A dedicated development professional with over 19 years experience in regional and strategic planning & development, I have a proven track record in identifying, developing and converting opportunities for regional development solutions into funded implementable projects. I have designed, developed and won competitive EU funding for over 25 research & development projects across multiple funding programmes and subject areas throughout my career, channeling funding of over €10 million to projects in South West Ireland alone. I've worked in international partnerships with more than 160 partners across 22 countries to win over €63 million in EU funding on more than 25 projects across a variety of funding programmes including H2020, CIFP, FP7 KICs, EMFF and various European Territorial Cooperation programmes. As well as managing the design & implementation of European projects, I designed and implemented an EU engagement strategy for Cork City Council winning over €2 million in competitive EU funding for the city over 2 years and directly creating 4 FTE jobs. I am an experienced strategic thinker and worked as regional planning officer for the South West Regional Authority & as a member of the technical team in the creation of the South West Regional Planning Guidelines 2010. I hold a part time Senior Research Fellow position at the Cork Institute of Technology and I am CEO & Founder of Ascent Creative Consulting (www.ascentgrants.com) specialising in grant preparation, management & evaluation services for urban & regional development projects. I am an experienced evaluator with the European Commission. Presently, I am lead expert for the Urbact Resourceful Cities Action Planning Network, designing and facilitating transnational exchange and learning between 10 European cities. The network is focussing on enabling cities to transition to a citizen centred circular economy facilitated through the development of tailor made Urban Resource Centres.