CONSULTANCY & COMMUNICATIONS
Your work is too important to be lost simply because the story wasn’t told properly.
When you have something you can’t afford to get wrong
That’s when you want a safe pair of hands. Someone to take the whole thing on – a programme that needs unsticking, a change that must be delivered, a complex message that has to reach the people who decide – and drive it through to a result. Not advice from the sidelines. Delivery.
Change consultancy · Technical communications · Funding bids
Research Excellence Framework (REF) impact
You’ve got a problem that won’t move. The programme has stalled. The bid that must win this time. The benefits are obvious inside the building but invisible to the people who need to act on them. You don’t need another report telling you what to do. You need someone to take it on and get it done.
That’s what I do: I get to grips with what’s actually going on, and see it through to a result.
I work across nuclear engineering, advanced manufacturing, energy, defence, and higher education. My clients include Russell Group universities, national laboratories, deep tech start-ups, and large multinationals. What they have in common is technically complex work that’s too important to lose to a stalled programme or a case that never quite gets made.
Change Consultancy
Case study: Two years of stalemate, resolved in six months
A supplier consortium working with a UK industry leader hadn’t been able to agree a statement of work in two years. The relationship between client and supplier was completely dysfunctional. Everyone was furious, everyone was sure the other side was the problem. The reality was that the root cause sat on all sides, made worse by a lack of communication – but nobody was looking at their own contribution. I was embedded in the project team for six months.
By the time I left, they had a signed-off statement of work, critical fixes actioned, and an improvement programme in place. It wasn’t perfect – but they had a common baseline and the resources to deliver.
That’s the pattern. The plan exists – a restructure, a new way of working, a culture shift, a strategic pivot – but it’s not happening. The problem was never knowing what to do. It’s getting it done. That’s what organisations bring me in for: not to write another plan, but to see it through.
I embed with client teams to do the translation work. That means stakeholder engagement, strategic communications, and working directly with your people on their actual problems: the bid that isn’t winning, the narrative that needs building, the stakeholder conversation they can’t crack. They get the immediate deliverable, and they learn how to do it better next time. The point is to make your team better at getting across what matters – not to make them dependent on me.
I’ve led company-wide change programmes from the inside – at Element Six and the UK Atomic Energy Authority – and I bring that experience to clients now, whether that’s a stalled supplier programme or a two-person start-up chasing its first £180k of InnovateUK funding.
Technical Communications
A deep tech start-up had a remarkable innovation but kept losing bids because the reviewers couldn’t see the value through the technical detail. I rewrote the narrative. They won £180k of InnovateUK funding on the next submission.
My engineering background means I can take technically complex work and make it connect with the audience you need to reach – funders, regulators, review panels, boards, or the general public. I don’t simplify your work. I make sure the people who need to understand it, do.
Engineers write bids the way they think – method first, meaning last. There is a marking scheme, but it’s a human being deciding how high you score. If they can’t feel why it matters, your data won’t get you above a six.
This includes funding bids, REF impact case studies, strategic documents, academic papers, and digital content. I work with Russell Group universities to translate complex research into evidenced impact narratives for REF submissions. I write InnovateUK bids that win. And I produce strategic documents that move people to action rather than sit in a shared drive.
Case Study: Transforming the REF Impact for a Russell Group University
The problem
A Russell Group university had two long-running research programmes with real industrial traction – one had shaped how a national laboratory approached digital engineering, the other had influenced regulatory practice internationally. Both had genuine, evidenced impact. But none of it was written down in a way that would impress a REF panel.
The academic leads knew the impact was there. But “I know it made a difference” is not the same as documented evidence, mapped to REF impact categories, with attributable quotes from named stakeholders. That’s a different job – and the one they brought me in to do.
At one point the scale became clear: a senior stakeholder described how the research had unstuck a problem that had been stalled for decades, in a field of global significance. The university knew the collaboration had been valuable, but they didn’t know it had been transformational.
The outcome
As a result of my work, the university now has a structured, evidenced impact portfolio across both programmes, built from primary stakeholder testimony and mapped to REF categories. It’s informing their REF submission strategy, supporting academic papers, and shaping further stakeholder engagement. The work is ongoing.
I can’t find impact that isn’t there – but I will find all the impacts that exist, and pull them together in a way that’s undeniable.
If you know your impact is there but can’t yet prove it – to a panel, a funder, or your own people – get in touch.
I also coach mid-career STEM professionals and their managers. If that’s what you’re looking for, visit my coaching page.
Let’s talk
If your work is important but isn’t having the impact it deserves, I can help. Get in touch through the contact form, and we’ll have a no-obligation conversation about what you need – for as long as that takes.
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