Press Release

New Director for Policy Studies Institute

The Policy Studies Institute (PSI) has appointed a new Director. Professor Jim Skea, currently directing the Economic and Social Research Council's Global Environmental Change Programme, will take up the PSI post later this year.

Professor Skea, 44, has a long policy research track record. His main interests have been in sustainable development policy, including: global climatic change, acid rain abatement, clean technology, business and the environment, energy conservation and regulation. He is the author (with Rupert Howes and Bob Whelen) of the book Clean and Competitive? Motivating Environmental Performance in Industry, published last year, as well as numerous other book chapters and journal articles.

PSI is a subsidiary company of the University of Westminster. Welcoming the appointment, university vice-chancellor Dr Geoffrey Copland said: "Professor Skea is ideally qualified to bring new leadership to PSI and provide the necessary management to sustain its future activities. He will strengthen PSI's research base in existing and new fields and take it forward into the next century as the leading policy research institute in the UK, contributing to national debate on a wide range of policy issues."

Professor Skea, who has been based at the University of Sussex and has headed the ESRC's Global Environmental Change Programme for the past three years, said: "I am very pleased by the prospect of joining PSI. With its reputation for authoritative, evidence-based research, the Institute has had an enormous impact on policy in the social and economic fields while commanding respect in the academic world.

"This is an exciting time to be engaged in policy research. PSI has a great opportunity to place itself at the heart if important debates in the UK and further afield. I look forward to working with a committed staff to strengthen existing areas of research, open up new fields - for example, in my own field of sustainable development - and reinforce the new relationship with the University of Westminster."

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Notes to Editors:

1. Professor Skea is expected to join PSI towards the end of the year.

2. PSI became a wholly-owned subsidiary company of the University of Westminster in January of this year. It was formed in 1978 by a merger between Political and Economic Planning, founded in 1931, and the Centre for Studies in Social Policy, founded in 1972 by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. It is a registered charity carrying out political, economic and social research relevant to the development of public policy and is still based at 100 Park View East, London NW1. Tel 0171 468 0168.

3. Contact the university press office on 0171 911 5762.