Dr Beth Thompson is Head of UK & EU Policy at Wellcome, a global foundation that exists to improve to improve health for everyone by helping great ideas to thrive. We spend around £1 billion a year to support research, innovation and public engagement. Beth leads Wellcome’s policy and advocacy activities to deliver a strong environment for research in the UK and EU. The team's work includes Brexit, research investment, regulation of emerging technologies and the culture of research. In 2017 she was awarded an MBE for successfully advocating on a good outcome for research in the new EU privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation. Beth holds a PhD from the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK and a degree in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge.