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Olga is a Senior Lecturer in Public Policy in the School for Government. She is a Programme Director for the Postgraduate Diploma in Professional Policymaking and Executive Master of Public Administration programmes offered to the mid-career Civil Servants through the UK Civil Service’s Policy Profession. Her research looks at the intersection of government policy, decision-making and risk management in the context of global uncertainty and digital transformation.

Before joining King’s in 2019, she was working at Oxford University and Open University as a Research Fellow and Tutor in Political Economy. Prior to her academic career, Olga was an analyst in a private office of an MP in the German Bundestag. Olga holds a PhD in Employment Research from Warwick University and a MA in Political Studies from Freie Universität Berlin.

Currently, Olga is researching if and how cross-government collaboration and stakeholder engagement help policymakers navigate the constantly changing landscape of global policy challenges. Besides, she is a Co-Investigator on the international ESRC/JSPS-funded Research Project assessing Impact of Covid-19 in the UK and Japan. The project runs from 2022 to 2025.

Invited talks, projects and engagement

Olga often consults government departments and public sector organisations on the issues related to her area of expertise. She was involved as a systems consultant on the project about Data-sharing: The beating heart of a successful public sector project commissioned by the Office for National Statistics, Infrastructure and Projects Authority and PA Consulting Group with a report published in 2025 and as an academic advisor on the International Study on Digital Transformation in the Public Sector commissioned by the Swiss Government. Olga contributed to this final report published from this study in 2023.

Olga provides talks and consultancy for the projects and programmes aiming at public officials and business executives:

2025 Data-sharing: The beating heart of a successful public sector. Office for National Statistics and Infrastructure and Projects Authority. PA Consulting Group

2022-25 ESRC/JSPS-funded Research Project assessing Impact of Covid-19 in the UK and Japan

2024 ‘Systems Leadership – moving from theory to practice’ workshop for the UK Home Office

2024 ‘Navigating the unknown. Effective decision-making for uncertain times’ session for the HM Treasury

2024 ‘Managing complex policy challenges and how a systems approach can help’ talk for the Defra Systems Community of Practice

2024 ‘Anticipatory governance and global policy challenges’ programme for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on the LIMinal project for the Malta Government, Malta

2024 ‘Boosting public-sector productivity by navigating complexity” talk for the Asian Productivity Organisation (APO) on YouTube

2022-25 European CAPITALS programme for public officials from Germany, France and Italy in partnership with Hertie School in Berlin and the LUISS School of Government in Rome

2023 Operational Delivery Excel programme for the UK Civil Service’s Operational Delivery Profession

2023 Politics, democratic governance and sustainable and inclusive growth Red de Accion Politica (RAP) Symposium for public officials and political leaders from Argentina

2022 Public Service Executive Education programme for the Qatar Leadership Centre

PhD supervision

Olga is interested in supervising PhD students in the following subject areas:

• Public policy and administration
• Decision-making in government
• Innovation and policy entrepreneurship
• Complex systems and complexity theory

Current PhD students

Natalya Eldes Hutagalung “The dynamic of overconfidence in public bureaucracy in the Republic of Indonesia”

Mark Finn “Crises and the determinants of the policy response: A comparative study of Housing and Health Policy in Ireland and England.”

Jin Li “Research on Citizens’ Use and Satisfaction, with Government Responsiveness Using E-government Services in China: The COVID-19 Pandemic as a Study.”

PhD graduates

Sung Eun Cho “A Comparative Analysis of Biocidal Regulations in the EU and South Korea.”

Teaching

Postgraduate

7SSO2000 Global Public Policy Challenges

7SSO1022 Embracing Uncertainty. Policymaking in Turbulent Times

7SSO1015 Behavioural Insights and Government Policy

7SSO1014 Foresight and Horizon-scanning in Policymaking

7SSO2001 Policy Skills Project

Selected publications

Siemers, O. & Serban, I.D. 2024. Addressing wicked policy problems through cross-government collaboration—Insights from the UK context, Public Money and Management, https://doi.org/10.1080/09540962.2024.2393242

Siemers, O. 2024. Cross-government collaboration for complex policy challenges, UK Civil Service Policy Profession.

Siemers, O. 2024. Systems leadership for the mission-led government, UK Civil Service Policy Profession.

PA Consulting Group. 2025. Data-sharing: The beating heart of a successful public sector, Office for National Statistics and Infrastructure and Projects Authority.

Raum, M, Stuessi, M, Siemers O. and R. Amplo, 2023. Doing Digital for Impact: Study on Digital Transformation in the Public Sector, Eraneos.

Hughes, D., Luchinskaya, D., Lyonette, C., and Siemers, O., 2017. Gearing Up for STEM: Skills Strategy and Action Plan, Adviza.

Siemers, O., 2016. Skills for here or to take away? Outcomes of academic mobility for expatriate researchers, Journal of international Mobility 2016/1 (N° 4), p. 149-170.

Brambley, W., Siemers, O., Akter, S., Appleyard, L., Aslam, H., Degli Esposti, S., Dibb, S., Monne, J., Morris, J., Nguyen, T., Oliver, M. and Roby, H., 2019. Managing my money for the just about managing. Final Report. Money and Pensions Service.

See more details on Olga’s research profile