Fractional Head of R&D

A head of R&D for the part of the year you need one.

Research leadership on a monthly retainer: specification reviews, a verdict gate on every major step, execution of the analysis pipeline, and decisions documented as you go.

From €6,000 / monthMonth to month, 30 days' noticeTwo clients at a time, at mostRemote

Who it is for

  • Startups and SMEs with an engineering team and no research lead, where technical decisions are being made without one.
  • Teams between a first prototype and a product, with open questions that are physics, modelling or data rather than engineering.
  • Companies running a grant-funded R&D programme who need the technical work packages led and reported.
  • Clients of a Feasibility Sprint who want the next experiments run and gated by the person who wrote the verdict.

Who it is not for

  • A replacement for a full-time CTO on a shipping software product.
  • Teams that need someone on site every week. I work remotely, with written deliverables and a weekly call.
  • Companies that want a yes. The gate sends work back when it does not hold.
What you receive each month

A research lead, with the paper trail.

  1. Specification and design reviews

    Every technical specification, test plan and model reviewed before it is built or run.

  2. The verdict gate

    Major steps are approved or sent back in writing, with the reason. The decisions log is yours.

  3. Analysis pipeline

    Literature, calculations, simulations and data analysis run by my agents and verified by me, delivered with the scripts.

  4. Weekly call, monthly written status

    One call a week with your team; a written status each month that a board or an investor can read.

  5. Tools and compute at cost

    Simulation licences, cloud compute and specialist sub-tasks are passed through at cost, with your approval first.

Price and terms

From €6,000 a month.

The fine print, up front

  • €6,000 a month for the equivalent of one day a week; €10,000 for two. Hours are logged and reported.
  • Month to month, invoiced at the start of the month, 30 days' notice either way.
  • A Feasibility Sprint fee is credited against the first month if the retainer starts within 30 days of the report.
  • I take two retainer clients at a time at most, so each one gets a physicist rather than a queue.
  • Your IP stays yours. Decisions, reports and scripts produced for you are yours; my background tools are licensed, not assigned.
  • If you stop, nothing breaks: everything lives in your repositories and your documents.
Add-ons

Two things clients ask for alongside the retainer.

Grant and proposal support · per funding call

Technical sections, work packages and feasibility arguments for research and innovation funding applications, with the science checked by someone who has done the research. For programmes that interview applicants on the technology, such as the EIC Accelerator, I prepare the team for the technology expert's questions. I do not write the business sections, and I do not evaluate for programmes I prepare applicants for.

Tailored technical training · custom

Courses built around a team's exact instruments, devices and questions, delivered on site or remotely. The most recent example is a five-day Keysight B1500A and EasyEXPERT course for a university measurement team in Kuwait, built around their own analyzer and their diodes, bipolar transistors and MOSFETs.

University · Kuwait

A measurement team trained on its own analyzer in five days.

  • On-site course on the Keysight B1500A semiconductor parameter analyzer and EasyEXPERT, five days of four hours.
  • Built around the team's own instrument and devices: diodes, bipolar transistors and MOSFETs.
  • Delivered in person in Kuwait in autumn 2026, with course material the team keeps.

Delivered Tailored training is available as an add-on.

Confidential · Applied AI, medical

A medical question-answering system grounded in the client's own documents.

  • Retrieval-augmented language model built on MedGemma, Google's open medical model family.
  • Answers are generated from passages retrieved in the client's document set rather than from the model's memory alone.
  • Delivered as a working pipeline with its code, so the client can run and extend it.

Delivered Client available as a reference on request.

Questions

Retainer questions.

How many days a month do I get?

The base retainer is the equivalent of one day a week, spread as the work needs it. Two days a week is the next tier. Hours are logged and reported monthly.

Can you manage our engineers?

I lead the research questions, review specifications and gate decisions. Line management, hiring and the shipping of a software product belong to a CTO, and I say so if that is what you need.

Why only two retainer clients at a time?

Because the value of the retainer is that a physicist, not a queue, is looking at your problem. Two is the number at which every client still gets that.

Can you help with our grant application?

Yes, as an add-on priced per funding call: technical sections, work packages, feasibility arguments and the preparation of the technical interview where the programme has one. I do not write the business sections, and I do not act as an evaluator for programmes I prepare applicants for.

Start with one question.

Send a short description of the technology and the decision it informs. I reply personally, usually within one working day, and a first call is twenty minutes with no commitment on either side.