Prabs Johal

Head of Regional Innovation Delivery @Connected Places Catapult

Birmingham, GB

Connected Places Catapult is the UK’s Innovation Accelerator for Transport, Places and the Built Environment. Based in the Local Growth Directorate, Prabs- Is Senior Responsible Officer for 6 large regional and national programmes, amounting to a programme portfolio of just under £5million. This includes the Innovate UK funded West Midlands\' Innovation Accelerator programmes such as Clean Futures and Diatomic- Accountable for strategic oversight and end-to-end delivery of the portfolio including resourcing and overseeing programme budgets- Develops and stewards key accounts including Local and combined authorities, government departments and research councils such as UKRI - Leads a large, high performing team that manage Regional Economic Development, Networks including UK Innovation Districts Group and Academic Knowledge partnerships, Industry / sectoral convening through clusters, and oversight of Programmes in Places- Forges cross-sector collaborations and strategic engagement with public, private and voluntary sectors to build capacity in innovation ecosystems and bridge gaps between research and market ready solutions, leading to business and therefore economic growth- Leads the CPC Birmingham office as a regional hub