NADIA ECHCHIHAB

Heading the Accelerator's Operations alongside the CEO and responsible for PMO office. Managing a team of four.

• Project delivery in key regions: North America, Europe, SE Asia, Australia
• Leading on strategic partnerships with the US National Safety Council (MSD Solutions Lab), Anglo American (mining), UK Health & Safety Executive (HSE) to build a network of safetytech companies for the construction industry and several maritime shipping operators (Shell, Carnival Cruises, MSC, BP etc.)
• Programme Director for the Methane Abatement in Maritime Innovation Initiative (MAMII £1.4m) aiming at making the maritime supply chain methane-free. The initiative grew from 7 to 23 partners in 2 years and built an ecosystem of +22 vetted green tech companies contributing to the industry's wider Net Zero targets.
• Programme Director for Waypoint, STA's global acceleration programme in maritime. Accompanying cohorts of innovative startups, fine-tuning value propositions, market access and industry mentoring.
• Responsible for the smooth implementation of the STA startup scouting process (templates, startup evaluation, due diligence, Showcase events)
• Thought leadership: speaker at events & panel moderation, blogging and report writing

▪ Leading on the Catapult's global commercial strategy in key regions: Africa, SE Asia, Brazil, India, Europe ;

Developing value propositions for the Global Team; Managing a team of two regional managers.

▪ Commercial income generation: Delivery of £800k of revenue in year 2019/20; Win £300k amount of work

▪ Business development and relationship building with key accounts and clients: global donors (World Bank, UN-Habitant, Foundations), UK HMG, Global cities, Large Businesses and VCs etc.

▪ Programme Lead for Urban Links Africa (£2.5m) covering 6 cities in Kenya and South Africa. African stakeholder engagement, running an open call for projects, solution development, HMG roundtable and sustainability.

▪ Extensive international networking: HMG (FCO, DIT, DCMS, DFID), Global donors (World Bank, EBRD, European Commission, UN-HABITAT, African Union), Global Networks (OASC, Afrilabs, C40), Philanthropies (Bloomberg), Multinationals (Google, IBM, BT, EY, Bosch, Nike, ARUP, Engie, Atkins, Mott Macdonald, Shell etc.)

▪ Thought leadership: speaker at events & webinars, promotion of the catapult's work in the press, blogs and opinion pieces. Track record: “Future-proofing train stations” (2019); “UN Happy Cities Chapter” with Smart Dubai (2018)

▪ Business development at UK and Global scale, design thinking workshops and scoping projects to grow UK businesses and expertise in emerging smart cities markets
▪ Developing commercial bids in advanced urban services with global businesses and cities to support UK companies (market analysis, testbeds, open-innovation between large businesses and SMEs, hackathons etc.)
▪ Driving the Catapult’s large business offer in the UK: Clean Air Tech with Johnson Matthey (£70K), Eurotunnel (£11K)
▪ Delivery of international projects in the Gulf, South America, Africa and other key sectors: clean air tech, urban mobility and train station testbeds etc.
Track record: Sharjah innovation location (£0.5m), Zanzibar City Lab (£50K), Brazil Urban Mobility (£20K)
▪ Thought leadership (blogs, white papers etc.)

▪ R&D opportunity scanning: identification of relevant UK & EU calls for tenders or proposals
▪ R&D bid scoping and management: bid writing, building consortia, budget & resourcing.
Track record: €15 Million - SYNCHRONICITY, large IoT pilot for cities (Horizon 2020)
▪ Advocacy: responding to public consultations and feeding the UK position on strategic areas
▪ Networking and relationship development via active role in networks such as EIT Digital, OASC (open agile smart cities network) and international events such as ICT proposers’ Day, the Digital Assembly, Smart city Expo etc.
▪ Stakeholder engagement: coordination of the UK advanced urban services stakeholders in EU activities, chairing stakeholders groups and cross-catapult cooperation
▪ Access to R&D funding: SME engagement in R&D projects via open calls, brokerage events etc.

▪ Scoping and writing EU bids in the digital creative industries (smart cities, big data, IoT, e-health, edtech etc.)
Track record: ACE (startup internationalisation €800K); TELL US (edtech startup competition €1.5m); Eurotransmedia (R&D roadmap for media convergence €2m), OpenCities (open data for smart cities €2m)
▪ Networking and relationship development at EU events and networks: Head of Communications at NEM (New European Media Technology platform); EIT Digital
▪ Raising SMEs awareness about EU funding: +300 SMEs trained since 2010 and 8 missions abroad
▪ Startup internationalisation mentoring: business modelling and development, access to funding training
▪ International activities at FUTUR.E.S Festival: workshop facilitation, selection jury, delegations

▪ Follow up of the revision of the European standardisation system (legislative process)
▪ Coordination and monitoring of the working groups "Think Small first"
▪ Elaboration of a guidebook establishing pro-SMEs measures at conformity assessments
▪ Collaboration on the European certification and accreditation schemes (CE marking)

▪ Follow up of the French European Union Presidency and strategic watch
▪ Representation of the MEP in the Employment and social affairs, Internal market, Petitions committees