Board of Directors
ARMA’s Board is made up of up to nine members, selected for their specific experience, knowledge and skills. Board member appointment is ratified by members, at the Annual General Meeting. Collectively, and as individual Directors, these members are responsible for the governance of the Association, financial management, and compliance with relevant legislation and regulations. The Board is also responsible for setting the strategic direction for the Association, ensuring that member interest remains at the core.
For more information about the Board, please contact the Chief Executive Officer, Alasdair Cameron Alasdair.Cameron@arma.ac.uk
Lorna Wilson
Chair of ARMA
Lorna graduated with her first degree, a BA(Hons) in Sociology, from Strathclyde University. Following 2 years working in the third sector for a major children’s charity, she went on to complete her MA(Res) in Sociology and Social Science at Newcastle University. Her research looked at community music projects and social inclusion within Newcastle, working in collaboration with the Sage, Gateshead. Since graduating from her post-graduate qualification, she has held several roles within Higher Education including in areas such as research development, PGR support, business development, research group and conference management, as well as work on the REF2014.
Lorna is Head of Research Development at Durham University, where she leads a team of Research Development Managers and Officers with regards to supporting academic colleagues with their external funding applications. She has extensive experience of supporting successful external funding applications, including for large scale interdisciplinary proposals such as Creative Fuse North East and the Urban Living Partnership. She has successfully supported colleagues with applications to a diverse portfolio of funders including ESRC, AHRC, NERC, EPSRC, the Wellcome Trust and the Newton Fund (for example).
Lorna has been on the ARMA Board of Directors since 2019 and undertook a year as Chair Elect before becoming the Chair of the Association on the 1st August 2023.
Grace McConnell
Chair Elect
Grace is Deputy Director of Research & Innovation at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), after joining LSE in March 2020 originally as Head of Research Development. She has a career spanning universities, public bodies and the private sector. Grace’s focus is to get the best out of people in all aspects of her role. She particularly enjoys thinking creatively about individual development and generating evidence of what works for research and innovation management.
Grace was a member of the ARMA Professional Development Committee and led the Professional Development Framework review and consultation due to her interest in staff development and career pathways for research managers. She also took part in the ARMA and Science for Africa Foundation’s programme with six universities across Zimbabwe on the barriers and tools to communicating with research managers across the world.
Before undertaking a year as Chair Elect, Grace was ARMA Director of Member Engagement and through the Member Engagement Committee led the Regional Groups Pilot launch, contributed to enhancing how ARMA supports SIGs, and supported the re-launch of the ARMA Awards.
Dr Sophie Collet
Deputy Chair
Sophie is Executive Director, Research, Enterprise and Innovation at the University of Bristol. Prior to joining Bristol in March 2025, she was Director of Research and Innovation Services at the University of Bath. Sophie has extensive experience of strategy development, research policy and planning, REF, research evaluation, systems, postgraduate research and research culture. She has successfully delivered complex, large-scale research initiatives, and works across professional service and academic communities to influence and shape the development of policy and practice.
Sophie is committed to people development, and to values-led leadership and management, recognising that we have a collective responsibility for supporting the development of research management and administration as a profession and practice. Having benefited personally and professionally from several years of ARMA membership, as well as participating in one of the multi-disciplinary Action Learning Sets in 2019-20, Sophie joined the Training and Development Working Group in 2018 and continued to play a part in supporting ARMA’s Training and Development programme until 2022. She delivered the Advanced Certificate Data for Decision Making Unit webinar for several years, and has also led Career Development events, a research evaluation and culture panel discussion at the 2021 ARMA conference, and joint sessions with HESPA on research planning and data-informed decision making in 2018 and 2021.
Sophie holds a joint honours degree in Psychology and Zoology and a PhD in behavioural ecology (University of Bristol). Outside her professional responsibilities, Sophie is a co-opted Governor at a local primary school.
Ushma Gudka
Treasurer
Ushma Gudka is Head of Post Award at Brunel University. She has worked in higher education at Brunel for over 20 years in a range of roles from the Students’ Union, Quality and Standards, Schools and Research Institutes. The last 13 years have been focused on various aspects of research support including leading doctoral administration and setting up support for newly formed Research Institutes. She started her current role at the start of 2020 to set-up a Post Award section in Brunel’s success RSDO department.
Ushma is an active member of the ARMA community and in recent years became increasingly involved by joining as a member of the Professional Development Committee in 2021. She has also supported the work of ARMA and its community by delivering training events on post award research and career development; mentoring on the ARMA mentoring programme and presenting at ARMA Conference in 2022. In addition, she leads the Brunel ARMA membership and has recently reinvigorated Brunel’s own research administrators and managers staff network (BRAM-NET) as a community of practice. She is a strong advocate of the professional development and networking opportunities available through ARMA.
Outside of work, she loves going on ‘adventures’ with the family. She is an active listening volunteer at her local branch of Samaritans in Harrow. To relax, she loves having a go at something creative – crochet and embroidery are her current outlets.
Navdeep Bains
Director
Dr Navdeep Bains is the Director of Research & Impact Services at the University of Warwick. Navdeep works alongside the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research) in the development and delivery of the University’s strategy for research and impact. She has extensive expertise in the commercialisation of research, grants and contracts, strategy development, research impact, research integrity, Trusted Research including export controls and NSI, income forecasting, REF and KEF, as well as in building partnerships at international, national, and regional levels.
Navdeep has over 20 years’ experience in research management, having held a number of senior research management and technology transfer roles at the Universities of Warwick, Birmingham and Leicester. Navdeep is also currently co-chair of the UKRI Research Organisation Consultation Group (ROCG), which plays an important role in supporting dialogue between UKRI and the R&I community.
Navdeep has a BSc (Hons) in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Coventry University and was awarded her PhD in Biochemistry in 2005 from Queen Mary, University of London.
Vanessa Cuthill
Director of Member Engagement
Vanessa Cuthill is the Director of Research Services at Cardiff University. Prior to joining Cardiff in April 2024, Vanessa was Director of Research and Enterprise at the University of Sussex and has held positions as Director of Research at The British Academy and as Director of Research and Enterprise at the University of Essex. She has also worked at the Economic and Social Research Council, University of Bath, the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, and the Arts and Humanities Research Board.
Vanessa is committed to the professional recognition of research managers and administrators and valuing the contributions of all team members. During her career Vanessa has promoted cross sector collaborations, sought to improve systems and process, as well as creating development opportunities for research managers and administrators.
Vanessa has been an ARMA member for over a decade, and a member of the Membership Engagement Committee (MEC) for five years. As a new Director of the ARMA Board for Member Engagement Vanessa will bring her ARMA experience, experience of roles she has held across the sector, as well as a perspective from a devolved nation. She is keen to work with the breadth of membership to ensure ARMA understands their needs and is proactive in exploring opportunities to strengthen the membership offering.
Camelia Dijkstra
Director of Qualifications
Dr Camelia Dijkstra is Director of Research and Enterprise Services at Leeds Beckett University, with over 17 years’ experience in research and business management across UK universities. She holds a PhD from the University of Nottingham and an MBA from The Open University.
Camelia has held senior roles at Coventry University and the University of Wolverhampton, and contributes nationally as an expert evaluator for Horizon Europe and Chair of the University Alliance Knowledge Exchange Network.
She brings extensive expertise in strategic planning, research grant development, systems and processes in RMA, research impact, integrity, and Trusted Research. Her leadership spans REF, HEBCI, HEIF, and KEF. A passionate advocate for sustainability and regional impact, Camelia leads cross-sector initiatives with UKRI, ARMA, UPEN and others.
Camelia has a varied and active engagement with ARMA. She has chaired a series of activities on the theme of Place from policy, impact and funding perspectives; she is chairing the ARMA Qualifications Working Group as well as an active member of the ARMA HEIs Financial sustainability group. In recent years Camelia has also delivered talks and mentored others on research support team management and development.
Jo Lakey
Director
Jo Lakey has worked in higher education since 2002 and in research management since 2009. She project managed the UCL Institute of Education’s REF2014 submission as part of her role as Research Policy Manager, and led the delivery of King’s College London’s REF2021 submission.
Jo was a panel secretary during the REF2014 assessment phase and the REF2021 criteria setting phase. She was a panel adviser for the REF2021 assessment phase. She is an external member of Brunel University London’s Research Ethics Committee.
Jo is currently Head of Research Excellence Framework at Imperial College London. She is responsible for the strategic oversight of Imperial’s REF submission, working within the Planning and Insight department.
Jo has been a member of ARMA since 2010 and has delivered a number of training sessions and conference sessions on REF, research ethics, research impact and managing research after a restructure. She was a member of the Conference Working Group for four years, and is an assessor for the professional qualifications.
Alison Lloyd
Director of Training and Development
Alison is the Head of Research Governance, Quality and Integrity at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH). Here she is responsible for developing and implementing effective systems for research sponsorship, quality assurance and clinical trial management across the NIHR BRC, CRF and R&I department, and its associated research networks and HEI partners.
Alison has an Undergraduate Degree in Adult Nursing and worked as a nurse in the NHS for 7 years in various roles across clinical and research settings. She then went on to complete a Masters Degree in Health Research, whilst working as a Trial Manger in a Clinical Trials Unit. Since graduating, she has held positions in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, and in Research Management. Alongside her role at NUH, Alison is an expert member of an NHS Research Ethics Committee and an external member of a University Research Integrity Committee.
Saskia Walcott
Director of Professional Development
Saskia Walcott has worked in Higher Education for 17 years. First at the research councils as Head of Comms and PE for the ESRC, followed by the last 10 years as an independent consultant with a deliberately varied portfolio of projects, broadly in the area of ‘how researchers engage with groups external to the university’.
Saskia accidentally developed a specialism in research impact and is a self-identified impact geek, interested in how to measure and track impact. Her work as an independent consultant has been interrupted by a couple of stints inhouse as Research Impact Manager at University of Bath for 15 months and interim Director of Strategic Engagement at UWE Bristol. Saskia is a longstanding member of ARMA.
Alasdair Cameron
Chief Executive Officer, ARMA UK
As CEO, Alasdair supports the Board and leads the Exec Office Team in delivering ARMA’s strategic plan.
You can reach Alasdair on email at alasdair.cameron@arma.ac.uk or on 0131 380 6395
