Academics selected to join Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport College of Experts
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Two University of Liverpool academics were selected by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to join its College of Experts.
Professor Simeon Yates, in the University’s Department of Communication and Media; and Professor Catherine Tackley, Head of the Department of Music, will help advise DCMS on strategic priorities and key areas of interest.
Professor Tackley said: “I am delighted to be joining the DCMS College of Experts.
“I am particularly interested in the links that can be forged between education - in its widest sense - and the DCMS policy areas, with particular reference to music and the arts.”
Professor Simeon Yates, who also served on DCMS’ Culture is Digital team, said: “I am really excited to be joining the DCMS College of Experts.
“Having been seconded to DCMS as part of the Culture is Digital Team and having worked with DCMS on issues of digital inclusion, I know how important the work of DCMS is to both the UK arts and digital sectors.
“I am looking forward to working with my fellow College members to provide a strong evidence base for DCMS policy.”
The College of Experts will seek to increase DCMS access to scientific networks, broaden its evidence base, identify key areas of research interest, and bolster the provision of scientific advice.
Candidates were selected through an open process to provide comprehensive expertise in support of DCMS’ portfolio and sectors, and can be called upon dynamically to bring external expertise into all aspects of the department’s policy work.
The college supplements existing relationships with experts, with the aim of allowing DCMS to benefit from longer term, ongoing, systematic relationships that provide easier access to expertise when needed.
Along with their fellow College of Experts participants, Professor Tackley and Professor Yates will participate in working groups based on specific themes that feed into the DCMS Areas of Research Interest; provide ad hoc advice and support to policy and analytical colleagues where appropriate; and support the DCMS Chief Scientific Advisor (CSA) by offering extended networks that can help guide and shape policy.
The College of Experts is made up of external experts from across academia and industry and is managed by the DCMS CSA team.
The CSA team is led by the Chief Scientific Adviser for DCMS, Professor Tom Rodden, who started in the role in 2019 and is also Professor of Computing at the University of Nottingham, and the Deputy Executive Chair of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).