The Royal Academy of Engineering has announced the appointment of Dr Shabana Haque OBE as its head of Engineering Policy ‘to help enhance government’s access to expert engineering policy advice’.
Dr Haque will work 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. She will join the RAE in June 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 counter-terrorism and security experience. Most notably, she led the UK cross-government research and development response to the 2005 London bombings, and delivered a new research facility to strengthen the UK’s counter-terrorism capabilities. She has also worked in a senior technical and policy roles at the Cabinet Office, Home Office, and Ministry of Defence.
Commenting on her appointment, Dr Haque said: “Through closer collaboration between the engineering community and with policy-makers, we can help ensure that the best independent engineering advice and expertise is available to support decision making, resulting in a deep and sustained engineering policy impact.”
