Patrick Courtney MBA has 20 years’ industrial experience in the development of technology R&D and marketing for scientific instruments, as a director at PerkinElmer, and at Sartorius and Cap Gemini. He leads the European working group on laboratory robotics with the European Commission’s AI/Robotics Programme. He is member of the board of directors of SiLA (Standards in Laboratory Automation) and sits on the advisory board of the projects AdaLab and ROAR. He holds a PhD in molecular biology/engineering, has carried out research in AI and computer vision, and is named as inventor on 10 patents.