Bio.

Dr Laura James is Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Cambridge Department of Computer Science and Technology, with a focus on climate research and third sector collaboration. She is a co-founding trustee of CoFarm Foundation, and serves on the board of OpenUK.

Laura's work delivers practical systems around emerging internet technologies in different contexts, with a focus on responsible and sustainable practice. She has created and shipped technology products in diverse settings and sectors, including commercial startups, non-profits and co-ops, and has established and scaled organisations, teams and communities.

Most recently, Laura served as Interim Head of Delivery at lowRISC, a not-for-profit engineering company developing open source silicon hardware. Previously she was Technology Principal at Doteveryone, the responsible technology think tank, and established the Cambridge Trust & Technology Initiative, a multidisciplinary research network.

Laura was the first employee and VP Engineering at AlertMe, a connected home startup; on the management team at Evi, an AI startup acquired by Amazon to become Alexa; CEO of Open Knowledge International, a civil society network opening up information for all; and COO at CARET, delivering mission-critical innovative software for the University of Cambridge. She cofounded Cambridge Makespace, the Digital Life Collective, and the Festival of Maintenance, and helped develop Field Ready, a humanitarian NGO using open hardware and local manufacturing to meet essential needs.

Laura advises and supports a range of ventures and initiatives, holds Masters and PhD degrees in Engineering from the University of Cambridge, and is a Chartered Engineer.