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Science Minister Jo Johnson has announced that Professor Jennifer Rubin has been appointed Chief Executive and Executive Chair Designate of the ESRC.

Professor Rubin will continue as Chief Executive until the end of March 2018 and, upon the creation of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) on 1 April, will become ESRC's Executive Chair.

Professor Rubin is currently Director of the Policy Institute at King's and Professor of Public Policy. Before joining King's Jennifer established and then led the justice and home affairs research programme at RAND Europe for ten years. She has served on RAND's executive team most recently as Executive Vice President, helping to lead its quadrupling in size in Europe. Jennifer obtained her PhD at the University of Cambridge in social and political sciences at King’s College, following a first class degree in European Politics at Loughborough University. She has lectured in politics and psychology, published numerous peer-reviewed policy research reports and academic journal articles and been a visiting fellow at Harvard’s Center for European Studies.

Executive Chairs will be crucial to delivering UKRI's mission to maintain the UK's global leadership in research and innovation. They will lead each of the nine councils that will be part of UKRI, and the role will combine the responsibilities of the current Chair and Chief Executive of each council.

Professor Tony McEnery, Interim Chief Executive of the Economic and Social Research Council, yesterday said:

I look forward enormously to working with Jennifer - she will bring a wealth of really valuable experience to ESRC which will help the social science community engage with the key issues facing the UK today. Social science is fortunate indeed to have Jennifer taking on this key role at such an important time.

Further information

• Read the full announcement on the UKRI website