Roger Jowell is a Research Professor at City University London and is the Founder Director of its Centre for Comparative Social Surveys. Prior to that he was the Director of the National Centre for Social Research, which he started in 1969 and helped build into Britain's largest social research institute.

He is an elected member of the International Statistical Institute, an Academician of the Academy for Social Sciences and was awarded a CBE in 2001 for services to social science. He is a recent vice-president of the UK's Royal Statistical Society and he was knighted for service to social sciences in 2007.

 His main research output has been in the field of social and political attitude monitoring and survey methods. He founded and directed the British Social Attitudes survey from 1983 to 2001 and co-directed the British Election Studies from 1983 to 2000. He was the founding chair of the International Social Survey Programme from 1984 to 1989. He has been the Co-ordinator of the European Social Survey since its inception in 2001, chairing its Central Co-ordinating Team, and - prior to that - the Methodology Committee which crafted its design. His writing has focused primarily on social and political values, social change, voting behaviour and survey methods. His publications include a textbook on survey research, 18 edited books on British Social Attitudes and four co-authored books on British electoral behaviour.

Roger is an advisor to the Mapping Needs project.