Overall responsibility for the strategic direction and delivery of CREW's activities. Rachel provides strategic advice, oversight and direction, and to make reccomendations to ensure that CREW meets its primary aims.

Rachel Helliwell is the Director of the Centre of Expertise for Waters (CREW) and the Hydro Nation International Centre, James Hutton Institute, Scotland. CREW delivers at the water policy: research interface, involving co-construction of knowledge between academics and the water stakeholder community of policy, industry and practitioners.

Rachel brings many qualities to this role and has extensive experience of delivering policy relevant and strategic research. She is an established catchment scientist and prior to taking on the role as CREW manager, she worked to improve knowledge of catchment biogeochemical processes and hydrological cycles affecting the interactions between landscapes, their management and the resulting impacts on water quality and quantity.

More recently Rachel has worked with the Scottish Government to establish and implement Hydro Nation International. In this role she engaged at a senior level with key policy, regulatory and industry figures and developed and coordinated projects in India and Malawi as part of the Scottish Government’s commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals.