Sarah Clarke

Sarah Clarke is the Senior Contracts Manager for the BEAMS School, which incorporates the Bartlett, Engineering and MAPS Faculties.

Sarah took up her position in July 2020, after working as a Contracts Manager in the team across all faculties since 2016. Her team drafts and negotiates contracts for UCL’s world-leading research portfolio. The role of Senior Contracts Manager is new and has been a great opportunity for her to build new ways of working. It has given her the opportunity to liaise with colleagues throughout professional services and the faculties to take a look at how Research Servies can deliver the best service to our colleagues.

Sarah soon hopes to be promoting the new MAPS Faculty open surgery. The team will run this as an ‘open shop’ for any researcher or professional member of staff to come and ask any questions they may have about how Research Services can help you with research contracts, whether ongoing or new.

“"UCL is an incredibly diverse institution working at the cutting edge of research: which means that the team are always pioneering new ideas, and finding innovative solutions that can both protect and benefit UCL and the wider public. I feel that it's a privilege to be able to contribute towards positive societal progress in my own small way every day."

Sarah moved to London from Lancashire after having grown up in Scotland. As a result her accent swings all over the UK regions! She feels that London is a wonderful and diverse city to live in and that its opportunities have been a privilege to explore. She's a South London girl, having lived in New Cross, Forest Hill, Brixton and Crystal Palace, but will grant that north of the river also has its up-sides. She's taken advantage of a huge amount of bookshops and restaurants in Bloomsbury, and feels that the green spaces are a great place to read in, weather permitting.

She misses visiting colleagues on campus and looks forward to a time when we can meet again. In her local area you can usually find her walking around Crystal Palace Park admiring the views and looking out for local animal residents. If you see someone struggling to push a bike up the hill, there’s also a good chance that’s her too.

In terms of her life outside of work, Sarah greatly enjoys museums, and has been learning Japanese for three years:

“"I greatly enjoy the study of languages as an intellectual challenge of itself and as a way to learn about other histories and cultures. Please don’t ask me to translate legal language into Japanese though – that’s far in the future! I really miss the Japan Centre and the British Library, and look forward to revisiting them this year. I recommend the Grant Museum of Zoology to any London visitors as a unique and rare attraction – where else can you see a quagga in Zone One? In South London, the Horniman Museum has to be high on the list of places to spend time, both in the gardens with one of the best views of London and the great museum itself, famous for its overstuffed Victorian walrus!"

You can find out more about Sarah and the work of Research Services on the Research Services website.