from the University of Reading before studying for a MSc in Molecular Biology and then a PhD in Genetics at the University of Leicester. He undertook his postdoctoral work in the Dept. of Molecular Pharmacology at Stanford University before moving back to the UK and into industrial roles at Zeneca and then Syngenta for over 24 years before joining Biotalys in 2023. Mike’s work at Syngenta and now Biotalys has primarily been focused on the discovery of fungicides and now novel protein-based fungal control methods; using bioinformatic, genetics, biochemistry and cell biology tools to support the disease control discovery pipeline and improve the fundamental understanding of fungal and oomycete plant pathogens. Mike is an active member of the UK scientific community having been an elected member of the British Society for Plant Pathology Board and a member of the British Mycological Society Fungal Biology Research Committee as well as serving on a number of BBSRC expert and strategy review panels.

Gillian Fairfield

Gillian is a corporate lawyer, with over 25 years of working in corporate finance and helping companies with the growth, development and strategy. Her current executive role is as General Counsel at Cancer Research UK where she works on the life sciences side and with their research innovation engine Cancer Research Horizons. Her non-executive roles include being a Trustee on the Investment Committee of the National Trust for Scotland and a member of the Strategic Advisory Board of Cranfield School of Management. She has served as a NED of FTSE-listed mining company Lonmin plc, where she was a member of their Remuneration, Nomination, Social, Ethics and Transformation Committees. Prior to joining Cancer Research UK, Gillian was a corporate partner in law firm Herbert Smith Freehills LLP where she was cited in Chambers as a leading practitioner for corporate and M&A, as well as being awarded Client Partner of the Year at the British Legal Awards of 2016

Professor Philip Gilmartin

Philip Gilmartin is Professor of Plant Molecular Genetics, and Pro Vice Chancellor International, at the University of Hull; he is also a visiting Professor at the University of Leeds where his research lab, focused on Primula heterostyly, is based. Before moving to his current role, he was Pro Vice Chancellor for Science at the University of East Anglia where his research lab was hosted at the John Innes Centre, before moving across the Norwich Research Park to the Earlham Institute where his research group developed their genomics expertise. After moving from Norwich to Hull he joined the Board of Trustees at The Earlham Institute. Phil originally studied Genetics at the University of Leeds, obtained a PhD in Plant Molecular Biology at the University of Warwick, and spent four years as a postdoc at The Rockefeller University in New York. Much of his independent academic career was spent at the University of Leeds before moving to Durham University as Principal of St Mary’s College. He then moved to the Norwich Research Park and the role at UEA. He was a member of the 2008 Biological Sciences REF panel, is a Company Member of the Annals of Botany Company, and currently is Chair of BRSRC research grants Committee B.

Timothy Kamombo

Tim is a chartered accountant and a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. He has extensive experience in financial reporting, accounting, and audit. His experience spans across different sectors, including but not limited to financial services and charities. Tim joined the Earlham Institute Board in June 2023, and is the Chair of the Audit Committee. He is also a Finance Director at PensionBee Group plc. Before joining PensionBee, Tim spent 10 years in audit with PwC and Grant Thornton in Zimbabwe, USA, London, and Jersey (Channel Islands). He also sits on a number of other charity committees and boards in the UK, including Guy’s and St Thomas Foundation where he is a co-opted member of the Finance & Audit Committee.

Dr Stephanie Pilkington

Stephanie Pilkington is a highly-regarded and experienced patent attorney at the IP law firm Potter Clarkson, with a particular specialism in molecular biology. She was also the first female Board member at the firm. In her career as a biotech patent attorney, Stephanie has worked with many start-ups and university spinouts, as well as established international corporations. She has extensive experience in advising SMEs and academic technology transfer departments and brings valuable experience of working within the Knowledge Exchange and Commercialisation environment. Prior to her legal career, Stephanie completed a PhD in Molecular Biology at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. During her time as a Research Biochemist, she gained first-hand industry experience working for Fisons Pharmaceuticals, then Astra AB.

Professor Magnus Rattray

Magnus Rattray is Professor of Computational and Systems Biology at the University of Manchester and Director of its Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. In 2018, he was made a Turing Fellow and is Manchester’s University Lead at the Alan Turing Institute, the national institute for data science and AI. Having completed his PhD in Computer Science at the University of Manchester, Professor Rattray worked as a Research Associate at the Neural Computing Research Group in Aston University and, after a period lecturing back in Manchester, was appointed Professor of Statistical Bioinformatics and Machine Learning at the University of Sheffield.

Download structure chart

An organisational chart of the government structure at Earlham Institute.

Policies

Financial overview

Annual reports and accounts.

Members

Earlham Institute was established by the UKRI Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) in partnership with the East of England Development Agency, Norfolk County Council, South Norfolk Council, Norwich City Council and the Greater Norwich Development Partnership.

We work closely with our corporate members UKRI-BBSRC, The University of East Anglia (UEA) and our Board Chair (ex-officio role).

Norwich Research Park.

We are a Norwich Research Park partner. Situated on a campus that stretches across 1 kilometre, the Norwich Research Park is a world leading location for research, innovation and business, and the home of six partner organisations: Earlham Institute, John Innes Centre, The Sainsbury Laboratory, the Quadram Institute, the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and the University of East Anglia.