Alison McCleery is Professor of Geography and Director of Research at Edinburgh Napier University. She is an AHRC KT Fellow leading a three-year project on Intangible Cultural Heritage in Scotland, the objective of which is to devise and roll out, in partnership with external bodies, a programme for safeguarding and recording Scotland’s living heritage in line with UNESCO best practice. She chairs the Research Training Sub-Committee of Universities Scotland’s Research and Knowledge Exchange Committee, which was responsible for the KE Step Change collaborative culture change pilot delivered across HE in Scotland in 2009. She is particularly interested in cultural outreach as a vehicle for community engagement and is a member of the Edinburgh Beltane HE Beacon for Public Engagement Training Group. She also sits on the Careers in Research Online Survey UK Committee and is a member of the Executive of the Modern Universities Research Group.