Rory has 2 decades of experience working in senior leadership across higher education, government strategy and with the 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.

In this time, 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 £1.3bn Future Leaders Fellowships, 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.

Rory has 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.

Most recently, Rory provided transformational leadership as a university Pro Vice-Chancellor and is invited frequently to advise UKRI and government on research and innovation strategic matters. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2021 and was awarded the Senior Public Engagement medal, citing “passionate and enormously impactful advocacy for science and education in Scotland, the UK and internationally.”