MiSoC policy fellowships bring government and third sector researchers into work alongside MiSoC’s experts to investigate key evidence gaps to support better policy making.
We welcome applications from civil servants and third sector researchers for our new round of policy fellowships, to undertake research on a specific policy question over a period of 3 to 6 months. The research will be guided by one of our leading academics, and each fellow is assigned a PhD student or junior researcher to assist with their analysis.
MiSoC is the ESRC Research Centre on Micro-Social Change, and we specialise in the analysis of data to understand the impact of social change on individuals. 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. We are based at the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex and we will provide office space and access to all our academic resources as part of the fellowship.
We welcome applications for undertaking research in the following policy areas:
- Changing nature of work / changing demand for skills / remote work (led by Dr Ben Etheridge)
- Ethnic minorities and access to family justice / international migration (skills shortages, short and long term integration of immigrants, student migrants) (led by Professor Renee Luthra)
- Labour supply / wage inequality / distributional impact of taxes/transfers / benefits / non-standard employment / intrahousehold inequalities / lifecourse events (led by Dr Silvia Avram)
- Children and food insecurity / obesity / breakfast / school meals / nutrition (led by Professor Birgitta Rabe)
Please email Louise Cullen lcullen@essex.ac.uk if you would like to explore the opportunity further and we will be happy to talk through the process.
Examples of our previous MiSoC Policy Fellows
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, supported by Tomasso Sartori. Read our MiSoC Explainer summarising their findings here.
Sam Denson, Health Economist with the UK Health Security Agency 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. This work was due to inform the previous government’s planned White Paper on Health Inequalities which was not published.
Edward Sidebotham, from the Civil Service Fast Track (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), worked 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. His report is published here