Robert is deeply embedded in international conference culture and has presented his work at over fifty conferences across Europe and in the USA—including many by invitation. He holds leadership roles on several scientific committees for conferences in the UK, Netherlands, Italy, the Czech Republic and Austria as well as being the conference chair for the Biennial International Conference on Baroque Music (held in Canterbury in 2016), hosting over 200 scholars from around the world. Robert invited to act as guest editor of Early Music for a special volume on Bohemia and Moravia (the first such volume in its 50 year history), and was also interviewed on Czech Radio on the popularity of Janáček’s operas in the UK and was invited to speak at the Proms (BBC Radio 3) to discuss the latter’s The Makropulos Affair. He was also the main speaking guest on The Early Music Show (BBC Radio 3) for a programme about J. C. Pepusch, in which several of his own recordings were also featured. An indicator of esteem, he was one of a just few dozen scholars invited to contribute to the 50th anniversary volumes of Early Music in 2023.
Other external engagements include: reviewer of research projects for the Narodowe Centrum Nauki [National Science Centre], Poland; American Philosophical Association, reviewer of proposals for the Franklin Research Grant (2015– present); External department reviewer (one of two), Department of Music, Liverpool Hope University (2013). Reviewer of Junior Research Fellowship applications, Churchill College, Cambridge University (2014); Regular peer-reviewer for articles considered by Early Music (OUP), Eighteenth-Century Music (CUP) and manuscripts for Brepols (Belgium); External PhD examining at the Royal College of Music, University of Cambridge and Trinity-Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.