Lucia Retter is a research leader at RAND Europe and directs RAND Europe's Centre for Defence Economics and Acquisition. Her research focuses on understanding the factors driving government strategy, policy and decisionmaking at the nexus between security, influence and prosperity, including the benefits, trade-offs and risks associated with different capability development programmes.

Lucia has led numerous studies involving defence strategy, acquisition and capability, defence and space industrial base and skills for the UK Ministry of Defence, the European Defence Agency, the European Commission and other European governments. Recently, Lucia has been supporting the UK Ministry of Defence in understanding the implications of climate change and energy transition for defence as well as leading a number of studies for UK Government clients in support of the national and defence space strategies and studies to better understand risks and opportunities for skills and capability development in critical sectors for UK defence and security.