Who we are
Sintra Advisory was founded on experience in Canadian federal policy and university administration. The pattern was consistent: research institutions facing compliance requirements they were not built to handle, scrambling to meet obligations that arrived faster than internal capacity could develop.
The gap in the market was clear. Enterprise platforms like Strider target the largest research universities with technology-first solutions and pricing that excludes everyone else. Internal teams are under-resourced, competing with other priorities, and often learning frameworks for the first time. External legal counsel can interpret regulations but cannot implement programs.
Sintra Advisory exists to fill that gap: specialized research security expertise, delivered by practitioners who understand academic operations, at a scale that makes sense for institutions beyond the top tier.
Why Sintra Advisory?
Cross-jurisdictional fluency.
Horizon Europe, STRAC, NSPM-33, and UK requirements under one roof. When consortiums span multiple regulatory regimes, institutions need an advisor who operates in all of them.
Research context.
Sintra Advisory was founded on experience at the intersection of government policy and university operations. The firm understands academic culture, funding cycles, procurement realities, and the competing pressures that research administrators face. Frameworks are built for how institutions actually operate.
Right-sized for the market.
Enterprise platforms price out most institutions. Generalist consultancies lack specialized expertise. Sintra Advisory serves the middle: institutions that need substantive help navigating research security but do not need a six-figure platform subscription to get it.
How Sintra Advisory Helps
Sintra Advisory provides the independent third-party validation that funders increasingly require and institutions cannot produce internally.
The firm works with research institutions at three levels:
Partnership level. Before committing to a collaboration, institutions need to know what they are getting into. Sintra Advisory evaluates partnership risks using intelligence-informed due diligence and provides a clear recommendation with supporting evidence.
Application level. Before submission, institutions need confidence that applications will pass security review. Sintra Advisory ensures security documentation meets funder requirements and that partners do not trigger concerns that derail funding.
Institutional level. Reactive scrambling is not sustainable. Sintra Advisory builds the governance structures, policies, and procedures that enable institutions to manage research security systematically.
