The UK DRI is alive and kicking, and we’re progressing every day. Soon we’ll be a family of 250 bright researchers, growing to 700 in the coming years as we welcome new colleagues from around the world.
In the first year of forming our ambitious institute we’ve focussed on recruiting talented people and setting up the best facilities, to get research underway. We’re also strengthening strategic collaborations and fostering exceptional scientific standards.
Delivering research that makes a real impact is part of our organisational DNA and with that in mind we’ve formalised a contractual arrangement with our UK DRI Director Prof Bart De Strooper which enables him to continue to manage a productive research programme at the University of Leuven and oversee its gradual transfer to UK DRI at UCL over the coming years. Throughout, Bart’s leadership of the national UK DRI remains his first priority.
This arrangement is against the backdrop of a wider exciting new collaboration between UCL and the University of Leuven, which will allow both UCL and the UK DRI hub at UCL to share expertise and access state of the art platform technologies.
To complement Bart’s ongoing leadership of UK DRI, we’re pleased to share that our COO Dr Adrian Ivinson has been appointed as UK DRI Director (Operations), Chief Operating Officer. This new structure provides an ideal partnership, with Bart focussing all of his energy on research strategy and overall leadership of the institute, and Adrian taking responsibility for operations including finances, intellectual property, communications and human resources.
Congratulations to Bart and Adrian, and we look forward to the institute continuing to grow and strengthen under your robust leadership, working closely with the Associate Directors across the six host universities.
