National Centre for Social Research
Researcher
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Researcher
£28,725- £32,500 depending on experience
Location: London (Hybrid - 2-3 days per week in the London office, depending on business needs)
Team: Policy Research Centre
Instant Impact in partnership with NatCen (The National Centre for Social Research) are hiring Researchers to join their Policy Research Centre.
This is an excellent opportunity for someone looking to build their career in social research and evaluation, while contributing to work that helps shape policy and improve people's lives.
The Policy Research Centre works as one integrated unit across a broad range of policy areas, including health and health inequalities, health services, work and wellbeing, children and families, income, community, and crime and justice. You will be placed within a team based on your experience and interests, while also having opportunities to work across different areas and projects.
You'll work alongside experienced researchers, supporting the delivery of high-quality research and evaluation projects for clients and stakeholders. You will gain early exposure to both qualitative and quantitative research methods, build your project delivery skills, and contribute to evaluations of services and policy measures that help inform decisions and drive positive change.
Key Responsibilities
- Support the design and delivery of social research and evaluation projects.
- Contribute to literature reviews, evidence reviews and systematic reviews, with support from more experienced colleagues.
- Undertake qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis, depending on your background and project needs.
- Support data collection activities, including one-to-one interviews, workshops and stakeholder engagement activity.
- Support the development of research tools, including questionnaires, discussion guides and evaluation frameworks.
- Contribute to high-quality reports, presentations and research outputs.
- Assist with project management activities to help ensure delivery against agreed timelines and quality standards.
- Work across multiple projects at the same time, managing priorities effectively and communicating clearly with project teams.
- Contribute to proposal writing and business development activity where required.
- Manage research data in line with organisational policies, ethical standards and data protection requirements.
- Take part in communities of practice, learning activities and wider organisational initiatives.
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Skills, Knowledge and Expertise
- An undergraduate degree in a relevant discipline, or equivalent experience.
- A degree or experience with a strong research element, such as a dissertation, research project or applied research component.
- Research methods training, coursework or practical research experience.
- An understanding of social research methods and experience in one or more of the following areas: quantitative research and analysis, qualitative research, survey research, evaluation, or impact evaluation.
- Experience contributing to research, evaluation or evidence review projects through employment, consultancy, internships, placements, postgraduate study or university research projects.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to produce clear, accurate work.
- Good organisational skills, with the ability to manage competing priorities across more than one project.
- Strong analytical skills and attention to detail.
- The ability to work collaboratively within project teams and build positive working relationships.
- A proactive, reliable and accountable approach, with the confidence to take ownership of tasks and follow through on commitments.
- A willingness to work on unfamiliar research tasks with appropriate support and training.
- A genuine interest in the relationship between research, policy and practice.
- A commitment to continuous learning and professional development.
Desirable experience
- A postgraduate qualification in a relevant discipline.
- Around two years of post-graduate research experience, although this is not essential.
- Experience working in academia, a research organisation, consultancy or research agency.
- Experience working on commissioned social research or evaluation projects.
- Experience using qualitative or quantitative analysis software, such as NVivo, SPSS, R or Stata.
- Practical experience of quantitative social research, including analysing survey or administrative data using statistical software and applying methods beyond basic descriptive analysis.
- Qualitative research experience, including interviews, coding or analysis.
- A health sciences background, or experience in health, wellbeing, children and families, income, community, or crime and justice research.
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If you're an early-career researcher who is interested in producing high-quality, independent research that informs policy and supports better decision making, we'd love to hear from you.
Benefits
As well as a competitive salary and excellent working environment, including a home/office hybrid working environment, you will be working for the largest independent social research organisation in the UK. We are proud of the benefits we offer our employees which include:
- 25 days holiday, plus 8 bank holidays, and flexible working
- Generous company pension scheme
- Life insurance and health cash plan
- Cycle to Work scheme and season ticket loan
- Career development, professional subscriptions support and mentoring support from industry-leading experts
- Access to internal training in research methods, project management and analysis to support your development early in your research career
About the National Centre for Social Research
At The National Centre for Social Research, we believe that social research has the power to make life better. By really understanding the complexity of people's lives and what they think about the issues that affect them, we give the public a powerful and influential role in shaping services that can make a difference to everyone.
As an independent, not-for-profit organisation, we're able to focus our time and energy on meeting our clients' needs and delivering social research that works for society.
Our Values & Behaviours
We Are Curious
- Applies curiosity and rigour to research questions, evidence and data.
- Uses insight to understand complex social policy issues and contribute to high-quality research.
We Move with Purpose
- Works collaboratively to deliver research projects, outputs and proposals to a high standard.
- Manages priorities effectively across multiple projects and contributes to work that informs policy and practice.
We Act with Integrity
- Handles research data ethically and in line with data protection requirements.
- Produces accurate, independent and transparent research outputs.
We are proud to say we are a Disability Confident Committed Employer, so if you require any reasonable adjustments during the interview process please make us aware and we will endeavour to support you to help showcase your best self during our hiring process.
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