Plenary Speakers
Professor Karen Salt
Professor of Culture, Place and Communities
Manchester Metropolitan University
Professor Salt specializes in collective governance, systems transformation and sustainable change. At Manchester Metropolitan University, she works across faculties to harness the power of place-based research and embed equitable community/university partnerships.
As a sector leader and social scientist, Salt has led large research teams, overseen large research clusters, advised complex interdisciplinary research projects and provided support to universities and organisations interested in institutional change. Nearly all of her current and past projects involve a mix of community-embedded or community-led research teams and embody her commitment to re-imagining who can engage in research and contribute to knowledge-production. This same approach can be seen in her consultation and advisory roles where she has proven herself an adept ‘critical friend’ and rigorous methodological thinker in her work with a range of organisations, agencies and public bodies.
Salt is a former member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Advisory Board, a former member of the Economic and Social Research Council’s Peer Review College, a former member of the GCRF Peer Review College and an active reviewer for such funders and publishers as the European Research Council, Leverhulme Trust and Cambridge University Press. An interdisciplinary specialist, she has been funded by AHRC, Arts Council England, ESRC and EPSRC.
She has just completed five years of senior policymaking and strategic leadership within UKRI, covering such complex themes as open research, research culture, research integrity, inclusion and Trusted Research and Innovation.
With over 30 years of experience in community development, inclusive policy-making and novel solutions, Salt continues to work closely with leaders across Government, academia, civil society and industry and contributes to numerous international initiatives focused on empowering communities.
Steven Hill
Director of Research
Research England
Steven was formerly Head of Research Policy at the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and leads on all aspects of research policy and funding.
Steven is responsible for research funding, including quality-related funding (QR), general capital funding and the UK Research Partnership Investment Fund (UKRPIF). He also leads Research England’s research assessment and policy work, and is the chair of the steering group for the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF). Policy responsibilities include research integrity, public engagement and open research, and Steven contributes to debates and discussions at home and overseas on the enhancement and assessment of research impact. His team also includes Research England’s analysis function.
Marion Thain
Director & Professor of Culture and Technology
Edinburgh Futures Institute & University of Edinburgh
Professor Thain is Director of the Edinburgh Futures Institute, and Professor of Culture and Technology at the University of Edinburgh.
She began her career as a Junior Research Fellow at Cambridge, and then worked in English departments at Russell Group universities, before moving to New York University (NYU) as a professor of Arts and Literature in the school of the interdisciplinary global liberal arts, and as Director of Digital Humanities for NYU.
She returned to the UK in 2018 as Professor of Culture and Technology and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at King’s College London. She publishes primarily on the relationship between culture and technology, and has most developed the new multidisciplinary field of ‘Attention Studies’.