Speakers
Ms Nicola Di Luzio
Director, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), China
Ms Nicola Di Luzio is the UKRI China Director. Since 2007, the UKRI China office has led on the delivery of UK–China research funding, developing key relationships with the Chinese and UK research ecosystems to facilitate joint UK–China R&D. Under her leadership, the Beijing team stewards relationships with major national and regional Chinese funding agencies, including the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)—while fostering broader connections with Hong Kong bodies such as the University Grants Committee (UGC) and the Research Grants Council (RGC). Ms Di Luzio’s current focus is to advance UK–China joint research in priority subsectors within climate change and the environment, health, agriculture and food, and planetary sciences and astronomy, as well as the arts and humanities.
Ms Di Luzio worked for over a decade in UK government ministries before joining UKRI. Her career has included roles in the Foreign Office and UK Trade and Investment, as well as a diplomatic posting to Lebanon. More recently, since 2023, she had worked as a Deputy Head of Department in the International Directorate of the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, leading on UK science and technology collaboration with China, including the 11th UK–China Joint Commission on Science and Technology in 2025. She is a graduate of Cambridge University.