Nick Pope is a former British civil servant who worked for the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) from 1985 to 2006. Between 1991 and 1994, he was assigned to run the MoD's UFO desk (officially "Secretariat (Air Staff) 2a"), making him the only known government official to have had formal responsibility for investigating UFO reports for the British government in modern times.

During his time running the UFO desk, Pope investigated hundreds of UFO reports submitted by military personnel and the public. He reviewed Project Blue Book-era materials, corresponded with foreign governments' UFO research programs, and personally investigated some of the most significant British cases, including a re-examination of the 1980 Rendlesham Forest incident. He began his tenure as a skeptic, but stated that his review of the evidence during those three years led him to the conclusion that some UFO reports represented genuinely unexplained phenomena of potential defense significance.

Since leaving the MoD, Pope has become one of the most recognized and frequently consulted commentators on UAP in the English-speaking world, appearing on hundreds of television and radio programs and writing for major publications. He has authored several books including Open Skies, Closed Minds (1996), detailing his time running the UFO desk, and co-authored books on the Rendlesham Forest incident.

Pope advocates for governments to take UAP seriously as a potential national security issue and has been a vocal supporter of greater government transparency. He has served as a media consultant on several UAP-themed documentary productions.