​Melanie Wilkes

Melanie Wilkes is a Policy Advisor at the Work Foundation and has extensive experience in research and policy development. She is currently managing research regarding mental health and wellbeing among workers in screen industries for the Film and Television Charity, and supporting implementation of the Skills Forecasting Service for the Screen Industries at the Work Foundation. Prior to joining the team, she had a range of policy roles within the charity sector, most recently working with Scope, the disability equality charity. There, she led a team developing solutions to tackle the disability employment gap through working closely with disabled people and businesses.Rebecca Florisson is a Policy Analyst at the Work Foundation. Among other projects, she is supporting implementation of the Skills Forecasting Service for the Screen Industries commissioned by Screenskills. Prior to this, she was a Research Assistant at Eurofound, where she prepared and assisted the launch of an observatory on platform work and the platform economy. Rebecca was also a Research Assistant for the European Commission-funded project ‘the Future of Manufacturing in Europe’. Before this, she was a trainee within the Knowledge Management Team of UNESCO-UNEVOC in Bonn, Germany, which specialises in supporting global initiatives and institutions providing vocational education.Martha Bloom is a Researcher at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of Sussex. After graduating with a BA in Theatre Studies (specialising in directing) from Middlesex University, Martha has worked in the Creative Industries as a theatre director, writer, festival producer and heritage film executive. In 2014 she was awarded a Chancellor’s Scholarship to conduct an MSc at SPRU in Managing Innovation and Projects. This prompted an interest in researching the Creative Industries from an innovation perspective. After a short spell away from academia working as a researcher for local government, she was awarded a scholarship from the R&D Management Association (RADMA) to undertake a PhD at SPRU. Her research centres around skills and innovation in the Creative Industries, with a particular focus on the integration of Arts and STEM knowledge bases at the individual, firm and inter-firm levels. She is currently in the third year of her PhD, supervised by Josh Siepel and Roberto Camerani. She also teaches alongside Roberto on the modules ‘Innovation in the Creative Economy’ and ‘Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Cultural and Creative Industries’.