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Research Associate in public policy or legislation

Details


1097678


UCL


16/06/2025


Other - See Job


Part time; 20 days in total across 6 weeks (candidate can decide how to allocate hours within the dates)


Not Applicable

Pay


£27.25


£5.10

Description

Role

Unitemps are recruiting for a Research Associate in public policy or legislation. This role is for a June 16th (or soon after) start date and has a projected end date of July 31st 2025. This is a part time role for 20 days in total across 6 weeks (can be a few weeks full time or 6 weeks part time, up to the candidate). Payment is set at £27.25 per hour + holiday pay. This role will be home based/remote working.
 

This role is to support a new project aimed at building the resilience and independence of UK science called “ANCHOR: Advancing National Commitment to Health and science, Open data & Resilient oversight”.

Healthy democracies rely on independent science to inform decisions and hold power to account—but this makes science a prime target for political interference. Around the world, governments have exploited claims of elitism, budget cuts and opaque appointments to weaken evidence bodies, exacerbated by social media–driven misinformation. In the UK, many arms-length institutions lack clear safeguards. With increasing risks to institutional independence, now is the time to assess vulnerabilities and build robust, evidence-based resilience.

ANCHOR will explore and address vulnerabilities in the UK's evidence and data-providing arms-length bodies. It includes a rapid review of legal and regulatory structures, a policy roundtable convened by UCL Policy Lab with stakeholders including the British Academy, and public polling. The project involves PI Christina Pagel, Co-Is Professor Martin McKee (LSHTM) and James Baggaley (UCL Policy Lab). The aim is to produce actionable insights and a report to influence future policy debates and reinforce the independence and resilience of key institutions.

The first step is the rapid review of current legal and regulatory structures of UK science arms-length bodies, and potential vulnerabilities to future political interference.

Duties and responsibilities

The role is to:

1) make a list of UK arms-lengths bodies involved in generating scientific evidence or data to support policy making, or help support delivery of evidence-based policy. Examples include the Office for National Statistics, UK Research and Innovation funding bodies, the Met Office and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).

2) Using academic literature, grey literature, news articles and government documentation to document the current safeguards and vulnerabilities for each body from political interference across domains including:

a. Legal protections

b. Autonomy of institutions

c. Process for appointing leadership

d. Funding mechanisms

e. Policy influence

f. Academic freedom

3) Draw together the learning to highlight which bodies are most protected and which are most vulnerable, and what critical parts of UK science might be lost (e.g. if UKHSA was shut down, what would that mean for disease and vaccination rate surveillance?).

4) Highlight key features that are protective that could be considered as possible options for more vulnerable arms lengths bodies (e.g. existence of body mandated by law; independent appointment of agency leadership; independent allocation of funding).

If additional time is available:

a) What is the status of similar bodies in other European countries?

b) Can we learn from other contexts what potential protections might be put in place?

The time available is tight, and so pragmatic prioritization will be necessary and agreed with the project leads.

The days and times of day worked are entirely flexible and to be carried out remotely (no onsite time at UCL required), but the deadline is 31st July 2025 (although there may be scope to push this back to early August). There will be weekly check-ins with the project leads and ad-hoc meetings as required.

NOTE: there may be opportunities for further funded work on this project during the autumn of 2025.

Skills and experience

Essential

  • Good Undergraduate degree (at least 2:1)
  • Familiarity with literature search methodologies
  • Fluency in EnglishAbility to scan large amounts of information and summarise the key points
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills
  • Ability to work independently and to tight timelines
  • Initiative in seeking out information from a variety of sources
  • Experience of writing reports and delivering presentations

Desirable

  • Graduate degree (or enrolment in a graduate degree program)
  • Experience of one of the following fields: social science, politics, economics, policy, health policy, law
  • Experience of working within, or research with one or more of: the NHS, local government, national government, think tanks.

Location
UCL - home based/remote working

Additional information

This job will close for applications at 11.59pm on Sunday June 8th. Interviews will be held shortly after (June 10th or 11th).

*Please note to be eligible to work within this role, you must have the right to work in the UK, be physically based in the UK and be able to travel to our London based office for a RTW check (if required).

*If you have a full-time contract of employment with UCL, you are not able to work through UCL Unitemps at the same time.

Unitemps reserves the right to close this advert for applications prior to the date specified above, if a high volume of suitable applications are received so pleased don't delay applying.

Unitemps payroll is monthly, one month in arrears, please see the payroll dates here.

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