Billy Bryan (he/him) is an evaluation and research leader at RAND Europe. He has six years of experience in monitoring and evaluation with specific focuses on science, technology, and innovation policy, green innovation, space technology, research and innovation (R&I) and business support for COVID-19 and international development.
He is an experienced study manager having led and worked on over 60 evaluations for UKRI (across councils), BEIS, UKSA, FCDO, UK national academies, Wellcome, and the European Commission. Bryan is an expert in theory-based evaluation, particularly contribution analysis and process tracing and delivering evaluation training to BEIS analysts. He has led large evaluations of public investments including of the Nuclear Innovation Programme (BEIS), Impact evaluation of UKRI’s R&I response to COVID-19, and UKSA’s Centre for Earth Observation Instrumentation (CEOI) programmes.
Bryan has particular expertise in applying theory-based evaluation in complex multi-phase evaluations. He completed his Ph.D. in medical education at Sheffield Medical School. He is a Trustee at Sussex Students’ Union, an advisory board member of the Cardiovascular Research Trust and sits on the Evaluation and Trial Advice Panel (ETAP).
Selected Publications
Kay Guccione and Billy Bryan, "Worth doing but not worth having? The influence of personal aspirations and career expectations on the value of a doctorate," Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education, 14(1), 2023
Billy Bryan and Kay Guccione, "Was it worth it? A qualitative exploration into graduate perceptions of doctoral value," Higher Education Research & Development, 37(6), 2018
Anete Vingre, Peter Kolarz and Billy Bryan, "On your marks, get set, fund! Rapid responses to the COVID-19 pandemic," fteval Journal for Research and Technology Policy Evaluation, 53, 2022
Peter Kolarz, Erik Arnold, Billy Bryan, Julie D’hont, Andrej Horvath, Paul Simmonds, Peter Varnai, Anete Vingre, Process review of UKRI's research and innovation response to COVID-19 Final report Process review of UKRI's research and innovation response to COVID-19 Final report, UKRI, 2021
Julian Barr, Billy Bryan, Peter Kolarz, Xavier Potau, Mel Punton,Paul Simmonds, and Isabel Vogel, GCRF Evaluation Foundation Stage Final Report, BEIS, 2018