Jim Watson is Professor of Energy Policy at the UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources. He joined UKERC as Research Director in February 2013, and was appointed as UKERC’s Director inJanuary 2015, he stepped down from the role in December 2019.
He trained as an engineer at Imperial College London and has a PhD in science and technology policy from University of Sussex. Before joining UCL in 2018, he spent 20 years at SPRU, University of Sussex – including as Director of the Sussex Energy Group from 2008 to 2013.
His research has focused on range of energy, climate change and innovation policy issues. His recent outputs include co-edited books: New Challenges in Energy Security: The UK in a multipolar world (Palgrave, 2013; with Catherine Mitchell) and Global Energy: Issues, Potentials and Policy Implications (Oxford University Press, 2015; with Paul Ekins and Mike Bradshaw).
He frequently advises UK government departments and other national and international organisations. He was an advisor to the UK Government Office for Science Foresight project on energy (2007-08), and has been a Specialist Adviser with three UK Parliamentary committees. He has extensive international experience, including over ten years working on energy scenarios and energy innovation policies in China and India. In 2008, he spent three months as a Visiting Scholar at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Jim is a judge for the Queens Awards, a member of the BEIS fossil fuel price assumptions panel and a member of the strategic advisory group for the Global Challenges Research Fund.