Executive Committee 2026
Daniela Amadio, Chair
KAUST, Saudi Arabia
Daniela is the Director of Award Services at University College London. Daniela leads a central office that supports all Faculties and academics applying for research grants and negotiate contracts with funders and collaborators. Daniela has experience in grant writing, pre-award support and project management. She is getting more interested in compliance issues and internationalisation of research nowadays.
Daniela has been an active member of NCURA since joining in 2019.
Tine Heylen, Immediate Past Chair
KU Leuven, Belgium
Tine is a Senior Advisor for European, US and other international Research Funding. Since 2009 she is involved in both pre and post award management of research grants. Her focus is compliance, legal, financial and administrative management.
She first became an NCURA member in 2015.
Connie Killey, Chair Elect
University of Melbourne, Australia
Previously the Director of Research Finance at Monash University, and Deakin University, Connie is currently the Director, Research Finance the University of Melbourne.
Connie is a Fellow of The Australasian Research Management Society (ARMS) and is driven to enhancing the financial literacy for researchers and non-finance administrators to facilitate decision making.
Connie has an MBA (Public Sector Management) and is a Member of the Institute of Public Accountants.
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Ellen Thompson, Treasurer
LEES Accountants, UK
Ellen is a Senior Grant Audit Manager at LEES Accountants, in Norwich, UK, where she co-manages their dedicated grant audit department. They audit approximately 750 projects per annum, covering funders such as US federal, H2020, and InnovateUK (among others). Ellen is a Chartered Accountant, and an alumni of both the University of Stirling, Scotland, and University of Massachusetts, Amherst, US. As well as being Treasurer-Elect for NCURA Region VIII, she is also the co-champion of the ARMA Audit & Compliance Special Interest Group.
Declan McGrath, Treasurer Elect
University of Galway, Ireland
Declan is the Director of Research Accounts at the University of Galway, where he leads research finance oversight across predominantly post-award compliance and financial governance for a broad portfolio of national and EU-funded research. A Chartered Accountant by background, he works closely with academic leaders, central finance, and external funders to support sustainable and well-governed research activity.
Patricia Gigliuto, Secretary
University of Melbourne, Australia
Patricia (Trish) is Manager of the International Grants team at the University of Melbourne in Australia. With a focus on pre-award, she is passionate about promoting best practice for international research collaboration and grants administration. Trish has been an active member of NCURA since 2023.
Advisory Committee
Luigi Pellegrino,At Large Member
Bocconi University, Italy
Luigi is the Head, Research Area at Bocconi University, Italy. Luigi focusing on the University research policies, the research support services and research evaluation. In the past he has been in charge of Pre-Award including the relationships with donor institutions, Post-Award management of the Research Centers’ staff and also of the relationships with the European Union.
Luigi has been involved with NCURA since 2019.
The University of New South Wales, Australia
Elly Pineda is the Business Manager for the ARC Research Hub for Connected Sensors for Health at UNSW. She is an experienced professional in managing research grants portfolios. Her expertise lies in pre- and post-award management and developing operational plans for research centers from a central office to department level.
Elly is an active member and contributor to NCURA Region VIII since 2019.
Alan Yee, At Large Member
Tohoku University, Japan
Alan is the Program Coordinator at the WPI – Advanced Institute for Marine Ecosystem Change (AIMEC), at Tohoku University. Focused on pre-award services, grant management, and scientific event planning to enable discussions between researchers. Alan has been an active member of NCURA since 2025.
Mordecai Tayebwa, At Large Member
Makerere University, Uganda