Dr Femi Owolade is a research associate in the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research (CRESR). He has expertise in equality and diversity interventions, specifically in the higher education sector. His research interests centre on institutional change, equity in education, civic universities and colonial history. He is currently working across two workstreams of the Research England funded National Civic Impact Accelerator (NCIA) project, analysing evidence of ‘what works’ in terms of civic impact, and observing and reflecting on an action learning process involving cohorts of university leaders.