Background

This year, NNFCC celebrates its 20th anniversary.

NNFCC is a strategic consultancy with in-depth knowledge of the bioeconomy. We offer clients a wealth of experience in the bioenergy and biofuels markets and the growing biobased products sector.  The team has international experience to guide businesses through policy hurdles and assist in the development of technology and international markets.

The bioeconomy embraces the economic, social and environmental activity and impacts associated with the use and conversion of biomass into energy and products, and the use of biotechnology as a research, process and environmental technology.

The bioeconomy has the potential to supply a large array of biobased products, fitting all forms of circular thinking from reuse to closed and open loop recycling. It can be viewed as an enabler for an optimised circular economy beyond the current largely linear fossil based economy.

At NNFCC we firmly believe in a future where biobased technologies are a key component of the low carbon circular economy.

Our mission? To provide sector leading strategic business consultancy; analysing, explaining and de-risking the bioeconomy for our clients.

Established by the UK Government in 2003 as the National Non-Food Crops Centre, NNFCC has grown to become a leading commercial bioeconomy consultancy serving an international client base across bioenergy and bio-based products.

Our initial focus on the development of the rural economy, through the development of industrial crop applications, has widened over the years to embrace climate change mitigation through biofuel and bioenergy deployment. We cover land and marine based bio-based feedstock from agriculture and forestry through to municipal and industrial wastes.

We are driven by our belief that the bioeconomy will create sustainable business opportunities and deliver wide ranging environmental and societal benefits.

 
 

Our objective is simple - to provide clients with a strategic view of feedstock, technology, policy and market development across the bioeconomy, enabling them to make informed business decisions and develop sustainable business strategies.

We have successfully delivered projects to a wide range of clients including agricultural businesses, biotechnology developers, power companies, chemical producers and product manufacturers, brand owners and retailers, Universities and Research Funding Agencies and both regional and national Governments.

NNFCC is proud of its heritage and maintains its position in the marketplace through its membership of key trade bodies and professional organisations. Those organisations include the following:

 

To view NNFCC's Sustainable Business Policy, please click here.

NNFCC is an accredited Living Wage Employer

Team

Dr Adrian Higson

Managing Director and Lead Consultant for Biobased Products: Adrian has over 20 years’ research and consulting experience within the chemical and biobased products industry.
Dr Adrian Higson

Lucy Hopwood

Business Development Director and Lead Consultant for Bioenergy & Anaerobic Digestion: With a farming background, Lucy has over 19 years' experience of land based and renewables consultancy.
Lucy Hopwood

David Turley

Lead Consultant for Biofuels. David has over 30 years experience in the strategic analysis of bio-resource supply, product opportunities and environmental impacts.
David Turley

Lucy Montgomery

Senior Consultant: Lucy has a background in industrial biotechnology and anaerobic digestion. She works on SME support and innovation. She is the NNFCC contact for the recently completed H2020 project DAFIA. She also has a special interest in novel proteins.
Lucy Montgomery

Dr Andrea Muñoz-Garcia

Senior Consultant Andrea has a PhD in Green Chemistry and Sustainable Chemistry and she has a special interest in green gases and carbon capture. Andrea is NNFCC's contact point in Ireland and the lead leading author of our recently published report: "AD Deployment in the Republic of Ireland".
Dr Andrea Muñoz-Garcia

Sophie Mason

Senior Consultant: Sophie has a Master's degree in Green Chemistry and specialises in the field of biobased products and sustainable materials. She carries out market and policy research for a range of public and private sector clients. She also has a special interest in biobased platform chemicals.
Sophie Mason

Dr Gail Shuttleworth

Senior Consultant: Gail is a Senior Consultant at NNFCC. She has over 20 years' experience working in and around the bioeconomy and agritechnology sectors and has specialist knowledge of regulation and policy, industrial biotechnology, and sustainability. She has a deep knowledge of funding requirements to UK and international bodies, and significant project and account management experience.
Dr Gail Shuttleworth

Polly-Ann Hanson

Consultant: Polly has a Master's degree in Green Chemistry and carries out market and policy research across the bioeconomy, including for the H2020 project Shikifactory100. She specialises in biobased products, and her area of interest is in biobased packaging.
Polly-Ann Hanson

Théa Allary

Consultant: Théa has a Research Masters in Plant and Microbial Biology. As a Consultant for NNFCC, she works on ongoing projects both individually and as part of a team, and specialises in AD and non-food crops. Théa is also a member of NNFCC's Marketing Team.
Théa Allary

Dr Andrew Dyer

Senior Research Analyst: Andrew has a PhD in Bioenergy from the University of Leeds with his thesis examining the conversion of plastics and biomass, through catalytic pyrolysis, for production of fuels and chemicals. He is currently working on weekly news reviews and the WASTE2FUNC Project. Andrew has a special interest in pyrolysis and feedstock upgrading.
Dr Andrew Dyer

Lorenza Carta

Senior Research Analyst: Lorenza has a Master’s degree in Green Chemistry. She is currently working on the company’s composting database and on the H2020 project Oleaf4value. Lorenza has a particular interest in sustainable textiles.
Lorenza Carta

Dr Konstantinos Drousiotis

Senior Research Analyst: Konstantinos has a PhD in Mechanistic Biology from the University of York and a Masters in Biological Sciences from the University of Sheffield. During his PhD, Kon has worked on the bacterial transport of plant sugars to optimize the uptake and utilization of thereof to increase biofuel production in bacterial chassis. Before joining NNFCC, he also undertook a PostDoc position. At NNFCC, he now works on the BeonNAT and WASTE2FUNC EU projects.
Dr Konstantinos Drousiotis

Akbar Karbani

Finance Manager: Akbar joins us with over 16 years of UK/International accounting experience, as Finance Manager he oversees all finance functions in running a SME business.
Akbar Karbani

Caroline Randall

Office Manager: Caroline joins us with 20 years experience of office and executive administration. As Office Manager, she supports our Directors and consultancy team and oversees the HR function of NNFCC.
Caroline Randall

Kevin Lindegaard

Kevin has 20 years’ experience of the technical and economic aspects of energy crop production and supply. He has authored numerous papers/reports on energy crops policy.
Kevin Lindegaard

Mike Tooke, C.Eng

Mike has over 25 years’ experience in the energy and utilities sector and is a Charted Energy Engineer, focusing on the thermal conversion of biomass and wastes to produce power and fuels.
Mike Tooke, C.Eng

David Calderbank

David was in charge of ensuring compliance with the UK’s biofuels obligations for 10 years and has extensive experience of developing and implementing new regulations at an EU and UK level. He provides consultancy support to companies to help them manage their compliance with regulations and ethical / CSR commitments.
David Calderbank

Careers at NNFCC

Open positions

There are currently no open positions. 

Be part of something special

We offer exciting and challenging careers for people who are passionate about the future and are committed to success.

Do you match what we're looking for?

We're looking for people who:
Have excelled - not just academically
Stand out from their peers as excellent performers
Display exceptional talent, enthusiasm and drive, and thrive on hard work

Do we match what you're looking for?

Our website tells you what we do and who fill the jobs in our organisation.
What really matters to us is a good academic background, technical work skills and your analytical and communication skills. Some areas do have specific requirements such as a science or relevant discipline to PhD level.

The company's responsibilities to its employees are undertaken seriously and proactively, starting at recruitment level. We support and develop people and teams to deliver outstanding business performance.

We recruit for our job vacancies on the basis of your suitability for a career with us. If you think you have what it takes to become part of our team, please send us your CV and a cover letter describing how you match our requirements.

NNFCC is based at the York Science Park, home to more than 100 leading science and technology companies from across the globe.