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Minister for Science and Innovation
Responsible for innovation, Technology Strategy Board, science policy and wealth creation from science, Research Councils, Foresight programme – science and society issues, Space, National Weights and Measures Laboratory, Design Council, National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA), Energy Technologies Institute, Commission for Environmental Markets and Economic Performance, British Standards Institution, UK Accreditation Service, Life Sciences (including Office for Life Sciences and pharmaceutical sector), low carbon economy.
Lord Drayson was appointed Minister for Science and Innovation for the Department for Business Innovation and Skills in June 2009, he holds his Ministerial Office jointly with the Ministry of Defence. Prior to the creation of BIS, Lord Drayson was appointed Minister of State at the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills on 6 Oct 2008.
Born in 1960, Paul Rudd Drayson was educated at St. Dunstan's College, London and Aston University. In 1982 he took a BSc (Hons) in Production Engineering at Aston sponsored by BL Cars at Longbridge, followed in 1985 by a PhD in Robotics.
In 1993 he co-founded vaccine company PowderJect Pharmaceuticals plc in Oxford and was Chairman & Chief Executive until 2003. He floated PowderJect on the London Stock Exchange in 1997 and over ten years he built PowderJect into one of the world's leading vaccine companies with operations in the UK, USA and Scandinavia until selling it for £540 million in 2003.
Between 2001 and 2002 he was the Chairman of the BioIndustry Association and was active in the industry's campaign to tackle animal rights extremism. He was Chairman of the Oxford Children's Hospital Fundraising Campaign from 2002-2005. The new Children's Hospital at the John Radcliffe in Oxford opened in early 2007. From 2003-2005, he was Science Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Said Business School, Oxford University involved in the teaching of entrepreneurship to MBA students.
He was made a working Peer in May 2004 and was appointed as Minister for Defence Procurement and as Government Spokesman for Defence in the House of Lords in May 2005. In June 2007 he was appointed as Minister of State for Business and Regulatory Reform in addition to his responsibilities in defence and was made a member of the Prime Minister's Business Council.
Paul is married to Elspeth and they have five children and live in London and Gloucestershire.
In 2004 Paul started racing historic single-seaters and sports cars, moving into modern single-seaters in 2005 in the Formula Palmer Audi championship. In 2006 he raced modern GT cars for the first time with Barwell Motorsport in British GT. In 2007 he competed in the British GT sportscar championship, again with Barwell and team-mate Jonny Cocker, racing a unique bio-ethanol fuelled Aston Martin DBRS9, achieving a historic first win for a bio-fuelled race car, and coming second overall in the championship.
In November 2007 he took a leave of absence from the Government to compete in the American Le Mans Series in the United States, a key step towards his goal of racing in the Le Mans 24 Hour endurance race.
Lord Drayson's conversations on Twitter
View Lord Drayson's speeches on the former DIUS website.
