Susie Kitchens

Deputy Director at Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT)

Share
Deputy Director, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
Policy Fellow, Centre for Science and Policy

Susie leads DSIT work in supporting the UK research ecosystem through global collaborations, ensuring that science and innovation partnerships are ‘as open as possible, as secure as necessary’. Her team lead for DSIT on multilateral and bilateral science diplomacy including the Science and Innovation Network across 40 HMG Embassies and High Commissions, ODA and non ODA funds for international research via delivery partners including UKRI, and HMG’s policy on research security. This work supports delivery of HMG’s science superpower ambition as set out in the Integrated Review.

Susie is on loan to DSIT from the FCDO, where she previously served as Deputy Head of the UK Mission in Nairobi, and of the UK Mission in Dar es Salaam, and as Consul General in Boston, Massachusetts. These roles have all presented opportunities to build on science and innovation as a diplomatic soft power lever, and to use the convening power of diplomatic missions to forge and foster catalytic relationships between researchers and research institutions around the world.

Susie’s qualifications include an undergraduate degree in Human Sciences from Oxford University and an MSc in Health Promotion from The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She completed the MIT Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Programme as part of Team London, 2014-2016.