MiSoC has close working collaborations with many types of organisations. We have built these relationships over many decades. We organise and engage with different types of events, both formal and informal. All these collaborations provide a rich and varied environment to share, learn and engage with our research.
Policy Fellows scheme
MiSoC policy fellowships – bringing government researchers into work alongside MiSoC’s experts to investigate key evidence gaps to support better policy making – are continuing for a second term in 2024, after a successful pilot programme in partnership with HM Government Open Innovation Team.
The first three policy fellowships were:
Vasileios Antonopoulos, an Economic Advisor in the Race Disparity Unit worked with Professor Renee Luthra and MiSoC Research Assistant Jonas Kaufman to research a number of action points detailed in Inclusive Britain, the government’s response to the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities. His analysis summary, was published in April 2023 as part of a package of updates, a year after the publication of Inclusive Britain.
Peter Jelfs, Head of Tax, Investment Directorate, Department for Business and Trade, worked with Dr Angus Holford to investigate labour market contributions of UK and foreign-born PhD holders, and the implications for visa, immigration and tax policy, Read our MiSoC Explainer summarising their findings here.
Sam Denson, Health Economist with the UK Health Security Agency has worked with Dr Paul Fisher, supported by ISER PhD student Steven Haworth, to look at existing evidence about the impact of the cost of living crisis on mental and physical health inequalities with a view to informing a White Paper on Health Inequalities which is in preparation.
The MiSoC Policy Fellow scheme was devised as a mechanism to share MiSoC’s expertise in policy-relevant research and analysis of large data sets, with individual government researchers working in a similar area. MiSoC partnered with the UK Government’s Open Innovation Team to identify and match researchers in government departments with academics.
The MiSoC Policy Fellow Scheme provides academic mentoring and reasearch assistance and MiSoC plans to extend its support to other non-government organisations wih researchers looking at policy issues, such as thinktanks and the third sector.
Our new MiSoC Policy Fellows in 2024 are:
Tammana Taznin, from the Department of Health and Social Care, who will be working with Dr Zsofia Boda on how policymakers can address the accessibility challenges associated with digital interventions for mental health barriers to ensure equitable access for adolescents acros diverse socio-economic backgrounds.
Edward Sidebotham, from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, who will be working with Dr Michel Serafinelli, supported by Elena Faieta, on a mixed-methods research study to examine the extent and causes of the Green Skills gap within the British hydropower sector.
Policy Networks
UK Government’s Open Innovation Team – we provide expertise to support their work on rapid evidence reviews, inter-departmental consultations, expert witnesses to reviews and more. Recently we worked closely with the OIT to deliver a special series of seminars on the covid-19 impact.
We are also part of other influential networks, such as the Industry and Parliament Trust, The Conversation, the Universities Policy Engagement Network, and the Eastern Arc, a partnership between the Universities of Essex, Kent and East Anglia.
These provide access to unique events and opportunities such as reviews, contributions for evidence, consultations, and expertise. They also provide many valuable training opportunities for our staff, such as bespoke training from IPT on engaging with Parliament.
Recent examples include:
Department of Work and Pensions Workshop on Areas of Research Interest
Covid-19 special seminar series to UK civil servants across government
Industry and Parliament Trust event on Reducing Childhood Obesity
Read MiSoC Making A Difference in Putting relevant research evidence in front of policy makers
Invited speakers
We often get approached to speak at high-level events and seminars, which demonstrates the quality of our research and our engagement with many different networks and collaborations. Recent examples include the OECD on education during COVID, the Resolution Foundation on multigenerational living and Cumberland Lodge on Rebuilding Social Cohesion
Evidence submissions to Parliament and Government
We actively submit evidence to Parliament and government and contribute to briefings
Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST): Research on the impact of free school meals is cited in Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology Note on Childhood Obesity
UK Parliament PostNote 649 August 2021 : Early Childhood Education and Care
Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities’ call for evidence on ethnic disparities and inequality in the UK (November 2020)
Public Engagement and media
Our ambition is to provide research and evidence to make better informed policies and practices but we also want to inform public understanding. We make our research available to a broad audience through widespread media coverage and public events such as the annual ESRC Festival of Social Science.
Migrants in Theatre
Our research shows that migrants face discrimination in the labour market and suffer under the Hostile Environment from the Home Office, further exacerbated by Brexit. The research is being used to both understand the experiences of migrants in the theatre and to improve their economic positions through artistic work. Theatre is being used as a medium to raise awareness of immigrants’ experiences.
Read more about our collaboration in a recent project in the South East
Supporting local communities
Dr Neli Demireva is an expert on social cohesion. During the covid-19 pandemic she started working with a co-farming project in Cambridgeshire, which provided free fresh food to those in need. At the time there was no way of tracking their impact – especially important to secure more funding for the charity. Dr Demireva developed a free training course to help charities and community groups design a survey and track the impact of their work.