Craighead Kellas SAAR Joins ASTRID Framework
Craighead Kellas is pleased to announce that it has been accepted onto the UK’s Analysis for Science & Technology Research in Defence (ASTRID) framework. This reinforces the company’s position as a trusted partner in strategic and applied research for defence and security decision-making.
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About ASTRID
Managed by BAE Systems Digital Intelligence, ASTRID provides the British Government with access to a broad supply chain of specialist providers, ensuring world-class analytical expertise. The framework supports the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) and other government departments with high-quality decision support, guiding critical policies, strategies, and investments. ASTRID facilitates:
Strategy, policy, and enterprise-level decision support – providing robust, evidence-based insights to inform long-term defence and security planning.
Capability and investment decision support – ensuring that defence programmes and procurement decisions align with evolving threats and operational needs.
For more information about ASTRID:
About Craighead Kellas SAAR
Craighead Kellas specialises in strategic and applied research (SAAR): intelligence defined, optimised for service, and grounded in time-tested practice areas. The company provides its services worldwide on an outsourced Research-as-a-Service (RaaS) basis. Clients benefit from proven, reliable research capabilities, organised to their specific needs. Craighead Kellas is known for operating discreetly and efficiently, ensuring independent, high-quality research output that supports complex decision-making.
Capabilities and key contacts
Services are founder-led. For more complex or technical project implementation, Craighead Kellas ensures value for money by drawing on a small, vetted roster of trusted specialists and partners, and an extensive network of connections and resources in the research community. Mike Innes and Dan Davies lead the company.
Dr. Michael A. Innes – Founder / Managing Director. Mike leads on the design and delivery of client services. Based in Dubai, he divides his time between the UAE, the UK, and assignments elsewhere. He has over 20 years’ experience in evidence-led defence, legal, policy, and risk research, specialising in emerging technologies, rule of law, illicit economies, and geopolitics, defence, and security matters. He served as a civilian official at NATO and the United Nations, and briefly as a soldier. Academically trained as an historian and political scientist, he earned his PhD from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies and read law at Birkbeck.
Dan Davies – Director Business Development. Dan leads on all business development matters, helping clients identify business needs and proposing effective solutions. Based in the UK, he has almost 15 years’ experience supporting UK Defence-funded projects, specialising in technology development and testing (especially unmanned systems), use case design, commercial exploitation, innovation strategy, and government engagement. His background in anthropology and defence markets enables him to connect research with practical policy and operational needs. He is currently working on a PhD in anthropology at the University of St. Andrews.
Craighead Kellas looks forward to applying its expertise to the most pressing challenges in defence and security through the ASTRID framework, expanding its support to the UK’s defence and security community, and contributing to the development of future-ready strategies and policies.
Find Out More
Craighead Kellas has launched an awareness campaign, “Exploration and Discovery”, to showcase the company’s commitment to excellence in research and innovation. We’ve selected and displayed on our website historical images that reflect a quintessentially British sense of adventure and experience of the world, and the historical connections between our two bases, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates.
For more information, visit our website:
For business development and collaboration opportunities, please contact us directly.
Email: enquiries@craigheadkellas.com
Phone (UK): +44 (0)207 100 9280
Phone (UAE): +971 (0)4 439 6305
[date of publication: 13 February 2025]