Team

Professor Joanna Chataway
Principal Investigator
Jo has been the Head of Department at STEaPP since 2018; prior to this, she held roles at the University of Sussex, The Open University and RAND Europe. With a background in policy research and evidence for policy, science and technology policy, international development, health research and innovation policy and capacity building, Jo leads and have oversight of the International Public Policy Observatory.

Professor Sir Geoff Mulgan
Engagement Lead, Co-Investigator
Formerly the Chief Executive at Nesta for eight years. Prior to this, Geoff worked in the UK Government including as Director of the Government Strategy Unit and Head of Policy in the Prime Minister’s Office. Geoff leads on engagement with demand, brokering and effective communication.

Professor David Gough
Evidence Lead, Co-Investigator
David is a Professor of Evidence Informed Policy and Practice and Director of EPPI-Centre at the Institute of Education where he has worked since 2004. David and his team are responsible for the overall management of the production of evidence products, including a living systematic map of the evidence: In response to the COVID-19 crisis, the EPPI-Centre is maintaining an up-to-date map of the current evidence, partitioned into broad domains for easy exploration.

Ayden Wilson
Operations Manager
Ayden is responsible for the oversight of operations and coordinating activities and meetings. Ayden has worked in the higher education sector for 8 years, and most recently was Department Manager at the Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy in UCL.

Sarah O’Meara
Editor
Responsible for commissioning, editing, posting and sharing all content on the IPPO website, as well as liaising with IPPO’s global evidence partners to oversee communication of their global evidence scans. Sarah is employed by IPPO partner The Conversation to ensure the research needs of policymakers are communicated in a clear and engaging way that can be easily translated into actions.

Dr Rachel France
Research Fellow
Rachel provides support for IPPO evidence products, in particular helping topic experts to produce evidence briefs and systematic reviews. She gained systematic review experience working on NICE guidelines as well as experience as a qualitative researcher and ethnographer mostly in health and related fields.

Katrina Rattu
Policy Advisor
Katrina is responsible for coordinating policy engagement across the project with an emphasis on engaging with Westminster and local authorities across the U.K. and beyond. Katrina is interested in bridging the gap between knowledge brokering and policy stakeholders to help improve the usage of research in policy as well as embedding Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) initiatives across the broader knowledge exchange landscape. She has previously worked in London Boroughs and County Councils as well as successfully completing the Local Government Associations (LGAs) National Graduate Development Programme.

Matt Warren
Co-Investigator
Matt is the managing director of The Conversation UK’s services arm. Prior to that, he was The Conversation’s Deputy Editor and a Daily Mail features editor. Matt has oversight of the Editorial Project Manager, and helps to support IPPO’s communication work through The Conversation UK.

Dr Carla-Leanne Washbourne
Co-Investigator
Carla is an Associate Professor in the Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy (STEaPP), UCL and a Research Associate at the Gauteng City-Region Observatory. She is an inter- and transdisciplinary researcher, with interests anchored in sustainable urban systems. Her work with IPPO focuses on city-level policies for COVID-19 and the role of observatories at the science-policy interface.

Professor Chris Taylor
Policy Engagement Lead for Wales
Chris is Professor of Social Sciences at Cardiff University and is the Academic Director of the Cardiff University Social Science Research Park (SPARK). Prior to this he was a Co-Director of the Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research, Data & Methods (WISERD) where he continues to lead the WISERD Education Data Lab.

Muiris MacCarthaigh
Policy Engagement Lead for Northern Ireland
Muiris is Senior Lecturer in Politics and Public Administration at Queen’s University Belfast and the IPPO lead for Northern Ireland. His research engages with a variety of themes within and between political science, public sector governance and public policy. He is a member of the Steering Committee of the European Group for Public Administration, and Director of the QUB MSc in International Public Policy.

Professor Graeme Roy
Policy Engagement Lead for Scotland
Graeme is the Dean of External Engagement in the College of Social Sciences. He is working with local stakeholders – including from other universities – to ensure that the distinctive nature of devolution in Scotland, and the policy challenges and opportunities, are reflected in the work of IPPO. As a former Senior Civil Servant he understands the benefits (but also the challenges) of developing policy, particularly in uncertain and challenging times.

Toby Phillips
Blavatnik School of Government
Toby manages the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker – a team of around a dozen staff and hundreds of volunteers reporting how governments around the world are responding to the pandemic.

Dr Thomas Hale
Blavatnik School of Government
Dr Thomas Hale’s research explores how we can manage transnational problems effectively and fairly. He seeks to explain how political institutions evolve–or not–to face the challenges raised by globalization and interdependence, with a particular emphasis on environmental, economic, and health issues. He holds a PhD in Politics from Princeton University, a masters degree in Global Politics from the London School of Economics, and an AB in public policy from Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs. Dr Hale leads the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker.

Tatjana Buklijas
INGSA
Tatjana Buklijas leads the collaboration between International Network for Government Science and Advice and IPPO, identifying international policy solutions to social problems caused by the pandemic. Tatjana’s background is in social studies, history and philosophy of biomedicine, and she’s Associate Director of Koi Tū: The Centre for Informed Futures and Senior Lecturer in Global Studies at The University of Auckland, New Zealand.
Advisory Board

Alan Penn
Alan is Chief Scientific Advisor to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Halima Khan
Halima is an Affiliated Researcher at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, Cambridge.

Sean Holland
Seán is the Chief Social Work Officer/Deputy Secretary over Social Services Policy Group in the Department of Health in Northern Ireland.

Nicola McEwen
Nicola McEwen is Professor of Territorial Politics and Co-Director of the Centre on Constitutional Change.

Annie Gunner Logan
Annie Gunner Logan is the Chief Executive of Coalition of Care & support Providers in Scotland.

Steve Martin
Steve is the Director of the Wales Centre for Public Policy and a Professor of Public Policy and Management at Cardiff Business School.

Anand Menon
Anand Menon is Professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs at Kings College London.

Matthew Flinders
Matthew Flinders is Founding Director of the Sir Bernard Crick Centre and Professor of Politics at the University of Sheffield. He is also Vice President of the Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom and Chair of the Universities Policy Engagement Network.

Kathryn Higgins
Kathryn Higgins is a Professor of Social Science and Health and Director of the Centre for Evidence and Social Innovation (CESI) at Queen’s University Belfast.