Phil Sooben is currently Director of Policy and Administration at the Economic and Social Research Council. He has been with ESRC since 1988 during which time he has had responsibility for research grants, research programmes, human resources, communications and corporate strategy. From 1996 to 2003 he was director of postgraduate training. He regularly represents ESRC and RCUK in a number of policy fora including membership of the expert advisory groups set up to help establish the new Research Excellence Framework. He recently chaired the conference on Delivering Research Excellence.

Phil has a first degree in modern history from St John's College, Oxford and a masters in ethnic relations from the University of Warwick. He has a continuing interest in equality and diversity issues and is a member of BIS’s Equalities Advisory Group.