Principal Researcher - London, United Kingdom - Nesta

Nesta

Verified Company

London, United Kingdom

1 week ago

Posted by:

Tom O´Connor

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Description

We are recruiting for a Principal Researcher - A Fairer Start Mission

About Nesta
We are Nesta, the UK's innovation agency for social good. We design, test and scale solutions to society's biggest problems.

Our three missions are to give every child a fair start, help people live healthy lives, and create a sustainable future where the economy works for both people and the planet.

For over 20 years, we have worked to support, encourage and inspire innovation.

We work in three roles:

as an innovation partner working with frontline organisations to design and test new solutions, as a venture builder supporting new and early stage businesses, and as a system shaper creating the conditions for innovation.

Harnessing the rigour of science and the creativity of design, we work relentlessly to change millions of lives for the better.

The role

About this mission:
A Fairer Start

We want every child to have the fairest possible start in life, so they can thrive and realise their potential.

Nesta's Fairer Start Mission is on a 10-year endeavour to close the gap in school readiness between those growing up in poverty and their peers across the UK.

To achieve this, we focus our work on strengthening the support that disadvantaged families receive to improve the home learning environment, cope with financial pressures and/or access high-quality formal childcare.

Leveraging Nesta's multiple capabilities, we use a multi-pronged approach to maximise the chances that change happens.

For example, we work with families and frontline partners to design and deliver interventions to support the home learning environment, and evaluate their effectiveness at scale; we study the impacts of existing policies to make policy recommendations; we invest in ventures to create social impact through business; we build coalitions and campaigns to shift attitudes and norms.

Whatever the approach we take, we strive to be evidence-led and impact-focused, and to measure the impact of our activities on our mission goal.

As a Principal Researcher, you will:

Work alongside a talented team of 20 with an unusual blend of skills
ranging from data analytics and behavioural science to design and communications.
Play a key role in undertaking highquality and innovative research to inform our approach to reducing early childhood inequalities and evaluate the impact of the solutions we design and aim to scale.
Design and implement highquality research protocols, including experimental and quasiexperimental evaluations of the solutions that we design and aim to test
Provide methodological guidance on a range of projects across the mission team
Supervise and mentor junior researchers and quality assure their work
Disseminate research findings to relevant stakeholders
Build relevant research partnerships with academic and nonacademic organisations
Contribute to the mission's strategic thinking through your knowledge of the evidence base and analysis of existing datasets
Have opportunities to collaborate with and learn from other researchers in the team, Nesta's Director of Research and Heads of Qualitative and Quantitative research, as well as others with research, data science, behavioural science and design expertise across other teams at Nesta.

You will report to one of the members of the AFS MIssion Leadership Team. This is a permanent position based in London.

Essential

Qualified to PhD level in a relevant domain or applicable methodological discipline (for example, developmental psychology, health, education, economics, statistics)
Technical expertise in quantitative evaluation methods, including both experimental and quasiexperimental methods
Experience of conducting mixedmethods evaluations
Extensive experience of developing research proposals and analysis plans involving a wide range of data
Expertise and previous experience of research with vulnerable populations, preferably children
A track record of managing research projects, potentially involving multiple partners, and pushing them forward to completion
A capacity and willingness to manage and develop junior colleagues
Ability to guide others in selecting the best approaches to answer their research questions, taking into account practical as well as methodological needs
Experience or demonstrated interest in engaging with public policy at local, national or international levels
Exceptional ability to manage and develop yourself at work; you demonstrate high levels of initiative, and take responsibility for your own workload and development
Collaborative and solutionfocused approach to problem solving
Willingness to work flexibly on topics outside of your immediate expertise
Excellent written and oral communication skills with academic and nonacademic audiences

Desirable: