Hetan Shah

Shah studied philosophy, politics and economics at the University of Oxford and graduated in 1996.^[2][3] He earned a postgraduate diploma at Nottingham Law School and a master's degree in history and politics at Birkbeck, University of London.^[2][4] He earned a further postgraduate certificate in economics at Birkbeck, University of London in 2003.^[2]

Shah is Chief Executive of the British Academy, the UK's national academy for humanities and social sciences. He began this role in February 2020. In March 2021, on the anniversary of the first lockdown, the Academy published a review of the long term societal consequences of the pandemic.^[5]

During his tenure, the Academy has explored a wide range of policy matters including artificial intelligence, climate change, public service media, economic strategy, and higher education policy.^[6]

Under his tenure, the British Academy has set up a nationwide Early Career Researcher Network with regional hubs to support early career researchers. It has set up a scheme in partnership with Cara and other Academies to support Researchers at Risk. Funding enabled the scheme to support over 170 researchers from Ukraine to come to the UK and continue their research. During his time the Academy has also innovated with its funding schemes, using partial randomisation to award its smallest grants, creating new schemes such as Innovation Fellowships and Talent Development Awards, and an Additional Needs Fund to support inclusion.^[7]

In evidence to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Select Committee Shah called for government to improve the transparency of evidence underlying policy decisions, and called for greater researcher access to government data for research purposes.^[8]

In February 2025 Hetan gave the Health Foundation's annual REAL lecture on the topic of artificial intelligence and health. The lecture is summarised in a blog and available to watch. In October 2025 Shah also gave the Chancellor's Lecture at York St John University on the theme of 'Why does nothing work, and what can we do about it?'. , In November 2025 he gave the inaugural Vice Chancellor's Distinguished Lecture at De Montfort University exploring the importance of humanities and social sciences for public policy.

Shah served as executive director of the Royal Statistical Society from 2011 to 2019. Under his leadership the society developed several new initiatives, including the celebration of Statistics of the Year, the Data Manifesto and the development of Statistical Ambassadors.^[9] The 10-point data manifesto was published after the 2015 election, intended to communicate the significance of certain statistics with politicians and the general public. The manifesto emphasised the need to use reliable evidence in public debate. Statistical Ambassadors act to support charities and the media, pairing them with statisticians trained in public engagement.^[10] He also created a Statisticians for Society scheme which encouraged statisticians and data scientists to volunteer for charities.

Shah called for the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Select Committee to stop having evidence sessions that consistently feature all male panels. In 2018 he worked with the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries to investigate the implications of big data.^[11] Shah has argued that without trustworthy governance systems the public may become mistrustful of commercial use of their data in the same way they queried genetically modified food.^[12]