Innovate UK Council member
Professor Jennifer Rubin is a member of the Innovate UK Council.
Professor Rubin has worked throughout her career to bring rigorous research and evidence to bear on challenging policy issues. She became the Home Office’s Director General (DG) for Science, Technology, Analysis and Research (STAR) and Chief Scientific Adviser in January 2021.
As DG STAR, Professor Rubin is responsible for bringing together several Home Office directorates covering research and analysis, science and innovation, international and data policy, providing central expertise across the department.
As Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA), Professor Rubin has an independent challenge function, working to ensure that policymaking is supported and underpinned by science and evidence. In this capacity, Jennifer reports to the Government Chief Scientific Adviser alongside other departmental CSAs. This dual role connects innovation, science capability and the evidence base in the department to the wider cross-Whitehall and international context.
Before joining the Home Office, Professor Rubin was the Executive Chair of the Economic and Social Research Council, the UK’s largest funder of economic and social research, and has led research and institutions inside and outside academia.
She remains a professor at King’s College London where she was Director of the Policy Institute. She has also served as Executive Vice President and Director of Communities, Safety and Justice at RAND’s European offices in Brussels and Cambridge, UK. Her principal research areas have included:
- migration, integration and intolerance
- transnational and organised crime, crime and justice policy
- the intersections between public health and related areas such as alcohol and drugs policy
Jennifer received her Ph.D. in Social and Political Sciences from the University of Cambridge and a First Class B.A. in European politics, Economics and French from Loughborough University.
Last updated: 1 September 2023