About the Public International Partnerships Team
The PIPs team coordinates Cambridge’s relationships with universities, research institutes and other public bodies outside the UK. While most such relationships are held by individual academics or Departments, our role is to maintain oversight of existing relationships to enable join up and to support new initiatives that increase the University’s ability to achieve it mission.
We achieve this by identifying, developing and supporting engagement with international institutions. This can take various forms, including convening strategic working groups for different geographical regions, connecting with senior leadership when appropriate or simply by providing information on specific regions. Our birds eye perspective enables us to connect people with shared aims and to help our colleagues to overcome barriers of communication, policy or legislation that prevent potentially impactful complex international projects from getting off the ground.
If you are planning an international activity, either complex in nature or evolving into one, we may be able to help, either directly or guide you in the right direction.
Contact us
Team Contact Information
Meet the Team
Renata Schaeffer, Head of Public International Partnerships (Western Asia)
Hilary Perrott, Strategic Partnerships Manager
(South and Southeast Asia, Australasia)
Hilary has oversight of University partnerships in South and South East Asia, and Australasia. She works to build and enhance links between Cambridge and those regions, in research collaborations, exchange programmes and diplomatic relations.
She holds an MA from the University of Oxford and worked for some years in classical music management, before moving into University administration, first at King’s College in Cambridge, then for Gates Cambridge and the Cambridge Trust, working on scholarships for international students. She is a Senior Member of Wolfson College.
Ingrid Hobbis, Strategic Partnerships Manager
(Germany, The Nordics)
James E. Phillips, Strategic Partnerships Manager
(The Americas)
James has oversight of University partnerships in North and South America. He works to build and enhance links between Cambridge and those regions, in research collaborations, exchange programmes and diplomatic relations.
He holds an MA in International Relations from Kings College London and has previously worked for the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in Pakistan, The Gambia and Brazil.
Dr Jingchen Hou, Strategic Partnerships Manager
(Eastern Asia)
Jingchen manages the strategic partnerships with public institutions in East Asia. Her remit is to support University academics and researchers in their collaborative activities in this region, develop and manage institutional partnerships and collaboration programmes, and support and coordinate relevant decision-making and strategy discussions.
She obtained her PhD from the Institute for Manufacturing, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge in 2016. She has been working in the Strategic Partnerships Office since 2017. She was a Research Analyst in the Business Partnerships Team from 2017 to 2020 and has been in her current role since 2020.
Dr Maja Wallberg, Strategic Partnerships Manager
(Africa, The Caribbean)
Maja manages the University’s partnerships with African and Caribbean Universities and government agencies.
She has a PhD in immunology from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, and has many years of experience of active research, strategic research funding and programme management in life science and health.
Marina Avena Maia, Research Analyst
Marina is responsible for research and analysis on international projects and partnerships to provide support to the Head of Public International Partnerships, the Strategic Partnerships Managers, and senior academics across the University.
She is currently finishing her PhD in the Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology Dept. at the University of Cambridge. She has previous industrial experience in R&D by working with multinational companies and start-ups.
Dr Olena Fim'yar, Strategic Partnerships Manager
(Europe, Central Asia)
Tooba Ahmad, International Response Project Manager
Tooba is part of the Public International Partnerships Team within the Strategic Partnerships Office. She will be overlooking the Ukraine scheme as well as co-ordinating the University's response to a variety of global events.
Having previously worked in higher education in United States and Switzerland, she is experienced in academic partnership development and stakeholder management.
International Support Services
Tammy Au, Head of International Support Services
Tammy heads the International Support Services within the Strategic Partnerships Office. Within the ISS, she looks at international engagement across the University and considers how best to ensure those engagements are supported through appropriate policy, process, guidance, and advice. Her team is also responsible for providing support to facilitate ongoing and future international activities across the academic community as well as managing large scale strategic partnerships and collaborations.
Prior to this role, she was the Engagement Lead for the National Digital Twin Programme - a government funded programme to digitise the infrastructure of the UK, within the Centre for Digital Built Britain. She has a background in business and communications and is passionate about fostering meaningful engagement and impact.
Jack Auty, International Engagement Project Manager
Jack works with subject matter experts across the university to develop the International Engagement Hub, our staff's central area for guidance when collaborating overseas. As a project manager with experience in internal communications and content development across the higher education, AI research and pharmaceutical industries, his goal is to curate informative, easy to understand advice for the Cambridge community.