Congratulations Professor Gross
10 Sep 2020
We are delighted to announce that Dr. Robert Gross began his tenure as the new director of UKERC this week. He is taking over from Jim Watson who stepped down in December.
Rob was previously the Director of the Centre for Energy Policy and Technology (ICEPT) at Imperial College London. He was also Policy Director of Imperial’s Energy Futures Lab. He will retain a role at Imperial whilst spending 80% of his time on UKERC, based at UCL.
Rob has been involved with UKERC since its inception, leading the Technology and Policy Assessment theme and has published extensively on energy policy and technology. He has wide-ranging research management expertise and has made a substantive contribution to UK energy policy development, acting as advisor to Select Committees, preparing reports and chairing committees for Government departments and non-departmental public bodies, and as a consultant. He was seconded to the Cabinet Office in the early 2000s and contributed to the Blair Government Energy Review.
Keith MacLean, Chair of the UKERC Advisory Board said of his appointment:
“Rob’s experience and knowledge of UKERC and the energy sector brings a great strength to our work – I am delighted to see him stepping up to role of Director. His experience across research, policy development and knowledge exchange will be hugely significant as we deliver the next phase of the research programme”
Rob said of his new role:
“I am delighted to have taken over as Director and lead the organisation as it embarks on an exciting new programme of research.
The UK has an immense task ahead, working to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. UKERC can play a key role through research that takes a whole system approach to policy, technology and human behaviour, providing insights that can help push forward the net-zero agenda at a critical time.
I want to pay tribute to Jim and his terrific job in setting up Phase 4 of UKERC. I am looking forward to leading the consortium as we develop our ambitious programme of research.”