Dr Maggy Heintz is Executive Director of UKCDR, the UK Collaborative on Development Research. In her role, she provides high-level engagement, strategic coordination and supports best practice amongst the UK main funders of international development research. Maggy has a background in academic research having conducted research in Earth Sciences (seismology) at the Australian National University and the University of Cambridge. She then joined the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in London as a science attaché, leading on the areas of physical sciences and innovation. In that role, she supported science and technology collaborations between France and the UK and gathered intelligence on UK research strategies and policies to provide advice to the French government and other French stakeholders. She then came back to the higher education sector as research development manager supporting international research and later Head of research and business development at the University of Leicester (UK). In that role she facilitated, managed, and coordinated large scale multidisciplinary research proposals addressing the UN SDGs, working with a range of partners in LMICs. Maggy feels passionately that science, education and communication are key drivers of change to bridge the gaps between countries, empower communities and achieve the SDGs.