In Evidence We Trust, 29-30 June

Anastasia Deligkiaouri (PhD) is a policy analyst at Joint Research Centre and in charge of the Learning and Development activities of Unit S2 on ‘Science for Democracy and Public Governance and Administration’. She works as a country desk officer for Cyprus and Ireland (and previously for Greece) on Technical Support Instrument projects (TSI) on the topic of Evidence Informed Policymaking and Capacity Building. She has delivered several seminars and capacity building workshops on Science for Policy and Evidence Informed Policymaking both to scientists and policymakers. Anastasia holds a PhD in Public Law and Political Science and she is an experienced lecturer and researcher. Before joining the JRC, she has worked as an academic and researcher for over 15 years in Greece, UK and Ireland in the area of Political science with emphasis on European studies, Policy analysis, Democracy and Deliberation. Her work is published in academic journals and books.

Dr. Phipps is the administrative lead for all research and innovation programs and their impacts on local and global communities at York University (Toronto, Canada). He has received honours and awards from York University, the Canadian Association of Research Administrators, Society for Research Administration International, Institute for Knowledge Mobilization, International Network of Research Management Societies and the EU based Knowledge Economy Network. He received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for his work in knowledge mobilization and research impact and was named the most influential knowledge mobilizer in Canada. He sits on knowledge mobilization committees around the world and is Network Director for Research Impact Canada.

Hannah Russell is Chief Executive at the British Science Association, a national charity that works with partners across the UK to bring people and science together in ways that drive inclusion, skills and innovation. Hannah originally trained as a science teacher and has over 20 years’ experience across science education and engagement. Alongside her current role, she has worked for Wellcome, the Biochemical Society, and prior to her current role was Chief Executive at the Association for Science Education. As well as their involvement with the Public Attitudes to Science Survey, the British Science Association leads several flagship public engagement programmes, including British Science Week, the British Science Festival, The Ideas Fund and the CREST Awards. They provide the Secretariat for the All-Party Parliamentary Group on diversity and inclusion in STEM and have recently taken on hosting EDIS – a coalition of organisation focused on EDI in Science and Health.

Dr. Jaakko Kuosmanen is the Academy Secretary of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters. His work focuses on building governmental and societal science-for-policy, STI, and foresight capabilities. Jaakko has previously been the Chief Coordinator of Sofi – a national science advice development initiative which led to the establishment of a new science-for-policy platform in Finland. Jaakko holds a PhD in Politics From the University of Edinburgh, and he has worked as a research fellow and lecturer at the Martin School and Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford. He has advised prime minister’s offices on science-for-policy topics on four different continents, and he is a long-time member of the National Foresight Steering Group at the Prime Minister’s Office in Finland. Jaakko also holds an Adjunct Professor position at the University of Helsinki.

James has worked in and around government for nearly 20 years, from Downing Street to leadership roles at the Resolution Foundation, Citizens Advice, and Nesta. He brings experience in organisational transformation and contemporary governance. He is the conveener of Kinship Works, a collective that helps organisations and systems break out of the sticky and often inhuman patterns of bureaucracy to build something more organic. They centre the human stuff, from relationships, to places, to the infrastructure and rituals of a thriving civic life. He is also the author of End State and is currently working on his next book.

David Budtz Pedersen is Professor of Science Communication and Impact Studies at Aalborg University (Denmark) and founding Member of the International Network of Governmental Science Advice European Chapter (INGSA-E). His research focuses on the management, communication and impact of science and technology. He is a regular adviser to the European Commission, the Danish Ministry of Science, and a Member of the Norwegian Research Council. He takes a special interest in open, responsible and collaborative research focused on creating positive impact in society. David is Director of FRONTIER Center for Advanced SSH. He holds degrees from University of Copenhagen and visiting fellowships at University of Vienna, New York University and Kyoto University.

Professor Karen Salt specializes in governance, complex systems and social justice. She is currently Professor of Culture, Place and Communities at Manchester Metropolitan University where she works across the sector to design and embed equitable community/university partnerships. As a sector leader and social scientist, Salt has led large research teams, advised complex interdisciplinary research projects and provided support to universities and organisations interested in institutional change. She spent 5 years in UK Research and Innovation, working closely with the UKRI Board, Executive Chairs, UK ministers and sector leaders – all while strategically managing teams across several critical policy areas, including trusted research and secure innovation. She continues to provide sector leadership as a key advisor focused on transforming the structures that impact marginalised and underserved communities and co-creating more just public services and organisations. Salt is a Trustee of the Williamson Trust, a charity that promotes the health of individuals, through supporting community-led research into healthy environments, healthy communities and healthy foods and sits on the Board of Directors for Brixton House Theatre, a cultural venue in South London with a commitment to empower undervalued and excluded communities through its creative and cultural spaces. For more than 30 years, she has worked closely with executive leaders across government, creative industries, academia and the third sector as a leading voice for change.

Professor Michael Kenny is the Inaugural Head at the Bennett School of Public Policy in Cambridge. He is a visiting Fellow at the UCL Constitution Unit and a member of the advisory board of the Constitution Society. In 2021 he was made a Fellow of the UK’s Academy of the Social Sciences. As well as being a Professor of Public Policy at Cambridge, he is a Professorial Fellow at Fitzwilliam College. His research interests include public policy; governance and devolution; territorial politics; British politics and political ideas. He is currently writing The world island: how Britain’s relationship with the seas has shaped its politics and government, with Nick Pearce, which will examine the policy and ideological implications of shifting conceptions of the UK as a maritime state.

Sam Freedman is a senior fellow at the Institute for Government and writes regularly on politics and policy for the Observer the FT and others. Sam’s Substack newsletter ‘Comment is Freed’ is the most popular in the UK and has over 85,000 subscribers. His first book “Failed State: Why Nothing Works and How to Fix It” was released in July, made the Sunday Times bestseller list and was named an Economist, FT and Daily Telegraph book of the year. Sam is also a senior adviser to the education charity Ark; Vice-Chair of Ambition Institute; and a trustee of the Holocaust Educational Trust.

Susie is a British diplomat focussed on research and innovation. Building on her Foreign Office postings as Deputy High Commissioner in Nairobi and as Consul General in Boston, Susie led the Global R+I team in the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology. Susie is now the first Director of Science Diplomacy at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Vienna. IIASA is a research institution that advances systems analysis and applies its models to identify sustainable policy solutions. This followed a secondment from government to Imperial College London, where she supported strategic engagement in international science policy. Susie is an international board member of UKCEH, a policy fellow at Cambridge IfM’s Babbage Forum, and a continuing fellow at CSAP.

Tracey Brown OBE has been the Director of Sense about Science since 2002. Under her leadership, the charity has turned the case for sound science and evidence into popular campaigns to urge scientific thinking among the public and the people who answer to them. It has launched important initiatives to expand and protect honest discussions of evidence, including AllTrials, a global campaign for the reporting of all clinical trial outcomes; and the Ask for Evidence campaign, which engages the public in requesting evidence for claims. It has challenged opinions and changed the behaviour of governments, media and corporations in the use of scientific evidence. Tracey leads Sense about Science’s work on the transparency of evidence used by governments in policy, to ensure that the public has access to the same evidence and reasoning as decision makers. This has included drafting the Principles for the Treatment of Independent Scientific Advice, which were adopted into the UK Ministerial Code in 2010, the creation of a public interest defence to libel in the Defamation Act 2013 and the Evidence Transparency Framework, used to audit UK government in 2016 and 2017 and adopted by government audit agencies around the world. In 2010, the Times named Tracey as one of the ten most influential figures in science policy in Britain and in 2014 she was recognised by the Science Council for her work on evidence-based policy making. In June 2017 Tracey was made an OBE, for services to science. Tracey has written and edited popular public guides to scientific research and led research on reliability of evidence, including the 2009 Peer Review Survey, the largest global survey of authors, reviewers and editors. Among her recent periodical publications: Goldacre B, Brown T. Fixing flaws in science must be professionalised. J Clin Epidemiol. July 10 2015; and Cossu et al, Lancet Commission: Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine, forthcoming. Tracey is an honorary Professor at UCL in the Department of Science, Technology and Engineering in Public Policy.