Robert Baines joined the EMBL-EBI Training team in July 2025. Dive into our interview with him to learn how our new Finance Manager supports the smooth running of our training programme in Hinxton.

Robert Baines, Finance Manager, EMBL-EBI. Image credit: Jeff Dowling/EMBL-EBI

Tell us a bit about yourself and your career background before joining EMBL-EBI.

I studied economics and psychology at university, but then became a chartered accountant. Working at my father’s small accountancy firm allowed me to build my own role and help grow the practice. 

I have recently made a career change away from practice and into EMBL-EBI as I was drawn to the public goals of the organisation; spreading bioinformatics knowledge across the globe and ensuring science is open and accessible.

You work alongside a colleague, Jessi, at EMBL Heidelberg. Tell us about your working relationship and how you both support each other and the full EMBL and EMBL-EBI Training programme. 

Jessi has been incredibly supportive in the adjustment from practice to EMBL-EBI, and we have a great deal of common ground in our finance roles. We regularly discuss the various similarities and differences between the two programmes, which helps us to improve both processes through lessons learnt. Whilst the financing models are quite different, we both have to ensure the budget is used appropriately without being too under- or overspent.

You are also interested in making our training programme more accessible. Tell us about your plans and ambitions in this area.

One of the best aspects of the training team is the variety of people and ideas that they create. I am excited to be leading the accessibility working group. We are working on making our training more accessible and inclusive and have created links with local charities, such as the Cambridge Deaf Association and CamSight. I have recently co-ordinated in-person accessibility reviews of our training rooms and awareness training for our team to promote a more inclusive mindset.

What are you most looking forward to in the next 12 months in this role?

I am very keen to collaborate with the team on all the new and innovative ideas that we create, such as working with charities and wider societies. It is my role as the financial manager to ensure we spend our budget in an efficient and effective manner to best meet the team’s goals, whilst remaining as inclusive and accessible as possible. 

How do you find working part-time, and what do you do with the rest of your week when not at EMBL-EBI?

I very much enjoy working part-time as it allows me to spend more time with my young son and wife. My free time, apart from family time, is filled with reading books and planning my RPG campaigns, as I have always enjoyed collaborative storytelling. I am currently reading the Dungeoncrawler Carl books by Matt Dinniman and The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver. I find having a fiction and a non-fiction book on the go easier to fit reading in, depending on how I’m feeling.

Rob is working to make our training programme more accessible and far‑reaching. If you have ideas for how we can become the most equitable bioinformatics training provider, please email Rob with your thoughts.