Core Team

Candy Rowe

My background is in animal behaviour research, and I lead a group working to better understand the psychology and behaviour of humans and other animals here at Newcastle University. However, I call myself a ‘part-time researcher’, as for the last 10 years or so, I’ve spent two or more days a week in a series of leadership roles - as an EDI Director for my faculty, the Director of our university’s fellowship scheme (NUAcT) and now as Dean for Research Culture & Strategy. These roles reflect my passion for creating inclusive and energising cultures and environments for people to work, grow and thrive. This project is exactly how I like to spend my time, and it’s great that I can bring my experiences and expertise from my research and my research enabling roles to share with the project and the team.  

I have lots of roles in the project - that’s one of the great things I love about it! I am ‘reporting CoI’, which means that I take accountability for the delivery of the project, and have oversight of the running of the project. In this capacity, I work particularly closely with Marta and Katie, as well as the rest of the team, reporting directly to Chris who can’t dedicate sufficient time as VC to this kind of work. I’m also co-leading one of the work packages with Chris. Together, we use our roles and influence to be champions and visible advocates for the project, both inside and outside the project. It’s also our job to listen to the project, learn from it and think how we can bring about change across the sector. I’m also a researcher in the project. I’m a member of the Participatory Action Research group, and I’m here to share my experiences of being a research leader and being led to help shape the changes we want to make. The best thing is that I have the opportunity to hear new perspectives, be challenged by them, and think in whole new ways with some truly amazing colleagues.