Nengaswary (Eeish) is a motivated and impact driven professional. Experience in leading research and knowledge exchange initiatives, training, and international collaboration. Eeish was awarded the 2021 AACSB Influential Leader Award. She is an expert at building talent and nurturing individuals to accept and adapt to change. Eeish has had plenty of opportunity to put her beliefs to the test and became who she is today. She is also a Yoga and Wellness enthusiast.

Ian Carter has over 30 years experience in research management, across a range of topics and contexts. He is now an independent consultant having worked for three universities and in the capital engineering industry. During his career he has served on a number of national committees, project boards and working groups, including for Research Councils UK, the Scottish and English Funding Councils, Universities UK, Jisc, and HESA, on topics such as full economic costing, grant management systems, open access, research careers, research assessment, and research information management. He is a Chartered Engineer, a Registered Technology Transfer Professional, a former chair of ARMA, a Distinguished Faculty of SRA International, and has been a non-executive director of four companies. He has provided professional advice on all aspects of research management, including strategy, policy, organisational and operational management, and systems, to universities, funders and governments in the UK and elsewhere.

Sapna is a lawyer qualified in both England and Scotland with extensive experience of advising HEI’s and research funders on the legal implications of research and innovation activities including commercial contracts, research compliance and governance. She has led legal teams in both research intensive university and research funder environments. Sapna was a co-investigator and author of the Complex Collaborations report which explored the response to increased research security regulation in the UK.

Maria Pawlowska, PhD is an expert in  open science as well as international R&D collaborations (with a focus on the EU). Following her PhD in the Earth Sciences at Cambridge University she transitioned to research management and has not looked back. Maria has over a decade of experience in managing international, interdisciplinary research projects and providing R&D support. In the past Maria has collaborated with EU governments, Science Europe and Fortune200 companies. She is also the co-author of the Practical Guide to the International Alignment of Research Data Management. She has assisted in the set up of over a dozen international research centres of excellence, with institutions such as Oxford University, Uppsala University and CNRS. Her work in open science and international collaborations also includes assisting institutions and individual researchers with successfully applying for the most prestigious EU funding schemes and implementing and designing open science policies.

Maya Collum is the Project Manager for DiscoverResearch – University of Toronto's new expertise discovery tool. Based in the Division of the VP Research & Innovation at U of T, Maya is the technical and implementation lead for the roll-out of this tool across three campuses, over 200 academic units, and for 15,000+ faculty. When she’s not crossing items off her to-do list, Maya spends countless hours chauffeuring her little humans to hockey arenas and baseball diamonds across Ontario.

Jocelyn Edwards is the Interim Directors, Grants Development & Research Administration at Lawson Health Research Institute ("Lawson"). Lawson, located in London, Ontario, Canada, is the research institute of London Health Sciences Centre and St. Joseph's Health Care London. As one of Canada's top ten research institutes, Lawson is committed to furthering scientific knowledge to advance health care around the world. Jocelyn earned her Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in Kinesiology and her Bachelor of Laws from the University of Western Ontario. Jocelyn was called to the Bar in 2004. Jocelyn joined Lawson in 2013 as a Contracts Officer, moving to Contracts Team Lead in 2016, Manager Lawson Approval and Contracts in 2021, and Interim Director, Grants Development & Research Administration in 2022. In her role as Director, Jocelyn oversees the Grants, Lawson Approval, Contracts and Quality Assurance and Education departments at Lawson. Prior to joining Lawson in 2013, Jocelyn practiced commercial litigation at a law firm located in London, Ontario Canada.

Dr. Erica Conte obtained her PhD in Physiology from Western University (Canada). She has been working in research administration and research leadership for over a decade. In her current role as Director of Funding Strategy and Stewardship, she is involved in the responsible research evaluation of both the institution and its individual scientist. She is also very interested to understand, or help further develop, best practices for incorporating aspects of equity, diversity and inclusion into responsible research evaluation. Erica has been an active member of the Canadian Association of Research Administrators (CARA) since 2014, and a member of the INORMS Research Evaluation Group since 2022.

Dr. Phipps is the administrative lead for all research programs and their impacts on local and global communities at York University (Toronto, Canada). He has received honours and awards from the Canadian Association of Research Administrators, Society for Research Administration International, Institute for Knowledge Mobilization, International Network of Research Management Societies and the EU based Knowledge Economy Network. He received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for his work in knowledge mobilization and research impact and was named the most influential knowledge mobilizer in Canada. He sits on knowledge mobilization committees around the world and is Network Director for Research Impact Canada.

RPA team at University of Calgary has worked with robotics automation to assist with post award activities since 2019.

Tricia Callahan is the Associate Director for Strategic Operations and Research Training at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. As part of the senior leadership team in the Office of Research Administration, Tricia is responsible for analyzing training needs, developing curriculum, and delivering courses related to administrative functions, utilization of system applications, and general industry knowledge. Prior to her role at Emory, Tricia was the Senior Research Education and Information Officer at Colorado State University (CSU) in Fort Collins, CO. At CSU, she led a training team dedicated to the analysis, development, design, implementation, and evaluation of campus training initiatives related to sponsored projects administration, including fiscal and regulatory compliance. Before transitioning into training, Tricia was the Director of Proposal Development at Miami University in Oxford, OH, and the Assistant Director of Sponsored Programs at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, KY. In her roles, she was responsible for proposal preparation, budget development, proposal submission, award acceptance and negotiation, and subaward preparation and oversight. Additionally, she provided oversight for WKU’s internal programs for seed funding, managing pre- and post-award activities. Over the course of her career, Tricia has worked extensively with faculty, staff, students, and senior leadership keeping abreast of policy changes impacting research administration operations. Additionally, she has focused on improving internal efficiencies and streamlining processes in research administration, such as assisting in university-wide software implementation for system-to-system proposal routing, submission, and reporting. Tricia received her B.A. in Psychology from Miami University and her M.A. in Experimental Psychology from the University of Louisville, where she taught as an adjunct instructor in the Department of Psychology and in the Kent School of Social Work. It was at the University of Louisville where she began her career in research administration in 1998, providing pre-award support for the Speed School of Engineering and the School of Medicine. Tricia has been an active member of the National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA) since 1999. Since then, she has regularly served as a presenter and co-presenter on workshops and concurrent sessions at regional, national, and international levels. Additionally, Tricia has led numerous discussion groups and has served on boards and program committees for regional and national conferences. In 2004, Tricia took part in the second annual Leadership Development Institute and is a 2016 graduate of the NCURA Executive Leadership Program. Tricia currently serves as a Peer Reviewer and Traveling Workshop Faculty for NCURA’s Fundamentals of Sponsored Projects Administration. She is a recipient of a 2015 NCURA Global Fellowship to the University of Luxembourg and served as a Eurasia Foundation Special Exchange Participant to Russia in 2016. Tricia was the leadership chapter editor of NCURA’s “Sponsored Research Administration: A Guide to Effective Strategies and Recommended Practices” and co-chair of the NCURA Global Collaborate Community. She has served on three Presidential Task forces and is a former at-Large Member of the NCURA Board of Directors and served on the NCURA Professional Development Committee (PDC). In 2020, Tricia received NC URA’s Julia Jacobson Distinguished Service Award. Tricia can be found on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/callahantricia/ and can be reached at

Karen Eck, PhD, is Assistant Vice President for Research at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, where she interfaces with internal and external entities in support of research development and policy, research strategic planning, and partnerships spanning university, regional and national initiatives. She leads a professional team with oversight of intramural funding programs, limited submissions, faculty workshops and awards, and proposal support across ODU's six academic colleges. A Past President of the National Organization of Research Development Professionals, Dr. Eck was named a Fellow in recognition of her sustained contributions to NORDP and the practice and field of research development and currently represents NORDP on the International Network of Research Management Societies Council. A Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Eck holds PhD and MA degrees in Experimental Psychology from Kent State University and a BA in Psychology and French from Indiana University, Bloomington. She held post-doctoral appointments in psycho- and neurolinguistics at the Mental Lexicon Research Project at McGill University and Université de Montréal.

"James Shelley is a Knowledge Mobilization Specialist at Western University. His role involves strategic planning, consultation, and training across six diverse Schools within the Faculty of Health Sciences. (These include Nursing, Kinesiology, Health Studies, Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, and Communication Sciences and Disorders.) James is especially interested in the convergence of data automation, system design, and storytelling, and how, combined, they augment knowledge mobilization and science communication. James also heads the Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) Lab. This lab, established in early 2020, serves as an interdisciplinary hub for the study of complexity and system scholarship at Western University, bridging various faculties and departments. An autodidact at heart, James has a special interest in the overlap of complexity theory, information, narrative, and communications."

Mark Lucas, CRA, serves as the Chief Administrative Officer for the Departments of Neurobiology and Computational Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He is also the immediate past president of the SRAI Southern California Chapter. He previously served as Director of Business Affairs for the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and Manager for General Internal Medicine at UCLA. He has served in departmental and research administration for the past three decades.

Dr. Phipps is the administrative lead for all research programs and their impacts on local and global communities at York University (Toronto, Canada). He has received honours and awards from the Canadian Association of Research Administrators, Society for Research Administration International, Institute for Knowledge Mobilization, International Network of Research Management Societies and the EU based Knowledge Economy Network. He received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for his work in knowledge mobilization and research impact and was named the most influential knowledge mobilizer in Canada. He sits on knowledge mobilization committees around the world and is Network Director for Research Impact Canada.

Scott Baker is the Manager, Sensitive Research at UBC Advanced Research Computing: a group of cybersecurity and privacy professionals focused on helping researchers find balanced solutions for their project architectures, research data, and compliance needs. He is a member of the Digital Research Alliance of Canada Federation national security council and one of the primary facilitators for the UBC Research Data Management Strategy.

Dr Wade Kelly is the Director of Research Excellence and Impact at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Wade works at the nexus of engagement and impact, providing strategic advice to university leadership, faculties, and institutes to embed impact into university culture. He works with research leadership, supervisors and students to embed impact processes and programming across the research spectrum, including the graduate student experience.