Professor Helen McCarthy was formally appointed as Chief Scientific and Technology Adviser (CSTA) in June 2024. Her key responsibilities include co-ordinating a regional strategy to put science and technology at the heart of policy development. She also chairs the newly formed NI Science and Technology Advisory Network (NISTAN), plays a key leadership role within the NI Civil Service (NICS) scientific community, and represents NI’s scientific policy development globally.

As CSTA, Professor McCarthy reports directly to the Head of the NICS and provides advice on policy development across government departments, agencies and with universities, colleges and the wider business community. Professor McCarthy also represents Northern Ireland on the national and international stage in order to enhance awareness of the region’s technological, innovation and R&D capabilities.

This is the first time that Northern Ireland has had an Executive Chief Scientific and Technology Adviser to advise on policy development across government departments, agencies, and with universities, colleges and the wider business community – as distinct from the Chief Scientific Advisers in Department of Health (DoH) and Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA).

Alongside this role, Professor Helen McCarthy holds the Chair of Nanomedicine in the School of Pharmacy at Queen’s University Belfast and, prior to taking on the position of CSTA, was the Associate Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Academic Business Development. Between 2020 and 2023, she held a 0.2FTE Professorship in Dublin City University’s School of Chemical Sciences. She is also a graduate of Ulster University, gaining her DPhil in 2001.

Professor McCarthy’s research is centred on novel non-viral delivery systems for nucleic acids and anionic small molecules. These are peptide delivery systems that are purposely designed to solve key criteria for controlled intracellular delivery. In addition to supervising >40 PhD students, producing >150 publications and >200 conference proceedings, and undertaking editorial work, Professor McCarthy has contributed new knowledge as the inventor of a drug delivery technology and is named on 18 patents. After 10 years of academic applications of the technology, Professor McCarthy spun out her technology into pHion Therapeutics which incorporated in 2017. Professor McCarthy was the CEO of pHion for 6 years, exiting in 2023. In that time, Professor McCarthy won INVENT NI, the All-Ireland Seedcorn Awards, and the Vice-Chancellor’s Innovation Award. She also secured almost £10M in non-dilutive funding from Innovate UK. Professor McCarthy sits on the Research Advisory Committee for Prostate Cancer UK and has worked with many global pharmaceutical companies to progress her technology.  Helen has also worked closely with Invest NI, Alderley Park, Medicines Discovery Catapult, Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult and the Centre for Process Innovation. Professor McCarthy is a member of Biodesign Europe, European Society of Biomaterials and NED for Antigenesis Biologics.