Rob Hope

Director, Water Security Initiative, School of Geography and the Environment

Director of the Water Programme, Smith School for Enterprise and the Environment

Member of the Oxford Water Network

Member of the Environment Research Doctoral Training Partnership

A key part of Professor Hope’s work has been to develop and maintain science-practitioner partnerships involving governments, social enterprises, private sector and academia, to deliver social and environmental impacts from the research. Over the last 15 years, he has led research which has informed the institutional and financial architecture for results-based contracts in the rural water context. This is guiding wider sector change and investments in collaboration with development banks, bilateral donors and governments. One example is his collaboration with Uptime Global, which has designed and executed results-based contracts to provide safe water to over 5 million rural people in 16 countries in 2024.