Rory has very substantial experience of senior leadership intersecting higher education, government strategy and with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). UKRI’s mission is to push the frontiers of human knowledge and understanding, deliver economic impact, and create social and cultural impact and so Rory’s direct experience leading national policy as well as his own multi-£million international research is offered and applied to help our clients.

Amongst many other things, Rory directed the UK’s postgraduate research strategies, and provided vision and led business cases through government spending reviews to implement the largest talent programme ever in the UK - the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship, spanning sectors and uniting disciplines. Working in and with universities, Rory provided strategic vision and implementation in different settings, always people-centric, that led quickly to positive cultures, environments and experiences, with strong performance.

Rory’s own research and innovation career spans disciplines, sectors and countries, attracting £multi-million investment. He has an unusually broad understanding and empathy for all disciplines, developed throughout his time working with all the UK Research Councils.

We don’t just talk the talk - we are active researchers, advisors and policy makers that have made positive differences for the people we work with.

Rory provided strategic advice to the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, was an invited member to the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s top-level Science Board, and while with UKRI, worked closely with teams drafting each of the government’s People & Culture, Place and Innovation strategies. Also in this period, Rory was deeply involved with planning for the UK’s association to Horizon Europe and with designing strategies and initiatives for alternatives, should association not have been possible. Rory provided transformational leadership as a Pro Vice-Chancellor for a large English university and advises funders and government on research and innovation strategic matters.

He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and was awarded the Senior Public Engagement medal, citing “passionate and enormously impactful advocacy for research and education in Scotland, the UK and internationally.”