Tim Wilford

Director, Insights and Engagement

Tim Wilford is Director, Insights and Engagement at the ANU National Security College. He investigates how Australians think about risk, readiness and resilience: what the public believes about threats from war to economic crisis, disinformation and climate impacts, how prepared the nation feels, and what people expect of government.

Tim led the College's Community Consultations initiative, the most extensive public consultation on national security undertaken in Australia. Between late 2024 and early 2026 the mixed-methods program drew on more than twenty thousand survey respondents across three national waves, deliberative focus groups, public submissions and close to five hundred conversations in every state and territory. He co-authored two of the resulting reports, published in March 2026 as an independent evidence base for governments, parliaments and communities, and briefs senior government, parliamentary and community leaders on their findings. He and his team are extending the work through ongoing national surveys, place-based engagement and public reporting.

Before this role Tim ran the College's policy engagement program, the think-tank arm of NSC that connects its research to government, parliament and the public, where he spent four years as Executive Producer of The National Security Podcast. He was previously at the ABC's Four Corners, and earlier worked in digital media and consumer technology with Publicis, DDB and Canon Australia.