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In September, chemical engineer Varsha Pridhivi joined EIRES as its first ever boundary spanner. A boundary spanner is someone who links the organization's internal networks to external stakeholders. In an interview, she introduces both herself and her ambitions with regard to her new role to the EIRES community.

What is your educational background?
‘I studied chemical engineering at the SSN College of Engineering in my birth country India. In high school I excelled in mathematics and the sciences, and in India, engineering is a common discipline for career opportunities. Since my father studied chemistry and worked in the food industry, which appealed to me as well, I decided to specialize in chemical engineering. Eventually, I got more interested in the manufacturing side of the field, and more specifically in photocatalytics and energy applications.’

You also hold a master’s degree in process engineering from Delft University of Technology. Was it always the plan to go abroad?
‘Not at all! In fact, I had never left my hometown, which is also where I went to university. And I even found my first job there as a process engineer at Petrofac. When I decided I wanted to pursue higher studies, I reconnected with some friends who had moved to the Netherlands to pursue their master’s. That is when I decided to go to Delft University of Technology. After that, I got into an industrial job at Tata Steel Europe, where I had done my internship.’

What did you work on during your years at Tata Steel?
‘As a Principal Researcher & Project Leader I worked on the development of the blast furnace process to make hot, liquid iron. Even though that process is over several centuries old, there are still many things that can be optimized about it. Think for example about the material usage and circularity, the efficiency of the process, and reducing the energy usage. I worked in a team of 18 people on several aspects of this giant chemical reactor called blast furnace.’

How did you end up at Eindhoven University from there?
‘Some two years ago, my husband and I moved to Eindhoven, since he had got a job at ASML. As a result, I had to commute to IJmuiden. In a country where work-life balance is very important, I found that to be an inefficient use  of my time. So, I started looking for new career opportunities closer to home where I could both use my experience in industry and try something new.
At Tata Steel, I had collaborated with different universities and research institutes in European research consortia. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting like-minded people and aligning ourselves on a common goal.
What attracted me in the vacancy at ºÚÁϸ£ÀûÍø was that it comprised a networking role in the open and dynamic environment of a university. The role of boundary spanner was new to me, but the job description was quite appealing. It mentioned a lot of different facets of building bridges between academia and industry in order to help solve the societal issue of the energy transition.’

What does your job at ºÚÁϸ£ÀûÍø entail?
‘For 50 percent of my time I am assigned to the Innovation Lab, where I am focusing on the energy track in the business collaboration cluster and will actively go looking for interesting cases the students can work on in a challenge based learning environment. For the other half of my time I am working at EIRES focusing on creating impact by facilitating and integrating research . The aim of this job is to create a strong connection between education, research and industry and help valorize research output from student teams and researchers in order to accelerate the energy transition.’

What can students and researchers approach you for?
‘For help in finding project partners, funding opportunities, or anything else they might need to bring their ideas closer to market. I am both looking inwards to ºÚÁϸ£ÀûÍø to identify promising developments, and focused on the outside world to actively scout what industry needs and if there are areas where joint learning could be beneficial.
I think student teams play an important role in bridging academic findings and industrial applications. It is impressing what they can achieve in multidisciplinary teams in such short periods of time. They approach a certain problem from many different angles to come up with prototypes and actual products that demonstrate the feasibility of certain ideas. In industry, there are many bureaucratic processes, although some of which are necessary, that slow down innovation. Getting budgets approved can be quite challenging to start with. Our student teams can act as a source of inspiration to industry of what is possible if you bring together smart people with a drive to solve a problem.’

What is your ambition as a boundary spanner?
‘I want to act as a point of contact for any questions about establishing new contacts and improving visibility, and I want to point people to the right aids. In order to realize this, in the coming months, I’ll be knocking on a lot of doors to get to know as many people as possible. The job of boundary spanner is relatively new at ºÚÁϸ£ÀûÍø. So, together with my colleague boundary spanner at EASI, it is our job to literally put faces to this position.’