Breakfast Briefing with Kata Escott, Head of the Strategy and Implementation Directorate, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
Author WIG Date 16 May 2023
WIG is delighted to welcome Kata Escott, Head of the Strategy and Implementation Directorate, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology for this breakfast briefing.
As Head of the Strategy and Implementation Directorate (SID), Kata Escott leads the team delivering the vision of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), to focus the government’s ability to better use and understand emerging science and technology.
Catch up on this special in-person briefing to:
- Understand how the SID will deliver on its four key priority areas across the sustainable environment, health and life sciences, national security and defence, and building a digitally and data-driven economy
- Discover the role of the SID in driving progress on the Science and Technology Framework across government
- Explore how cross-sector collaboration can aid SID in meeting the UK government’s science superpower ambitions
To access this resource you must be a WIG member and logged in to our website.
You can register or log-in here.
Speakers at the Event
Kata is the Head of the Strategy and Implementation Directorate at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. In this role, she leads work across government to create an eco-system in the UK where S&T can thrive - driving economic growth and in support of national security. Prior to this, Kata was the Strategy Director in the National Security Secretariat responsible for advising on strategy development and implementation of the Government’s 2021 Integrated Review. Kata returned to the Cabinet Office in early 2021 coming from the UK Ministry of Defence which she first joined in 2001.
At the MOD, she has held a number of positions in Head Office covering policy, operations and resource management. Most recently she coordinated the pitch for the department’s successful 2020 spending review bid and led the process to publish the white paper that set out the change in direction that this new funding enabled. Previously, she has worked as a Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Defence and in 2011 she supported Lord Levene’s Defence Reform Review, leading changes to the department’s capability and financial planning.
Kata has also spent about half her career at the centre of government, including in the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit, and in the National Security Secretariat once before, where she led the government response to the Snowden crisis in 2013. She was the Principal Private Secretary to the Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service, under Lords Heywood and Sedwill and was awarded the Companion of the Order of the Bath for public service in 2020.