Dr Fionnuala Costello is Programme Director for the £1bn Net Zero Innovation Portfolio. Her responsibilities are to support innovation relevant to the DESNZ policy areas of hydrogen, bioenergy, industrial decarbonisation, greenhouse gas removals (including direct air capture) and carbon capture use and storage (CCUS). Before joining DESNZ, she spent 15 years at Innovate UK, part of UKRI, funding innovation within companies latterly responsible for customer experience and the Smart Grants programme, which supports innovation in small and medium enterprises. She holds a degree in mechanical engineering from University College Dublin and a MSc and PhD in materials science from the University of Manchester. Her early industrial career was in the steel industry before moving into public sector innovation funding.