Head of Government Science and Engineering Profession and National Technology Adviser

Sir Patrick Vallance

Biography

Sir Patrick Vallance FRS FMedSci FRCP HonFREng was Government Chief Scientific Adviser (GCSA) from April 2018 to April 2023. He was also National Technology Adviser (NTA) and Head of the Government Science and Engineering (GSE) Profession.

Patrick was President, R&D at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) from 2012 until 2017. Prior to this, he was Senior Vice President, Medicines Discovery and Development. He joined the company in May 2006 as Head of Drug Discovery. He was a member of the GSK Board and the Corporate Executive Team. During his period as head of R&D, many new medicines were approved for use worldwide, for diseases ranging from cancer and rare diseases in children, to asthma and HIV.

Prior to joining GSK, he was a clinical academic, Professor of Medicine and led the Division of Medicine at UCL. He has many years’ experience of basic science and clinical research, and was a consultant physician in the NHS. His research spanned from work on medicinal chemistry and structural biology, through to cellular work, studies in humans and use of large electronic health record databases.

He was elected to the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1999 and to the Royal Society in 2017. He was on the Board of the UK Office for Strategic Co-ordination of Health Research (OSCHR) from 2009 to 2016. He is an Honorary Fellow at UCL and holds honorary degrees from Imperial College London, Glasgow University, University of York and St George’s, University of London. He was a non-executive director and board member for UK Biobank and a non-executive board member for Genome Research Limited but stepped down in taking up the GCSA role.

Head of Government Science and Engineering Profession

The Head of the Government Science and Engineering Profession is responsible for:

  • leading the science and engineering profession within the Civil Service
  • co-ordinating and encouraging the sharing of good practice
  • working with departmental Heads of Science and Engineering Profession (HoSEPs) to ensure that scientists are able to access the right professional skills and learning and development activities within their departments

Government Science & Engineering Profession

National Technology Adviser

The National Technology Adviser is responsible for:

  • Providing direction for the Office for Science and Technology Strategy (OSTS) alongside the Deputy National Technology Adviser

  • Advising the government on policy matters to enable strategic advantage through science and technology 

  • Advising the Prime Minister and National Security Council on matters of technology and strategic advantage

Previous roles in government

  • Government Chief Scientific Adviser
    • 2018 to 2023