Peter Varnai
Partner
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.