Rebecca Pates

Rebecca Pates is an Associate Director at SQW who joined the company in 2004. She specialises in programme evaluation, appraisal and impact assessment, with a focus on innovation and business growth, and analysis of place competitiveness, economic performance and growth. Her clients include local authorities, universities, local enterprise partnerships, central government departments and UK Research and Innovation) and devolved administrations.

Rebecca's evaluation experience includes developing evaluation frameworks, formative and process evaluation, and impact evaluation. Her recent work has focused particularly on the evaluation of innovation- and finance-related interventions, including the Agritech Catalyst for the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Investment Accelerator Pilot for UK Research and Innovation, the Northern Powerhouse Investment Funds for the British Business Bank, and the Welsh Government's Knowledge Exchange, Innovation and Advisory Services.

Rebecca has extensive experience of economic analysis and spatial development. For example, she managed the Northern Powerhouse Independent Economic Review in 2016 and contributed to the development of Science and Innovation Audits. She also has a particular interest in economic growth in the rural context.