was added. Between 2007 and 2009 Rick served as President of Universities UK (UUK), the organisation that represents the heads of all UK Universities. In this role he engaged with the new Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills and latterly, the successor Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, on a wide range of issues including autonomy, funding, research, standards and immigration. He served on the Confederation of British Industries' Higher Education Task Force from 2008–2009. Since becoming Principal of King's in 2004, Trainor has overseen the promotion of the College from 96th to 19th place in the QS World University Rankings (2015/16), making it the 5th ranked UK university. In 2010 King's was named UK Sunday Times University of the Year. According to 2014's Research Excellence Framework (REF), the academic institution rose 15 places since its last assessment in 2008, climbing on grade point average to reach seventh place. Trainor oversaw the College's role in the creation of King's Health Partners in 2009, an academic health science centre, in which King's College London collaborates with Guy's and St Thomas's Hospitals, King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts. He also oversaw the joining King's College London with the Francis Crick Institute in 2011. During Trainor's tenure, in 2009 King's acquired the East Wing of Somerset House, after 180 years of intermittent negotiations between King's and Somerset House Trust. Somerset House East Wing was opened by Her Majesty The Queen in February 2012. Under Trainor's leadership, the College launched King's Cultural Institute, enhancing ties to a number of nearby national cultural institutions. Trainor received the Annual Leadership Award of the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education in June 2011 for his role in the College's fundraising and for alumni relations. Trainor has overseen the establishment of a number of Global Institutes – the Brazil Institute, the Russia Institute, the India Institute and the China Institute – at the College as part of greater focus on internationalisation at King's. These centres of research and study aim to focus on contemporary developments in fast-changing parts of the world. In March 2012 Trainor was invited to join the IPPR Commission on the Future of Higher Education. In May 2012 HEFCE announced it was to undertake a Review of Philanthropic Support for Higher Education throughout the UK and Trainor sat on the review board. In June 2013 Exeter College, Oxford