Research Associate in Social Policy (Quantitative)

Research Associate in Social Policy (Quantitative)

Job description

The role

We are seeking to appoint a quantitative researcher to work on a study, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, on family change, well-being and social policy.

You will join a small team of researchers, led by Professor Susan Harkness alongside Dr Samuel Mohun Himmelweit (University of Bristol), Dr Silvia Avram (University of Essex) and a postdoctoral research fellow (to be appointed).

The work is being conducted alongside Gingerbread, the UK’s largest single parent charity.

The project aims to understand the complexity of children’s family lives. You will be responsible for analysing a large number of UK secondary data sources,





which you will use to build a robust evidence base to show how family structure has changed over recent decades.

A major focus of the study will be to understand the growth of step-families, and of families where parents share care, and to examine how these changes interact with the social welfare and child maintenance systems.

What will you be doing?

The appointed researcher will be responsible for cleaning and analysing a range of secondary data sources including, but not limited to, the Labour Force Survey, Family Resources Survey, Census data, and the British Household Panel Survey / Understanding Society.

The appointed researcher will be expected to contribute to analysing these secondary data sources, contribute to writing up results and preparing material for publication You will also be expected to assist, as needed, with the organisation of advisory board meetings and dissemination activities.

Occasional travel to London to attend meetings may be required

You should apply if







You should apply if you have a postgraduate qualification in the social sciences and strong quantitative analysis skills, including experience of using Stata.

The project has a strong policy focus, and an interest in impact and engagement with policy makers would be an asset. Those with an interest in the following areas of research are particularly encouraged to apply : family demography, family policy, economic inequality and poverty, social security provision and / or child maintenance policy.