News and Blog

The Department for Business and Trade recently released the latest official statistics for trade union membership in the UK. Figures suggest that the long-term decline in union membership has maybe stabilised in recent years. Across the four nations of the UK, Scotland exhibited the largest rise in union membership – increasing from 27% in 2024 to…

My name is Jemma and I am a researcher at WISERD working on the Building Social Value and Fair Work in Construction project. The project explores how the construction sector can create real opportunities for people facing barriers to employment. The construction industry in Wales is facing skills shortages, with thousands of vacancies remaining unfilled…

Horse Race Politics is a free, gamified website that allows users to predict various political outcomes, notably that of the 2026 Welsh Senedd election. It is the third iteration of a platform I built for my MSc and PhD research. This time, it has been designed and built in collaboration with our partners, Focus Games,…

In South Wales, the Community Impact Initiative (The Cii) is transforming lives through hands-on construction projects. By renovating vacant homes with the help of local participants, The Cii creates opportunities for personal growth, skill-building, and community regeneration. As part of WISERD’s Building Social Value and Fair Work in Construction project, The Cii stands out as…

Randomised control trials (RCTs) are often described as the ‘gold standard’ for testing whether new treatments or interventions work. In this blog, Dr Ian Thomas who leads the ADR Wales Housing and Homelessness thematic area, looks at the use of linked administrative data as part of RCTs. Drawing on a pilot trial of an intervention for…

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Kate Moles, Cardiff University and Safia Bailey, Cardiff University More than 7.5 million people immerse themselves in lakes, rivers, seas and lidos every year in the UK. But getting in the water means getting in pollution too for most…

Concerns about living in a “post-truth” society – where evidence struggles to compete with misinformation, ideology and emotion – are now familiar. From vaccine hesitancy to climate change denial, public debates increasingly hinge not on a lack of information, but on how people judge evidence, expertise and uncertainty. These concerns are often framed as a problem…

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Aaron Thierry, Cardiff University In Brownsville, Texas, three members of the Galvan family died after a malfunctioning air conditioner left them exposed to extreme heat. Aged between 60 and 82, all three had chronic health conditions, including diabetes and…

As a part of our Academy of Medical Sciences funded project on civil society and indigenous languages in India, we have conducted workshops among indigenous tribal communities in Rajasthan and Kerala, and discussed the issues and challenges they face, including safeguarding their culture, language and everyday socio-economic life. By way of context, Rajasthan is home…

As part of my research on the new Building social value and fair work in the construction industry in Wales UKRI ESRC-funded WISERD Project, I’m exploring how the construction sector can create real opportunities for people facing barriers to employment. One powerful example of this in action is SibiNet, an initiative that’s opening doors for people…