Royal Academy of Engineering appoints new Head of Engineering Policy

The Royal Academy of Engineering is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Shabana Haque OBE as Head of Engineering Policy to help enhance government’s access to expert engineering policy advice.

Dr Haque will be collaborating closely with the Academy’s Fellows and the wider engineering profession through the newly established National Engineering Policy Centre, an ambitious partnership between the 38 professional engineering organisations in the UK, to raise the visibility and impact of engineering on public policy.

Dr Haque will join the Academy in June 2019 from the Government Office for Science, where she has been working with the Government Chief Scientific Adviser and departments across the public sector to establish, drive and deliver an ambitious transformation programme for the Government Science and Engineering Profession. In 2018, she received an OBE in recognition of her strategic leadership and services to civil service science and engineering.

Dr Haque has significant experience working in counter-terrorism and security. Most notably, this included leading the UK cross-government research and development response to the 2005 London bombings and delivering a new state of the art research facility to strengthen the UK’s counter-terrorism capabilities. She has also worked in a variety of senior technical and policy roles at the Cabinet Office, Home Office and Ministry of Defence.

Commenting on her appointment, Dr Haque said: “I am excited to join the Academy at a time of ambitious change in its public policy work. I am looking forward to working with Fellows of the Academy and experts across the National Engineering Policy Centre to embrace this change. Through closer collaboration between the engineering community and with policy makers, we can help to ensure that the best independent engineering advice and expertise is available to support decision making, resulting in a deep and sustained engineering policy impact.”

Dr Nick Starkey, Director of Policy at the Royal Academy of Engineering, said: “I am thrilled with Shabana’s appointment. Shabana’s connections, skills, dynamism and collegiate approach will be a huge asset to the profession as it works through the Policy Centre to bring its immense expertise and insight to bear on critical policy issues for public benefit.”

Notes to editors

The National Engineering Policy Centre

The National Engineering Policy Centre, led by the Royal Academy of Engineering, brings together 38 organisations representing the profession to ensure that that engineering expertise is applied to the issues that matter, and policy makers have easy access to the best of UK engineering expertise, for the benefit of society.

For more information, please visit: https://www.raeng.org.uk/policy/partnerships/national-engineering-policy-centre

The Royal Academy of Engineering

As the UK’s national academy for engineering and technology, we bring together the most successful and talented engineers from academia and business – our Fellows – to advance and promote excellence in engineering for the benefit of society.

We harness their experience and expertise to provide independent advice to government, to deliver programmes that help exceptional engineering researchers and innovators realise their potential, to engage the public with engineering and to provide leadership for the profession.

We have three strategic priorities:

• Make the UK the leading nation for engineering innovation and businesses
• Address the engineering skills and diversity challenge
• Position engineering at the heart of society

We bring together engineers, policy makers, entrepreneurs, business leaders, academics, educators and the public in pursuit of these goals.

Engineering is a global profession, so we work with partners across the world to advance engineering’s contribution to society on an international, as well as a national scale.

Contact

Siobhan Pipa at the Royal Academy of Engineering, T: 020 7766 0745, E: [email protected]