Alisha Peart confirmed as co-chair of Conference Working Group

We are delighted to announce that Alisha Peart has been appointed as the new co-chair of the Conference Working Group. Alisha is passionate about supporting researchers and partners to achieve impact through collaboration, innovation and engagement. With a career spanning both Higher and Further Education, she brings extensive experience in research management, external funding and programme delivery.

At Northumbria University, Alisha manages the North East Space Communications Accelerator (NESCA), working with regional and national partners to help to grow the North East’s space sector. She has also held senior leadership roles within Research and Innovation Services, leading strategies to strengthen research impact, public engagement and knowledge exchange. Notably, she played a central role in Northumbria’s REF 2021 submission, helping to double the university’s impact cases and secure the largest REF Impact GPA increase in the sector.

Alisha is an active member of the research management community, serving as ARMA’s Impact SIG co-champion, UKRI Talent Peer Review College member, ESRC panel reviewer and contributor to ESRC’s 2024 Doctoral Training Partnership assessment.

On her appointment Alisha said, I am delighted to be co-chairing the ARMA Conference and look forward to welcoming colleagues to Harrogate.

Alisha is taking over from Andrew Emery, whose term came to an end in September. She joins Laura Gower as co-chair and, together, they will lead the working group in its objective to facilitate the development of a high quality, innovative and topical programme for ARMA’s annual conference, including the identification of speakers, the abstract submission process and contributing to the successful conference delivery by chairing sessions.

The ARMA 2026 call for abstracts will open next week, so watch this space for more information.