UKRI Board member
Professor Nola Hewitt-Dundas, FAcSS, FRSA, FIAM, is a member of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Board.
Nola is Professor of Innovation Management and Policy and Pro Vice-Chancellor of the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Queen’s University Belfast.
Her academic research has focused on two strands: innovation systems, including, the interrelationship between business, education, and government and, the effect of public sector intervention to enhance innovation success, business growth and profitability. Her research has been published consistently in the leading academic journals.
She has been involved in over 30 externally funded research and consultancy projects with the most recent project being ‘Smart Nano NI’, a £63.9 million project bringing together advanced prototyping and smart manufacturing methods to deliver new technologies incorporating nano manufacturing and photonics. Nola brings social science to this engineering project through a longitudinal study and evaluation of private sector and societal benefits emerging from this largest ever public sector research and development investment in Northern Ireland.
She is currently a Senior Fellow of the UK Enterprise Research Centre and was a panel member of the UK REF2021. She has previously held appointments as fellow for the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, London, and as a UK Thought Leader for the UK Economic and Social Research Council and Innovate UK on the development and integration of social science in UK science and industrial policy.
She has served on UK Chartered Association of Business Schools council and in 2020 awarded the Institute of Directors (NI) Public Sector Director of the year. Nola has advised various national and international public sector organisations throughout her career and was appointed to the board of UKRI in October 2022.
Last updated: 25 August 2023