New co-chairs of Awards Working Group announced

Vanessa Cuthill and Kirsty Allen have been appointed as co-chairs of the Awards Working Group.

Vanessa Cuthill is Director of Research Services (formerly Research & Innovation 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 Council.

Kirsty Allen has worked in research management since 2009, with roles in Research Services at the University of Oxford including contracts specialism, managing a grants team, and acting as the University’s lead advisor and Programme Manager for REF 2021. While at Research Services, she also led its Rewards and Recognition panel for two years. A previous role in research management was as the Hub Manager for the UK’s first EPSRC-funded £38m quantum computing hub.

Vanessa has commissioned and led projects which seek to improve and innovate research systems and process as well as the culture and opportunities for research managers and administrators and researchers. She is committed to recognising the value and contributions of all team members and encouraging new opportunities that can bring benefits to individuals and the wider research and innovation landscape. Vanessa is delighted to be co-chairing the new ARMA Awards working group with Kirsty which will celebrate the achievements of research management professionals, teams and organisations.

Kirsty is the Programme Manager for the interdisciplinary research unit Modernising Medical Microbiology (MMM) in the Nuffield Department of Medicine at the University of Oxford. Her role includes overseeing budgets, leading on PPIEP, acting as the operational lead and EDI representative for the unit’s theme in the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, and programme management on a collaboration with EIT Pathogena on genomics pipelines, including mycobacteria (e.g. tuberculosis).

As co-chairs, Vanessa and Kirsty will lead the working group in its objective to develop and deliver the ARMA Awards, including the creation of the award categories and process for nominations and judging. If you are interested in getting involved in the ARMA Awards, we are seeking new members for the inaugural working group until Tuesday 5 November 2024.