Professional Activities
Ray has 11 years’ experience at director level within UK higher education, working in diverse settings (English Midlands, London, Liverpool). He has led research support offices in three universities where he had responsibility, alongside the relevant Pro Vice-Chancellors / Vice-Provosts, for strategic decision-making in relation to research and innovation. This includes the preparation of institutional submissions to the Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014, 2021), Knowledge Exchange Framework (KEF 2020, 2022) and leading on The Royal Veterinary College’s response to the Knowledge Exchange Concordat (KEC 2021). In his current role as Chief Operating Officer for The Pandemic Institute, Ray co-ordinates the work of seven partners including academic, clinical and civic institutions (i.e., city council and mayoral combined authority), in helping the UK to prepare for and respond to emerging infectious diseases and pandemic threats.
Prior to coming to Liverpool, Ray was an evaluator for the European Commission (2002-12) and the Natural Environment Research Council (2009-12); a Director of ARMA, the UK Association of Research Managers and Administrators (2004-11); and a member of Vitae's Researcher Development Advisory Group (2012-15). From 2014 to 2017 he served on the Jisc's Oversight Group for 'Research at Risk' and from 2017 to 2019 on the Steering Group for Jisc's Research Data Shared Service. Ray was also a member of the LIS-Bibliometrics Committee (2019-20) and Vitae's working group on CPD for Researcher Developers (2019-20). Currently he is an evaluator for the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowships programme.