People

Richard Tomlin

Richard’s work has centred on the management of research within higher education institutions. He has been involved in the field for over 20 years as practitioner, commentator, policy advisor, teacher, and entrepreneur. He qualified professionally as a Chartered Company Secretary (ACIS) in 1975 and was awarded the MBA degree in 1984.

As Director of Research Services at Newcastle University, he created and led the first fully integrated unit delivering administrative support to all aspects of a UK university’s research activities. This included:

• policy work on linking resource allocation to assessments of performance, and strategic positioning of the university as a research institution
• identifying research opportunities, supporting applications and negotiating contracts
• financial management of the university’s portfolio of external research grants and contracts
• dealing with intellectual property and the transfer and commercialisation of research results.

His innovative approach to these tasks was influential in the evolution of the UK’s Research Assessment Exercise. It also resulted in the development of the REFUND information system, later acquired by COS where Richard is still involved as a consultant, and the RACE costing system which has been successfully commercialised by STCS Ltd.

A number of commercial ventures in which he was involved at a formative stage have gone on to achieve substantial returns for the individuals concerned and for the University, including Arjuna, Novocastra Laboratories and Seabait, making Newcastle one of the UK's most successful universities in generating new businesses.

Beyond his university responsibilities Richard has been active in consultancy and development projects, lecturing, and with professional societies. He was a founding member of the board of AURIL in the UK, served on the International Committee of SRA in the USA, and was instrumental in the founding of RAGnet, the predecessor of ARMA. Bluebell Research carried out the strategy review that led to the creation of ARMA.

His lecturing and consulting work has taken him to nearly every European country, across North America, and to Australia - where Richard was invited to give a keynote address at the inaugural meeting of ARMS, the Australasian counterpart of ARMA - and South East Asia, where he maintains a close association with universities in Indonesia.

He is best known in Europe for his contributions to the design of the legal, financial and management aspects of successive EU Framework Programmes. His lecturing on EU matters has earned a reputation for bringing clarity to often opaque issues, and his wide knowledge has been called on by many EU projects.

Richard retired from Newcastle University in 2002 and now works through his own company, Bluebell Research Ltd.

Having started out in life as an actor and been a semi-professional singer for 20 years, Richard’s current passion is tall ships, where he now sails as Watchleader and Bosun’s Mate at every possible opportunity.