Professor Michele Barbour is Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor Enterprise and Innovation at the University of Bristol. Hers is a strategic leadership role with the remit to grow, enhance and promote the University’s enterprise and innovation activities across all disciplines, particularly in relation to research commercialisation and industry partnerships. She is also Professor of Biomaterials in the Faculty of Health Sciences where she teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students, and is a PI and research group lead. She founded a spin-out company, Pertinax Pharma Ltd, in 2015, and in this has experience of fund raising from VC, Angels, charities and UK and EU public funding bodies.
Professor Julie Barnett is Associate Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research) at the University of Bath and a social scientist based in the Department for Psychology. She did her PhD at the University of Surrey and held research positions at the University of Surrey and Brunel University before moving to the University of Bath in 2013. She is an active researcher with particular interests and expertise around risk perception and communication. She was Associate Dean (Research) for the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science before taking up her present role, which has particular responsibilities for research culture and research governance, in 2022.
Stuart Brocklehurst is Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Business Engagement and Innovation, leading the University of Exeter’s collaboration with business and its drive to deliver innovation through research and education. Stuart is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Fellow of the British Computer Society, a Companion of the Chartered Management Institute, a Chartered IT Professional, a Chartered Manager, a Freeman of the City of London, and holds a degree in theology from Oxford. He has served on numerous company boards, on the synod and Bishop’s Council of the Diocese of Exeter, as a Governor of Petroc College in North Devon and as a Leadership Fellow of Exeter Business School. He is a Director of the Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership and of the Great South West Pan Regional Partnership, Chair of the region’s Innovation Board and Chair of the Exeter Science Centre Advisory Board.
Professor Hainsworth OBE was appointed as Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at the University of Bath in December 2021. Prior to this she was a Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean at Aston University leading the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences and before that she was Graduate Dean and Head of the Department of Engineering at the University of Leicester. From 2019-2022 she was Chair of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Diversity and Inclusion committee. Sarah is a Professor of Materials and Forensic Engineering and has worked with a wide range of Industry on automotive tribology including Jaguar and Mercedes Benz High Performance Engines and with the energy sector on materials for power plant including GE. She has acted as a forensic science expert on stabbing, tool marks in dismemberment, and knife sharpness, providing reports to police forces across the UK. In 2013, whilst at the University of Leicester, her expertise helped establish the manner of King Richard III’s death at the Battle of Bosworth through analysing wound marks found on his skeleton.
Professor Jonathan Knight is Vice-President (Enterprise) at the University of Bath, where he is also an active researcher in photonics within the Department of Physics. He did his PhD at Cape Town, and held postdoctoral positions at the École Normale Supérieure (Paris) and Southampton before moving to Bath in 1996. He is a frequent invited speaker at conferences, has published over 250 papers, and has an established track record of translating academic research into commercial value. From 2015, Jonathan was the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research). He was appointed Vice-President (Enterprise) in 2021.
Marcus Munafò is Professor of Biological Psychology and MRC Investigator at the University of Bristol. He took up his post as Associate Pro Vice Chancellor for Research Culture in February 2022. Marcus completed his PhD at the University of Southampton, and was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford and the University of Pennsylvania before joining the University of Bristol. His primary research interests are in the impacts of health behaviours such as smoking and drinking on physical and mental health outcomes. He also co-founded the UK Reproducibility Network.
Professor Martin Siegert FRSE is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Cornwall) at the University of Exeter. He oversees Exeter’s diverse academic community on its 100-acre Penryn campus, near Falmouth, which is home to science, engineering, arts, humanities and business students, as well as the renowned Environment and Sustainability Institute (ESI). He will also have oversight of the institution’s Truro campus, at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust, the location for its European Centre for Environment and Human Health.
Professor Krasimira Tsaneva-Atanasova is Vice-President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Impact, and Professor of Mathematics for Healthcare.
Krasimira’s research addresses open questions in Health and Life Sciences by means of mathematical modelling and analysis including advanced data analytics. The ultimate goal is to be able to propose novel applications of mathematics to enable the development of quantitative methods for healthcare and healthcare technologies. She earned her undergraduate and MSc degrees in mathematics at the University of Plovdiv, Bulgaria and her PhD in applied mathematics at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She held postdoctoral fellow positions in the USA and France before moving to the University of Bristol as a Lecturer. She joined the University of Exeter in 2013 and has held a number of leadership roles being the Associate Dean for Global in the College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences and the Associate Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research and Impact in the Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy. As Vice-President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Impact), Professor Tsaneva-Atanasova oversees a total research portfolio of over £500 million and leads the research and impact strategy for the University.
Professor Karin Wahl-Jorgensen is University Dean of Research Environment and Culture at Cardiff University. In that role, she works on initiatives to develop a more inclusive, collaborative, and creative research environment for staff across the institution. She is also a Professor in the School of Journalism, Media and Culture, where she served as Director of Research Development and Environment between 2012 and 2020. Her research focuses on journalism and citizenship, and she has authored or edited ten books, 80 journal articles and more than 45 book chapters.
Professor Damian Walford Davies is Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Cardiff University, a role he took on in August 2021. He was previously Pro Vice-Chancellor and Head of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (2018—21) and Head of the School of English, Communication and Philosophy (2014—18) at Cardiff University. From 2012 to 2018 he was Chair of Literature Wales – one of Wales’s National Arts Companies – and from 2015 to 2018 Chair of Cardiff University Press. The main fields of his research are British Romanticism, literary geography, Welsh Writing in English, twentieth-century poetry, and Creative Writing. Recent publications include the poetry collection Viva Bartali! (Seren, 2023); the co-edited collection Romantic Cartographies: Mapping, Literature, Culture, 1789−1832 (Cambridge University Press, 2020); and the edited collection Counterfactual Romanticism (Manchester University Press, 2019). He is a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales.
Professor Roger Whitaker is Chair of the GW4 Board.
Professor Whitaker took on the post of Pro-Vice Chancellor Research, Innovation & Enterprise as of summer 2022. Prior to this he was Professor of Collective Intelligence at the Cardiff University School of Computer Science and Informatics. His research addresses the intersection of human and machine intelligence, involving interdisciplinary collaboration with psychologists, biologists, sociologists, and engineers to create new capabilities and understanding through computation. This is exemplified through his recent collaborations resulting in new insights on indirect reciprocity and social comparison, the dynamics of prejudice, identity fusion and cognitive dissonance, using agent-based computational approaches and data analysis.
Professor Guy Poppy was appointed as Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Innovation at the University of Bristol in October 2024. Prior to taking on this role they were interim Executive Chair of BBSRC and the UKRI executive sponsor of food (including agriculture and health) research and innovation.
A biologist by background, Professor Poppy is widely known for their expertise in transforming food systems, both nationally and globally, through themes of human health and sustainability. They have held roles as Head of School for Southampton’s School of Biological Sciences and cross-university directorships focused on interdisciplinary research, and worked across the full breadth of Southampton’s disciplines and relished the variety. Appointed as Chief Scientific Adviser to the Food Standards Agency in 2014, his tenure coincided with the Brexit vote, which he describes as a fascinating time to be involved in national policy. Poppy was later seconded to UKRI to direct a £50m research programme into food systems. His work involved engaging with government departments and major retailers such as ASDA and Sainsbury’s as well as community organisations like food banks. Poppy is a firm believer in the power of local approaches and not relying on national intervention.
