Mark E Smith is President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Southampton. He is Chair of UKRI’s Financial Sustainability of Research Group (FSRG), a sector-wide group of experts who can provide independent, evidence-based advice to UKRI on challenges to financial sustainability. Previously, he chaired the former Financial Sustainability Strategy Group, which published a report in 2019 examining the impact of the cross-flows of university funds on the financial sustainability of the sector.