Roz Bird, chief executive of Anglia Innovation Partnership LLP, has been appointed interim chair of the UK Science Park Association (UKSPA), working alongside chief executive Ruth Hall to deliver the association's new strategy, a leadership pairing that matters to sector professionals watching whether UKSPA can convert its recent strategy launch into practical policy influence rather than another advocacy document. No financial terms apply, as this is a leadership appointment.

UKSPA is the representative body for the UK's science parks, innovation clusters and innovation districts, based at Chesterford Research Park in Essex and registered in England since 1991. As a not for profit membership association, it does not publish commercial financials.

Anglia Innovation Partnership LLP is the campus management company for Norwich Research Park, one of Europe's largest science based research clusters, working with real estate partner Vengrove to attract agri food and health sector companies. Bird joined the park's leadership in 2022 and has served on the UKSPA board since 2023.

The appointment lands as UKSPA pushes to convert sector goodwill into formal policy recognition, not simply to fill a board vacancy.

Science parks remain almost entirely absent from the UK's national industrial strategy despite their role in commercialising research, and closing the north south productivity gap alone could add £54 billion to the economy, according to Bond Bryan. UKSPA has moved to close that evidence gap this year, partnering with End Game to build a national measurement standard for the sector and with Cogent Skills to address workforce capability.

For UKSPA, appointing an interim chair with two decades of practitioner experience across three major parks strengthens the leadership around Hall as the new strategy moves from launch to delivery. For members, continuity at board level matters most while the association builds the standardised evidence base it hopes will secure a formal place in industrial policy.

Bird's dual role, running Norwich Research Park while chairing UKSPA, mirrors the sector's own argument: that credible advocacy depends on leaders who are still operationally accountable for the assets they represent.

Whether the standardisation project converts into genuine strategy inclusion will be the clearer test of this leadership team's tenure than any single appointment.

Source: UKSPA / Bond Bryan