Natasha Ayers is an experienced researcher, trainer, strategic project manager and innovation specialist with expertise in agriculture and higher education. She specialises in innovation training and mentoring, especially in regional areas.
After 8 years as an agricultural scientist, Ms Ayers spent 6 years working in research management at ECU and founded iPREP WA, a unique program that has connected over 100 PhD students from all 5 Perth universities to over 30 businesses. iPREP was recently awarded a national prize for Industry Engagement from the Australian Council of Graduate Schools.
Ms Ayers is the managing director of AgriStart, a new company supporting commercialisation and innovation for the food industry, and principal consultant of UniBiz Connect. She is also co-chair of the AgTech Network and judge of the WA Innovator of the Year Awards.
Ms Ayers is skilled in lecturing and workshop facilitation, project management, commercialisation in agriculture, innovation and industry engagement, grant and tender writing, data analysis and research design.
She has a PhD in Plant Biology from University of WA and University of Glasgow, and Bachelor of Science in Agriculture from University of WA.
