John Tomaney appointed Pro-Provost (Regional Communities)

With a particular focus on issues of regional inequalities, this new role creates a champion and convenor to build UCL’s capacity to develop impactful partnerships with a range of collaborators and actors in areas outside London.

Professor Tomaney takes up the 0.4FTE role alongside his current role in The Bartlett, where his work has been characterised by a strong commitment to public policy engagement, and in particular to involving disadvantaged communities in policy-making processes. He has extensive experience of working with and advising bodies including government departments, advisory councils and development agencies, and was a member of the UK2027 Commission on Regional Inequalities, which informed the Government’s Levelling-Up White Paper. Prior to joining UCL, he was Director of the Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies at Newcastle University, which carried out a range of policy-relevant research for national and international organisations in the field of regional development.

In this role, he will build on that activity to lead UCL’s development of strong regional networks and increase our work with community bodies that are addressing questions around social and political polarisation. He will work closely with other teams at UCL focused on public engagement and policy, including the UCL Public Policy team, Pro-Provost (Policy Engagement) Marc Stears, Vice-Provost (Research, Innovation and Global Engagement) Professor Geraint Rees, Vice-President (External Engagement) Kirsty Walker and research teams across UCL.

Welcoming the appointment, President & Provost Dr Michael Spence said:

“Working collaboratively with partners in the UK’s regions is an area in which UCL has enormous potential to make a real difference. John’s deep knowledge, experience and passion for this work, his instinctive cross-disciplinarity and his sharp insight into the wider political environment makes him an ideal person to provide the leadership and focus we need to achieve that potential. I am really looking forward to working with him to boost and broaden the range of work underway across UCL to understand and tackle existing inequalities between and within regions.”

Professor Tomaney said:

"In this new role, I am seeking to place UCL’s world class knowledge, expertise and resources to at the service of disadvantaged communities in the UK. Central to this will be building lasting community-led partnerships and addressing where and how UCL can make a meaningful and useful contribution. If you want to work with us in this task, please get in touch."