Carolyn Downs has a strong track record in competitive grant funding, having secured over £6 million as principal investigator since 2009. Her most recent awards include a Horizon Europe grant of 1.9 million euros (January 2026), on which she serves as UK lead partner. The RDA project investigates research evaluation processes across STEM, Social Sciences and Arts disciplines in a pan-European consortium. In March 2026 she was awarded an AHRC Gambling Harms Research and Innovation Partnership (GHRIP) award; the Grace-Net project she leads brings together a large consortium of NHS, Public Health, Third Sector and academic partners. She is a member of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport College of Experts, advising the UK government on gambling regulation. A Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA), she has successfully supervised PhD students to completion across a range of disciplines, from business history and responsible gambling to social care and enterprise development, and from October 2026 she will lead supervise an ESRC CASE Studentship in her capacity as Visiting Professor at Lancaster University. She also holds a Visiting Professorship at the University of Lodz, Poland. Her research informs policy and practice in areas including gambling regulation, social care workforce development, and community wealth building, and has generated regular contributions to parliamentary select committees and prominent media coverage including BBC Breakfast and Radio 5 Live