Dr Geoffrey Neale, RAEng Research Fellow and Lecturer in Multifunctional Composite Structures at Cranfield University, has been selected for the Foundation Future Leaders programme for 2024.
Launched in 2019, the Foundation Future Leaders programme brings together a cohort of around 30 mid-career professionals over the course of a year, with approximately 10 representatives each from the universities and research community, industry, and the civil service and wider public sector.
Over a 12-month period, the group meet with senior figures from government, parliament, universities, large industry, SMEs, research charities and others. The Future Leaders also present their own expertise, develop skills and make connections. The programme includes external visits and an annual conference for a wider group of mid-career future leaders in science, technology, research, and innovation.
Dr Neale commented: “I’m delighted to have been selected to join the Foundation Future Leaders programme for 2024. For me, there is a key benefit in expanding my understanding of the UK’s research and innovation landscape through practical engagement. Developing the right voice and actions to coach government and industry whilst being able to respond to their limitations and priorities will help me become a future leader myself.”
Dr Neale is a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellow and Lecturer in the Composites and Advanced Materials Centre. His RAEng-funded fellowship is titled multifunctional z-direction hybridisation of composites and his wider area of focus is on multifunctional composite structures with a view to achieving multifunctionality in composites via material hybridisation.
