New policy fellowship for civil servants launched

The Open Innovation Team (OIT) is piloting a new fellowship with the ESRC Research Centre on Micro-Social Change (MiSoC), hosted at the University of Essex.

OIT generates analysis and ideas for policy by working with external experts, typically from academia. Most of the work the unit does is demand-led, with officials commissioning them to help solve policy problems. 

The new fellowship is aimed at SEO-G6 policy officials and analysts, who will be mentored by experienced academics. It’s a part-time programme where officials can access support using quantitative social science data and analysis to answer a specific policy question. Fellows propose a question they would like to research, and they receive guidance and mentorship from world-leading quantitative social scientists.

Proposals need to be focused on one of MiSoc’s areas of interest, which include ‘education and skills’, ‘families and well-being’, ‘ethnicity and migration’ and the ‘labour market and institutions’.

Current fellows come from these government teams:

Head of Ethnicity Analysis and Briefing, Race Disparity Unit, Cabinet Office: This fellowship will form part of a programme to respond to the policy paper, Inclusive Britain, drafted in response to the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities. The research will look at migration patterns to the UK over the past 50 years.

Head of Tax, Department of International Trade: This fellowship aims to understand patterns and trends regarding the backgrounds of non-UK nationals with PhDs, and their value to the economy, to further inform tax policy.

Health Economist, UK Health Security Agency: This fellowship will aim to quantify the impacts of poor mental and physical health arising from the current cost of living crisis, and will consider possible policy responses.