Usha Sarma focuses on healthcare and life science technology translation and commercialisation and develops research funding and investment strategies to support researchers in developing successful funding plans. She has successfully raised large-scale research and translation grant and investment funding in the U.K., Germany and Switzerland for academic research and clinical translation projects and start-up ventures. Her extensive global network across academia, clinical settings and industry allows her to connect researchers with suitable partners for co-operation and strategic resource acquisition, for which she helps to draw up winning funding applications
She has extensive start-up formation, technology licensing and corporate partnership development track-record for university and SME IP and know-how. Before joining the ARTORG Center as research strategy manager, Usha Sarma has spent 13 years working in high-technology commercialisation and venture capital investment at Imperial Innovations plc (now IP group), 5 years in business and strategy development at Brunel University London and has served as non-executive director and commercial advisor on the board of over a dozen start-ups. Usha Sarma holds a BSc Hons in Biochemistry and a PhD in Immunology from Imperial College London, during which she worked for Immunex Corp., Seattle (WA), U.S.A. (now Pfizer Inc.) and held a British Heart Foundation Research Fellowship. She also completed an MBA with a focus on Science Entrepreneurship from Bayes Business School, City University London supported by a Pearsons Financial Times Scholarship. At the ARTORG and CAIM, Usha Sarma provides direct assistance for any researcher developing a research or investment funding application or overall funding strategy across the project life-cycle.
