Ralph Throp

Ralph is responsible for developing the Scottish Government’s approach to community resilience to emergencies (find out more at Readyscotland.org). He has worked on behalf of the Government on numerous emergency responses. Ralph and his family experienced the 2007 Oxfordshire floods and their aftermath first hand, when his parents’ home was flooded, despite valiant efforts by neighbours, helping each other fight the rising waters.

Before moving into resilience, his professional background was in research, planning and housing policy, and he moved to Edinburgh to take up his current job after 10 years working with communities in the Scottish Highlands and Islands. He is originally a development planner by trade, and has worked at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh, with a focus on international policy and planning in general and Chinese development in particular. He moved on to Scotland’s regeneration agencies, Scottish Homes and Communities Scotland, where he helped develop more community-led ways of doing research and analysis, including setting up the Scottish Community Action Research Fund, and worked on housing policy and planning.