Professor Ashleigh Filtness will contribute her expertise in road safety and driver behaviour, specifically in relation to driver sleepiness and fatigue.
Dr Ashley Fly, Senior Lecturer in Vehicle Electrification at the University’s department of Aeronautical and Automotive Engineering will use his expertise in batteries, hydrogen fuel cells, and electric vehicles to advise policymakers.
They will offer independent scientific advice to policymakers in the Department. This will increase the knowledge of decision-makers in the Department and help better inform the policymaking process.
The College of Experts at the DfT works to:
- Increase the department’s access to scientific networks
- Develop and maintain relationships with experts
- Broaden DfT’s evidence base
- Identify key areas of research interest
- Support the provision of scientific advice
The College of Experts – made up of 45 experts from academia and industry - will work with the Department’s Chief Scientific Advisor’s team by forming a scientific network that can help guide and shape policy. They will also participate in working groups, specifically focussing on the Department’s Areas of Research Interest, which are key policy questions government departments form based on their priorities. The Department’s webpage has a full list of the experts who make up the College on their website.
Ashleigh Filtness is Professor of Transport Human Factors and Sleep Science at Loughborough University School of Design and Creative Arts, where she is also the Director of Knowledge Exchange and Innovation.
College of Experts are not commonplace in government and non-governmental departments. However, Loughborough University is represented in the small number of cases where they do exist:
Professor Sarah Mills sits on the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport College of Experts. Dr Mills uses her research – such as the impact on children of loot boxes in video games – to inform policy decisions in the department, specifically those which effect children and young people.
Dr Savannah Worne is part of Office for Environmental Protection’s (OEP) College of Experts. The OEP is a non-departmental public body whose role is to protect and improve the environment by holding government and other public authorities to account.
If you would like to find out more about ways you can use your academic expertise to help shape government policy, please contact the Policy Unit at policy@lboro.ac.uk.