Mr. Blake Ashwell is the Director of University Sponsored Research at Khalifa University responsible for all internally funded research programs. He has spent the past 18 years in research management initially for a short spell in UK local government and then at three different universities in three different countries.
He started his university career at Bournemouth University (UK) within the School of Services Management in pre-award supporting faculty research proposals before moving to King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia where he was a founding member of the Office of Research Services. Blake then moved to become Research Center Manager for the KAUST Catalysis Center which at the time was the largest research center by size and funding in KAUST. After 5 years at KAUST Blake relocated to Abu Dhabi to establish the Sponsored Research Office at The Petroleum Institute as its founding Director. During the merger of The Petroleum Institute, Masdar Institute and KUSTAR to form Khalifa University in 2017 Blake moved to focus on the universities internal funding agency as the Director of University Sponsored Research as well as Secretary of the University Research Council.
Mr. Ashwell holds a MSc. in Management & Marketing as well as a BA (Hons) in International Hospitality Management, both from Bournemouth University in the UK.
