Dr Caroline Cantley, Honorary Advisor to SRPe

Dr Caroline Cantley was the inaugural Executive Director of Scottish Research Partnership in Engineering for six years until June 2022. Her focus is on the creation of value for the Scottish economy working closely with industry and the public sector / Scottish Government to drive increased research excellence, socio-economic impact and strategic skills development in areas critical to the future prosperity of Scotland and the UK.

Caroline’s career has spanned both industry and academia, focused on engineering, technology-based business, strategic leadership and research. She provides leadership and strategic direction to the creation of critical mass in engineering in Scotland to help attract investment, leading researchers, industrial engagement, skills development and entrepreneurship and promote Scotland's strengths within the globalised world economy.

Her previous experience covers a broad spectrum of roles across industry and academia including providing technical consultancy services to power and energy clients around the globe, strategic business and research leadership and on project managing ground breaking collaborative multi-national projects such as the University of Glasgow Institute for Gravitational Research programme developing the LIGO gravitational wave detector network in the USA.

Caroline graduated with a first class BSc Honours degree in Physics with Geology in 1987 and a PhD in Experimental Physics from the University of Glasgow in 1991 where she developed vibration isolation and feedback control systems for gravitational wave detectors. She is a Chartered Physicist and currently a Member of the Scottish Science Advisory Council for the Scottish Government.