DCMS Chief Scientific Adviser joins Future Cities Forum's 'arts and science districts'

Above: Professor Tom Rodden, CSA at the DCMS (courtesy DCMS / University of Nottingham)

Professor Tom Rodden, Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, will be joining Future Cities Forum's 'Arts and Sciences' event tomorrow at Lambeth Palace Library.

The discussions will focus on how cultural destinations and creative industries clusters can boost the future economy of the UK, how they can attract professional talent to settle both in the Capital and in regional cities and how our science districts are evolving to become globally important centres of innovation and investment.

Professor Rodden points to the successes of regeneration schemes in Belfast and Dundee around the creation of cultural and digital clusters and the importance of the co-locations of tech, business, universities and museums, the impact of new or improved sports centres for communities and place as well as the growth in the gaming industry for economic value.

The DCMS Chief Scientific Adviser is responsible for:

• ensuring that the department’s policies are supported by the best science and technology advice available

• advising ministers and senior officials on science and technology matters

• providing professional leadership to the specialists within DCMS

• working with the wider community of Chief Scientific Advisers to address cross-departmental issues

• building a network of scientific expertise and communicating effectively between government, academia and industry

Tom Rodden is a Professor of Computing at the University of Nottingham and the Deputy Executive Chair of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) where he is responsible for research strategy, acting as the UK Research and Innovation lead in both Artificial Intelligence (AI) and e-Infrastructure.

Tom founded and co-directed the RCUK Horizon Digital Economy Research Institute, a university-wide interdisciplinary research centre and showcased some of the first applications of mobile technologies to support tourism. He has acted as technical advisor to companies including the Microsoft Research Lab in Cambridge, Mobile Life (a Swedish centre of excellence) and been a visiting scientist at Xerox PARC and the Swedish Institute of Computer Science (SICS).