https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1319-4636
Dr Clare Devaney is a Senior Researcher and Innovation Lead for GSA Rural Lab. Rural Lab is an interdisciplinary research centre for innovation, enterprise and knowledge exchange, based at the GSA Highlands & Islands campus. Its research portfolio is grounded in rural traditions, communities and contexts, and its work champions and advocates for rural knowledges, approaches and leadership.
Clare's work has been published and disseminated globally, including through book publication (Panonomics, Springer, 2021), as an award-winning entry to The Global Indigo Prize for Economics (LetterOne/The World Bank/Goldman Sachs & JP Morgan, 2017), and through the TED platform (2017 and 2018).
Clare's professional career combines significant industry, policy and academic experience. She has held strategic and innovation leadership roles with the UK Government/ NP11 as Strategic Lead for Place and Culture in the North of England and with the Greater Manchester and Liverpool City-Regions.
Her academic career includes research roles in the UK with the University of Salford and Manchester Metropolitan University, and internationally with NorthEastern University, Sapienza University Rome and the Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria.
She is a member of the UKRI AHRC Peer Review College and UKRI AHRC moderation panels.
PhD 'A Fourth Way: The role of cultural heritage in embedding place-driven innovation'
University of Salford
MA/BA English Literature
St Catharine's College, University of Cambridge
Clare's primary research interest is time and its application in systems design and innovation. Her work explores the interrelationship between place, space and time through multiple perspectives including spatial dynamics, place-driven narratives, and materialist and
Project Lead - "A Golden Thread: Crafting the Creative Economy from Scotland's Highlands, Lowlands and Islands"
UKRI AHRC Doctoral Focal Awards (2026-33)
A distributed national PhD training college and enterprise development programme, delivered in partnership with Open University & SRUC
PhD - Jiaojiao Li
'Visualisation of Knowledge in Traditional Handicrafts'
(Co-Supervisor)
MRes - Kiara Mackenzie
'Investigating the Lineage Connecting Prehistoric Survival Skills to Modern Textile Craft'
(Primary Supervisor)
