Dr Karl K. Jeffries is a design lecturer and researcher at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan). For the past decade, he has been the Course Director for UCLan’s master's distance learning programme in creative thinking. His work draws together research from the psychological sciences and arts & design sectors, with a specialist focus on testing the relationship between competencies and creativity. He was the first researcher to publish a systematic review of the Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT) in relation to design research and to resolve issues of CAT reliability as a measure of graphic design creativity. His interest in creativity research began over twenty years ago as a means to inform creative training for design professionals, postgraduate, undergraduate, and tertiary design education. This lead to the development of ‘Creativity Diagnostic’ software to accommodate the challenges of mass higher education at the time, and new research methodologies with which to explore the relationship between skills and creativity within the audiovisual and games design industry. Dr Jeffries’ current focus is to help harmonise international protocols for the use of expert assessments in creativity research.