David Sweeney

Biography 

After studying Statistics at the University of Aberdeen, David worked at two BBSRC research institutes, as a consultant statistician. David was a Director at Royal Holloway, University of London, before moving into university leadership as Vice-Principal in 2004. He joined HEFCE in 2008 as Director and led the development and implementation of the first Research Excellence Framework. He was responsible for research policy and funding, knowledge exchange and university/business relations. In May 2017 he was appointed the first Executive Chair of Research England which is one of the nine research councils that forms UK Research and Innovation. Research England is biggest research funder in the UK with responsibility for university block-grant funding for research and knowledge exchange. David was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Aberdeen in 2012, was Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Newcastle, NSW in 2015 and is a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society.