
| Professor Trevor McMillan, Vice-Chancellor, Keele University
Professor McMillan became Vice-Chancellor of Keele University in August 2015, after serving as Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost from January 2014. He was Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research at Lancaster University, prior to which he held the position of Dean of the Institute of Environmental and Natural Sciences. Professor McMillan studied biological sciences at Lancaster and was awarded a PhD in Biophysics at the Institute of Cancer Research, University of London in 1984. He has been awarded Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Radiologists, Honorary Membership of the Royal College of Physicians and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology. Currently, he has a national role as Knowledge Exchange Champion for HEFCE.
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| Isobel Stephen, Executive Director, Strategy and Governance, UKRI
Along with her job-share (Emma Lindsell) Isobel leads the team that provides the strategic advice to UK Research and Innovation, the Executive Team and the Board. Their teams also provide UK Research and Innovation with high quality communication and analytical support and are responsible for secretariat support to the UKRI Board and Executive Committee.
Isobel joined UKRI in August 2019 from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government where, as Housing Director, she has been the overall lead on housing strategy.
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| Adam Dinsmore, Programme Manager, Wellcome Trust and Research on Research Institute
Adam Dinsmore is a Programme Manager within the Wellcome Trust's Research On Research programme. Adam manages the delivery of core research projects undertaken by RoRI and ensures strategic coordination between RoRI's strategic partners.
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| Harriet Barnes, Head of Policy (Higher Education and Skills), The British Academy
Harriet Barnes is Head of Policy (Higher Education and Skills) at the British Academy, where she leads the Academy’s work as the voice for the humanities and social sciences in the development of education and research policy. She previously worked for the Quality Assurance Agency, where she was closely involved in the developing the UK Quality Code, and for the University of Bedfordshire.
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| Samuel Roseveare, Policy Manager, Universities UK
Sam is a Policy Manager, leading Universities UK’s policy work on Research and Sector Agencies. During his time at Universities UK he has developed and supported our policy work on Health, Regulation and Professional Education. Previously, he led on a project to support the comparability of degree standards in the UK.
Sam joined us in January 2014 after working at Imperial College London as a Strategic Planning Officer. Prior to that, he was President of Durham Students' Union, leading the organisation between 2010 and 2011 and serving on the University Council.
His first degree was in Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Durham, and he is currently working toward an MSc in Quantitative Research Methods at the UCL Institute of Education. |

| Mairwen Harris, Senior Policy Adviser, Universities Wales
Mairwen leads policy development for Brexit and Research and Innovation at Universities Wales. Before making the move to a sector-wide position she had a variety of roles in higher education including School Manager and Head of the Vice-Chancellor’s Office at Cardiff University.
Mairwen studied English literature at the University of Essex and recently completed an MBA in Higher Education Management at the Institute of Education, University College London.
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| Liam Earney, Executive Director of Digital Resources, Jisc
Liam Earney is executive director of digital resources at Jisc, with responsibility for all of their licensing, open research, content & delivery services. Prior to this he was Director of licensing where he was responsible for Jisc's negotiations with publishers.
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| Dr Ben Bleasdale, Policy Advisor, Wellcome Trust
Dr Ben Bleasdale is a Policy Adviser at Wellcome, an independent charitable foundation which supports research to improve health across the world. His work focusses on the factors which support good science – from Wellcome's major new initiative to improve research culture, to securing the future of public investment in R&D. He has previously held roles at the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Medical Research Council.
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| Dr Frances Downey, Head of Research Culture, UKRI
Dr Frances Downey is the Head of Research Culture at UK Research and Innovation. Previous to this she led the Research Culture programme at the Royal Society, developing Integrity in Practice and also the Resume for Researchers. She also led on the organisation of the Society’s landmark conference on research culture in October 2018; Changing Expectations. Frances has also worked at the Royal Academy of Engineers, BEIS, DECC and Sense About Science. She is the co-founder of www.MetisTalk.com, a platform to share, discuss and challenge ideas around research culture.
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| Dr Katy Gearing, Head of Industry Engagement, Royal Society
Katy is Head of Industry Engagement at the Royal Society. Her team aims to facilitate translation of basic science; promote the flow of people and ideas between academia and industry; recognise excellence in science in industry; and address skills gaps and promote careers in industry.
Katy trained as a molecular biologist at Oxford University and her career as a scientist has spanned academia, biotech and the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining the Royal Society, she spent over 20 years in early drug discovery at GlaxoSmithKline.
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| Melinda Kenneway, CEO and Co-founder, KudosMelinda Kenneway has worked in the scholarly communications industry for over twenty five years, and is passionate about supporting change that helps make research more accessible and effective. After completing a degree in Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford, Melinda began her career in research communications working at Oxford University Press, where she became Global Marketing Director for the Journals Division. In 2004 she founded TBI Communications, a specialist marketing agency serving academic publishers, societies and universities. In 2013 Melinda co-founded and became CEO of Kudos - a web-based platform that supports the research community in accelerating impact through more effective communication. Melinda has been a Non Executive Director of Bioscientifica and is a member of Council for the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers.
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| Dr Giles Carden, Chief of Staff and Director of Strategic Projects, Lancaster University
Dr Giles Carden is Chief of Staff and Director of Strategic Projects at Lancaster University and a member of the Vice-Chancellor’s Executive Team. Giles’ role is principally focussed on leading and coordinating major, transformational strategic initiatives, a recent example would be developing Lancaster University branch campus in Leipzig, Germany. Giles’s academic background is the earth sciences, he undertook a PhD in geochemistry at the University of Liverpool and then a DAAD, Liebniz Prize funded fellowship at the Rhur-Universitaet Bochum in Germany. Prior to joining Lancaster he undertook a range of different professional services roles at the University of Warwick, latterly occupying the role of Director of Strategic Planning and Analytics and amongst other things led the development of Warwick’s REF submission.
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| Professor Graeme Reid, Chair of Science and Research Policy, University College London.
Professor Graeme Reid is Chair of Science and Research Policy at University College London.
Graeme was specialist advisor to the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee during their extensive inquiries into Brexit. He is a member of the Government’s High Level Group on EU Exit, Universities, Research and Innovation. Sir Adrian Smith and Graeme advised the UK science minister on frameworks for international collaboration – the UK Government published their report in November 2019.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Fellow of the Institute of Physics, Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and a Chartered Engineer.
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| Jan Palmowski, Secretary-General, The Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities
Jan Palmowski has been Secretary-General of The Guild since its creation in 2016. A contemporary historian, he started his career at the University of Oxford before moving to King's College London where he taught European politics and EU integration. He was Head of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at King's College London (2008-12), and Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Academic Vice-President at the University of Warwick from 2013 to 2018. His wider international engagements include membership in the German Science Council's Strategy Commission (2013-16), and the German Excellence Commission's joint expert Group (2016-18). He also served on the Humanities panel of the Comparative Expert Assessment of Lithuanian Universities (2018), and currently chairs the International Advisory Board of the Université de Paris.
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| Greg Falconer, Director of Innovation Policy, Nesta
Greg leads Nesta's Innovation Policy theme, driving delivery of our current strategy to make innovation policy smarter, more inclusive and fit for the future while raising the profile of our work and thinking about what comes next.
Greg joined Nesta from BEIS, where he was Deputy Director for Innovation Policy, responsible for increasing the R&D intensity of the UK, science fiscal events and major programmes such as the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund. He is most interested in increasing the impact of innovation policy and making sure it supports the priorities and values of citizens.
Before BEIS, Greg was a Deputy Director in the Cabinet Office working to make government more efficient and effective and he has spent time at Eurasia Group, KPMG, the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and RAND Europe.
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