Dr Peter Varnai is Partner at Technopolis Group and responsible for the Group’s Health Business Unit. Peter has over 20 years of experience in research, education and consulting, including programme evaluations, review and impact assessment of legislations, and strategic work for national and international clients, including the European Commission. Peter has a broad interest in linking research and innovation programmes to policy and business applications. He is expert in designing programme logic frames, developing indicators and implementing those to track programme performance. Peter applies methods ranging from quantitative modelling to qualitative techniques including interviews and case studies.

Peter has led or contributed to a number of high-profile studies relevant to more efficient and effective R&D programmes and legislations for health, including pharmaceutical innovation, epidemic preparedness, research and healthcare infrastructure, healthy aging, digital health services, and cross-border healthcare. He was responsible for the evaluation of the EU Paediatric Regulation and conducted the impact assessment of the Innovative Health Initiative. More recently, he led an EU foresight study to develop scenarios for the scientific, technological and societal conditions for the end of the COVID-19 crisis. He also led a number of process and impact evaluations where research programmes were co-funded by UKRI (MRC, ESRC), government agencies (FCDO, NIHR) and the third sector (Wellcome, CRUK). Peter is currently involved in the evaluation of the UK ISCF Medicines Manufacturing Challenge and the EU study on medicines shortages, and leading a study supporting the evaluation and impact assessment of the general pharmaceutical legislation.

Prior to joining Technopolis, Peter led a research group in drug discovery at the University of Sussex; conducted research as Wellcome Trust International Prize fellow at the University of Cambridge and at the CNRS in France. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK) and has published widely in leading scientific journals. Peter trained originally as a pharmaceutical engineer and obtained MEng degree from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. Peter also holds a DPhil from the University of Oxford and an MBA from Imperial College Business School. Peter works in English and French.