Emily Lekkas

When did you start at Edinburgh Innovations (EI)?

I started in summer 2021.

How would you explain your job to an alien?  

I help people take science and turn it into something useful for our world, specifically focusing on digital technologies, AI and data science.  

What did you do before EI?  

I worked at Scottish Development International where I attracted international companies to Scotland to set up new businesses or expand their operations in life sciences and digital health.  

What’s the best thing about working at EI/the University of Edinburgh (UoE)? 

Seeing new ideas become reality through robust commercialisation frameworks.  

What's your favourite project that you’ve worked on?

• Developing the model, financials and business plan, and finding investors and tech partners to make EVA a viable spinout for the University that innovates differently leveraging external funding.  

• Developing the bid, finding the industry partners, setting up and finding fantastic teams for the two new £12million EPSRC AI Hubs in impactful sectors; CHAI (Causality in Healthcare AI with Real Data) and APRIL (AI Hub for Productive Research and Innovation in Electronics).  

• Working with the ops team to re-design how we make the Bayes Centre attractive to Members and Partners after Covid, creating new membership models that have been adopted across other Data-Driven Innovation hubs like the Edinburgh Futures Institute.  

What are you most proud of from your time at EI?  

Attending the CHAI and APRIL launch events ~1 year after we submitted the bid and seeing industry partners getting so excited at solving their shared challenges through the hubs.  

What does innovation mean to you?  

It means coming up with new ways of doing things and disrupting the status quo.  

If you had one more hour in the day how would you spend it? 

I'd spend it playing games with my kids.  

What piece of advice has stuck with you? 

My mother said to enjoy the work you do as you spend a substantial part of your life working. 

What would you really like to work on at EI/UoE?

I’d like to help the University to grow the number of successful spinouts and support all the fantastic endeavours across EI and the University in attracting more investment into these businesses. I’d like Edinburgh to be renowned globally for its innovation, great companies and ability to raise investment.