Prof. Jim Watson

Professor Jim Watson is Director of the UK Energy Research Centre and Professor of Energy Policy at the Institute of Sustainable Resources, University College London (UCL). He is also an Associate with SPRU, University of Sussex.

Before joining UCL, Jim was based at SPRU from 1993 – 2018, where he was Director of the Sussex Energy Group from Dec 2008 – Jan 2013.

Jim has a degree in engineering from Imperial College London and a PhD in science and technology policy from Sussex. He has 20 years’ research experience on climate change, energy and innovation policy. Major outputs include co-edited books: New Challenges in Energy Security: The UK in a Multipolar World (Palgrave, 2013; with Catherine Mitchell) and Global Energy: Issues, Potentials and Policy Implications (Oxford University Press, 2015; with Paul Ekins and Mike Bradshaw).

Prof Watson frequently advises UK government departments and other organisations. He was an advisor to the Government Office for Science for a Foresight project on energy (2007-08), and has been a Specialist Adviser with three UK Parliamentary committees. He recently chaired the UK net zero advisory group to the Committee on Climate Change.

He also has extensive international experience, including over ten years working on energy scenarios and energy innovation policies in China and India. In 2008, he was a Visiting Scholar at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

He is a judge for the Queens Awards (on sustainable development), a member of the Global Challenges Research Fund strategic advisory group and a member of the UK government’s fossil fuel price projections panel.