With a background in finance and retail, Laura Campbell has joined Interface to support businesses and organisations primarily based across the central belt to collaborate with academics.

Based in the beautiful Scottish Borders, Laura enjoys walking in the countryside with her dog Charlie, and spending time with her two young nieces.

Described by her friends as “dependable, resilient and sociable”, Laura has joined the team at an exciting and busy time. We put a few questions to her to find out more….

• When did you start at Interface and what’s your background?

I joined Interface in March 2022 as a Business Engagement Officer. My career prior to joining Interface has been as a Customer Service Manager in both retail and finance sectors.2What attracted you to the position?

Having always worked in customer service helping people, I was attracted to working in an environment where I could help businesses grow which would, in turn, add benefit to the economy and society.

• What does your role incorporate?

My role is to support the Business Engagement Team in Interface by identifying the right academic expertise to enable client’s projects to progress.

• What does a typical day look like?

Discussing client’s projects with other members of the team, who are based throughout Scotland, to ensure I understand the academic requirements the clients are looking for. I then research all the universities and higher education institutes in Scotland to identify the academics with the right expertise to support the clients’ projects. Once academics have been identified, I issue the opportunity to the universities, collate all the responses and prepare the outcomes into a report to be issued to the client.

• What do you like most about the role?

The variety of the role, no two enquiries are the same, so I’m always looking at new sectors and academic disciplines. The team are really great to work with – they are skilled at translating what businesses and organisations need and identifying other areas which could benefit from collaborating with academics. They also know about current funding available to help support collaborative projects, so it is well worth businesses to get in touch and find out what is possible.