Deputy Director – Covid Inquiry and Transparency, Government Office for Science

Policy Fellows, Centre for Science and Policy

Laura Eden and Zoë Bond have job-shared together for the last four years, working during this time in three different Government Departments. They both trained as scientists with complementary backgrounds and skillsets – Laura has a Masters in Plant Diversity and Zoë has a PhD in Marine Biogeochemisty.

They currently work at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) where they are the joint Head of European Research and Innovation (R&I) policy and programmes. This challenging and fast-paced role involves leading a team of 23 to input policy thinking for the ongoing Horizon Europe Negotiations, to develop credible alternatives to Horizon Europe association (to provide the vfm case for association and in the event that the UK does not have the option to associate to the programme), to work on cross-cutting mobility issues for researchers, and they also lead the Secretariat for the Sir Adrian Smith review of future international collaboration for R&I.

They have held previous roles at the Food Standards Agency, running the Private Office of the Chair and Chief Executive, and at Defra where they ran the office of the Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Ian Boyd. Before they job-shared, Zoë had undertaken a range of roles in Defra e.g. leading on policy development for Earth Observations and Ocean Acidification and Laura had worked at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew.

Zoë and Laura are strong advocates of jobsharing – they have found it enables them to have fulfilling and challenging careers in the Civil Service and achieve a good balance between home and work life.