The Heywood Foundation announces the appointment of a new Heywood Fellow

During his Fellowship, Jonathan will focus on policy making at the intersection of economic prosperity and national security. Some of the most systemic policy challenges faced by the UK and allies today sit at this intersection. This includes issues relating to science and technology, to trade and investment, to climate and health – and it also affects, as the war in Ukraine has shown, the fundamentals of statecraft. Governments’ ability to address these challenges in a coherent way is ever more critical to delivering peace and prosperity for their citizens.

In his work Jonathan will look at how policy making needs to change the way in light of this changing context and evolving global and geopolitical trends. This will include looking at systems, structures, capabilities and culture – and in particular the relationship between the private sector and governments . The Fellowship will report in Autumn 2023.

We are delighted to support him in doing this, alongside our partners, the Civil Service, the Blavatnik School of Government, Hertford College, Oxford and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

The announcement of a new Fellow comes alongside the competition for the Heywood Prize, which is looking for policy ideas to improve life in the UK. The competition is open to everyone and has already received over 300 entries. The top prize for the competition is £25,000 but perhaps even more importantly the best ideas have the chance of being implemented by government – the winning idea from the 2020/2021 competition of an NHS Reserve Force has been applied by the NHS and is already making a difference.

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We are delighted that Jonathan Black will be the next Heywood Fellow. The thinking he will be doing affects an increasingly critical area of policy making for all governments and Jonathan is exceptionally well positioned to bring new insights to this. Jeremy would be thrilled by both Jonathan’s appointment and the topic that he will be researching.

Lady Heywood, the Chair of the Heywood Foundation

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It’s a real privilege to take on this Fellowship established in Jeremy’s name. Jeremy championed a culture of problem solving for the most systemic policy challenges. The focus for the Fellowship this year is inspired by that.Our national security and economic interests are interconnected as never before – and global and geopolitical trends mean they will only become more so. We need to make sure we have the right policy making processes to keep up with this much more complex and challenging context.

Jonathan Black

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Background for editors:

• Olly Robbins, previously a Permanent Secretary in the Civil Service and now a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs, was the inaugural Heywood Fellow in 2021. The purpose of the Fellowship is to allow a Senior Civil Servant (a Permanent Secretary or Director General) the opportunity to explore issues relating to public service and policy, outside of the immediate responsibilities of Government duties.
• Jonathan will undertake this work during a nine months of special leave from the Civil Service, during which he will be based at the Blavatnik School in Oxford. For the duration of the work Jonathan will also be a Visiting Fellow at Hertford College, Oxford. Jonathan has been a Civil Servant for the past two decades, principally in the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury. Prior to his position as the Prime Minister’s G7/G20 Sherpa and Deputy National Security Adviser, Jonathan was Deputy Head of the Europe Unit overseeing negotiations on Brexit.
• Each Fellow is asked to make recommendations based on their work for how policy making can be changed in the area of research the Fellowship will cover.
• The Heywood Fellow is appointed by the Heywood Foundation, a charity established in the memory of Lord Heywood, Cabinet Secretary from 2012 to 2018. The Foundation exists to promote innovation and diversity within the public sector, two things that Jeremy was passionate about and promoted himself during his career.
• In addition to the Heywood Foundation, the fellowship is also supported by our partners: the Civil Service, the Blavatnik School of Government, Hertford College, Oxford and the ESRC. We are very grateful to them for their support in making this fellowship possible.
• The Blavatnik School of Government is a global school of public policy committed to improving the quality of government and public policymaking worldwide https://www.bsg.ox.ac.uk/

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