Spotlight on... Lauren Andres and Victoria Austin

What is your role and what does it involve?

We are Pro-Vice-Provost (Inequalities), and our role spans UCL’s research, education and innovation missions, with a focus on understanding and reducing inequalities in the UK and globally. We have an audacious goal of positioning UCL as the global centre of excellence on inequality and its solutions; in a world where others are doing less we want to do more. Since we started in September 2025 we have focused on how to organise and mobilise UCL’s knowledge and that of our wider community, strengthen and develop partnerships, and harness the energy and commitment of colleagues and partners so that we can help change the systems that produce inequalities.

In practice, we oversee delivery of the Grand Challenge of Inequalities five-year programme. Our work is geared towards designing, testing and scaling alternative approaches, models and ways of working that reduce inequalities in practice, from neighbourhoods and cities through to national systems and global partnerships. The programme is structured around three pillars: economic inequity (the relationships between inequalities, productivity, growth and wealth), political inequity (engagement, representation, belonging and governance) and cultural inequity (identity, diversity and ways of working and living together).

We feel very lucky to be doing something we are passionate about.

How long have you been at UCL and what was your previous role?

Lauren – I joined UCL in January 2020, having previously worked at the University of Birmingham. I served as International Director and, more recently, as Director of Research at the Bartlett School of Planning, a role I continue to hold alongside my position as Pro-Vice-Provost.

Victoria – I joined UCL in 2018 as an Honorary Researcher while I was still leading the Paralympic Legacy for the Mayor of London. After we received a £10k Grand Challenge grant to test a pop-up, I co-founded the Global Disability Innovation Hub, a community interest company and ‘spin-in’ research centre based in UCL engineering. GDI Hub is now reaching millions of people all over the world so that’s the power of the Grand Challenges! I stepped down as the CEO of the CIC in 2023 to focus my energy on the research and innovation side of our practice and shortly after joined UCL Computer Science as Associate Professor of Innovation and Social Justice. We also host the WHO Global Collaborating centre at UCL Engineering and I co-direct that, too.

What working achievement or initiative are you most proud of?

We are very proud to have been given the opportunity to lead UCL’s Grand Challenge of Inequalities programme, and to do so alongside an exceptional team.

We are also proud because our partnership began in an unusual but genuinely meaningful way: in October 2024 we were connected by the Global Lead for Urban at UNICEF HQ in New York, when Victoria was on fellowship there and Lauren was working with them on a call for action to strengthen urban resilience and sustainable neighbourhoods for children in highly deprived and informal settings. Despite our shared commitment to children’s rights and global urban inequalities, we did not know one another, and this initial connection, and the collaboration it sparked, became the foundation for our joint leadership. That origin story matters because it reflects what the Grand Challenge seeks to do at its best, to connect brilliant work across a large, complex institution like UCL, where excellence can sit in siloes and the hardest part is often building the relationships and pathways that turn stand-alone projects into collective, transformational action.

Finally, we are proud because this initiative builds directly on our own track records and values: Lauren’s long-standing work amplifying the voices of children and young people and shaping crisis preparedness and essential services through major ESRC projects and global partnerships with UNESCO and UNICEF, and Victoria’s leadership in founding and scaling the Global Disability Innovation Hub from a small Grand Challenges grant into an internationally recognised centre that has reached tens of millions of people, mobilised major funding and delivered impactful research and tools with partners worldwide.

Tell us about a project you are working on now which is top of your to-do list

At the very top of our to-do list for 2026 is to dig into the research to really get to grips with what is the most transformational research that we can do over the coming five years to make the biggest difference on inequity – and it’s a huge scope!

Our activities include launching our new podcast series, Fair Enough? in January, completing and publishing our scoping review, and delivering two major events, one for the UCL community and one for external partners as well as an academic symposium to build shared thinking and consensus. We are grateful to a brilliant Executive Group made up from across our UCL community to help us refine our strategic directions.

In parallel, we will be working on organising multi-scalar partnerships with colleagues across the UK, Europe, India, China and Africa. By mid-2026 we will be well on our way to defining the major interventions we will support over the remaining years of the programme, the partners we will work with and the impact we intend to achieve.

What is your favourite album, film and novel?

Lauren:

Album: An old album I was listening to 15 years ago: Linkin Park's A Thousand Suns

Book: If Russia Wins: A Scenario by Carlo Masala – excellent but very worrying.

Victoria:

Album: This year it was the tremendous and hilarious fire of Lily Allen’s West End Girl, but I also loved CMAT’s and Self Esteem's albums.

Book: I’m delighted to have devoured the much-praised debut by my own brother-in-law this year: The Language of Remembering by Patrick Holloway.

What is your favourite joke (pre-watershed)?

“The Tube isn’t overcrowded, it’s just practising urban density.”

Who would be your dream dinner guests?

We would gather guests that can help us learn how to change the world while having a very interesting and fun time. We’d be keen to brainstorm ideas with them and see how we could work together. There are so many options on the theme of female leadership in the global space how about: [Past PMs] Sanna Marin, Jacinda Ardern, Angela Merkel, and Malala Yousafzai, Yvonne Aki-Sawyer (Mayor of Freetown), and Arundhati Roy.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Trust the timing!

What would it surprise people to know about you?

Lauren - I am French and British. On the one hand, please do not ask me for advice on choosing a wine for dinner, as I am completely clueless. On the other hand, despite many attempts, I still cannot understand cricket.

Victoria: I’m a trained Yoga Teacher and it keeps me (relatively) sane.

What is your favourite place?

We agreed on somewhere quiet by the Mediterranean Sea, where we can hear the waves, smell the pine trees, and enjoy the sun’s warmth and glow.