I used to spend loads of time in the garden trying to grow various things with very limited success. Rather than letting slugs eat another crop of lettuces, this year I have one bed bursting with raspberry plants, and a second bed growing my first ever pumpkin(s). Getting Halloween prep in early!

I really feel for the civil servants right now (and in recent years), the constant shape-shifting must be exhausting.

Delighted to be able to bring you some fascinating non-football content to your feeds this evening

When is it procrastination, and when is it in fact necessary thinking time? Prepping for a discussion tomorrow, and needing to reflect on my role, my purpose, things I do, can't do, choose not to do, people I engage with, how effective those engagements are... extremely hard things to review.

KEUK Knowledge Exchange Awards are now open for submissions, celebrating both projects and people & teams: * Strategic Partnership * Commercial Impact * Societal Impact * Regional Economy Impact * Policy Engagement Initiative * Institutional KE Team * Sector Collaboration * Advancing KE Culture

Perhaps my Blue Sky identity can be built around my daily coffee? Today's black nectar... #coffee

Beautiful setting for a couple of meetings over coffee at the River House in Stirling this afternoon... Beware of the Crocodiles!

Prompted by a conversation on LinkedIn (cc @annamgrey.bsky.social) this is day 1 of me trying to be a bit more active on blue sky ... let's see how that goes! Photo for the algorithm, but there is no algorithm? I'll need to figure out what makes this tick.

This #GlobalEntrepreneurshipWeek we’re showcasing some of the work of Scotland’s universities in working with industry and driving innovation. Earlier this year every university in Scotland received £5,000 from SFC to support entrepreneurial ambitions. www.sfc.ac.uk/research-inn...

Spend 90 seconds with me in Manchester... I spent the week at the busy IEEC2025 - International Enterprise Educators Conference - hosted by @manmetuni.bsky.social (This video has no sound!) 1/n

Fortuitous timing, but yesterday as UK Gov published their White Paper on immigration, we held a panel discussion "Exploring the landscape for international founders", as part of the Connect-Ed Network www.connect-ed.network 1/n

Day tripping to Aberdeen today for a Connect-Ed meeting on entrepreneurial ecosystems, an international perspective. First leg of the journey is a train to Dundee, a journey I used to do multiple times a week for several years. I'm no longer a regular commuter... I miss it, and I don't miss it!

A short 5 mile walk today, through very bonnie Stirling, gearing up for the Glasgow Kiltwalk on Sunday - raising money for Social Bite to support their mission to end homelessness. Any and all donations welcome! 🙏 www.justgiving.com/page/orla-st...

The numbers here are staggering. Decimate literally means 1 in 10, but this is double that. Hard to rationalise, it'll be devastating for the city. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Go touch some grass! I don't really have time for this today, too much to do... which is all the more reason to get out for a wee half hour round the river. You can't drink from an empty cup, etc etc etc

Season 2 of the Academic Adventures podcast is here! To celebrate #IWD2025 we're delighted to welcome Prof Gillian Fleming from @mintventures.bsky.social for a great convo about supporting women-led businesses and female entrepreneurs. Listen here www.convergechallenge.com/the-academic....

The Scots of this world will be outraged at today's @nytimes.com Spelling Bee. Also, the word gammon is not on the word list 🤷🏻‍♀️ Those are now the only two words I can see.

Off to Dundee today. I used to do this three times per week, and its now £34.80 return on the train 🫠 Grateful for moderately reliable train WiFi so I could join a call, not so keen on finishing that call in a freezing cold Dundee train station. ...

A meeting at Heriot Watt today means a dander along the canal. Preferred mode of transport!

This week, I had an eye-opening few days on the NCEE Entrepreneurial University Leaders programme. Valuable to bring me out of my Scottish KE&I bubble, and engage with a cohort of people working across HE - legal, careers, IT, estates, executive support, plus learning & teaching and research (1/3)

These two headlines, a day apart 🤯 I don't work in transport, I have sympathy that the picture is probably way more complicated than these headlines and articles cover. However! ...

Earlier this week, we held our first in a series of upskilling and networking events for a growing ecosystem of Entrepreneurs in Residence, Commercial Champions, Mentors, and our Enterprise Support colleagues across Scotland (1/n)

Microsoft's muti-factor authentication coupled with Scotlrail's patchy WiFi is a special kind of hell

Walk once a day 👍

Blinded by the sun in today's bitterly cold walk around Stirling Castle. A smidgen of vitamin D!

Today, I'm mostly haunched over my laptop, but made sure to get out to be among some trees for a bit. 100% record of daily walk this year, let's see how long I can keep that up.

9:15 am. First day of work of 2025. Where do you even start?? (With a steaming hot black coffee, of course)

Stirling looking bonny in between the rain showers, but the River Forth is very high

Regular welly check in the Forth. Still good.

Christmas back home complete 💚 glad the travel is over (gale force ferry crossing was something special!)

It was a frantic end to the working year with one funding bid submitted, a conference abstract submitted, and lots of other things being teed up for 2025. Can't necessarily call the festive period 'downtime', just a different kind of busy! Here's to a happy and healthy 2025 🥂

Here for Donny

From the Design Exchange in Buchanan Galleries 🎄

The Old Bridge looking particularly majestic in this weather. The low fog means the Wallace Monument and the Castle are nowhere to be seen #Stirling

Beautiful winter wonderland down by the River Forth this afternoon ❄️

In the spirit of the season, I will reflect on one the successes of the past year. A quiet success, I would say, but something I'm really proud of. In spring 2024, I matched a second cohort of Mentor-Mentees, as part of SKEIM (Scottish Knowledge Exchange & Innovation Mentoring)...

Today's festive(ish) garb.

The National Centre for Universities and Business (NCUB) launched their State of the Relationship report today, an evidenced look at university-business interactions across the UK. See www.ncub.co.uk/insight/stat...

rocking christmas jumper number 2 today. Need to invest in more festive earrings.

My office today. One of the things I particularly like about my role is the hotdesking part, where I can set up shop in various uni campuses across Scotland, find the coffee shops, and mill about with students and researchers. University of Stirling is arguably the prettiest campus of them all.

Too early?? 🎄🎄🎄🎄

My starter packs for folk working in and around research but not actively researching e.g. Funders/Managers/Administrators/Enablers/Adjacent are growing Please shout if you want to be added especially if you are early career and want to make connections go.bsky.app/KAw6Gka go.bsky.app/6tKLB2W

An introductory KE starter pack is here: do ask me to be added to the pack (or removed from it!) and we'll try to build a community of those with interests in, or related to, knowledge exchange, knowledge transfer, technology transfer and KE-mediated research impact. go.bsky.app/8sC4hAL

Unfortunately I'm not at the PraxisAuril / KEUK Knowledge Exchange Awards in Bristol tomorrow because Child 1 has a big birthday. The scene is set! Hope it's a huge success for you all @kematters.bsky.social

Bookending a four hour committee meeting at @heriotwattuni.bsky.social with a walk along the canal and an inevitable wrestle with Scotrail WiFi. Infinitely better than sitting in traffic!

This thread is turning into a useful list of starter packs for those working in #openresearch #academiclibraries #highereducation #scholcomm #scholarlypublishing #researchculture and more. Please share and add to it!

Last night, I was privileged to sit alongside Sarah Skerratt (RSE) and Lynne Cadenhead (Women's Enterprise Scotland) in a panel at the launch of the Bright Red Triangle Collaboration, a new bold partnership between Edinburgh Napier University, Queen Margaret University, and Edinburgh College 👏

Here to fill the gap between professional LinkedIn and family & friends social media. Pic of my cat to set the tone.