News and Blog

The Analytical Services division of the Department for the Economy at the Northern Ireland Government will host a launch event for the Northern Ireland findings of the Skills and Employment Survey (SES). Professor Alan Felstead and Rhys Davies from the SES research team will present the results from their forthcoming report, Going Beyond Pay: Job Quality in…

It began with a few small projects—data cleaning, pilot surveys, and summer internships. But today, those pieces form part of a much bigger picture: a growing partnership and a movement with a royal seal of approval that is reshaping how we understand and prevent youth homelessness across the UK. For several years, Professor Pete Mackie…

ADR Wales and Shelter Cymru are delighted to announce a new and innovative secondment that sees Ffion Chant from Shelter Cymru join the ADR Wales Housing and Homelessness research team until 2026. This collaboration is momentous in being the first time someone from a third sector organisation has been seconded into ADR Wales with the aim of acquiring and…

The ADR Wales team within the Welsh Government has been shortlisted for a Civil Service Award, one of the most respected honours recognising excellence across the UK Civil Service. The Civil Service Awards celebrate outstanding achievements across government showcasing inspirational individuals and innovative projects that deliver real benefits for citizens. ADR Wales has been recognised…

In an exciting new collaboration, WISERD’s UnionMaps data has been integrated into Strike Map,  a worker-powered and funded map of industrial action, which has mapped 230,000 strikes since 2020. The combined functionality of both platforms will allow users to see union strength in the areas where industrial action is happening. Rhys Davies, WISERD co-director and…

The narrative around science education in the UK and globally is often framed around a “leaky pipeline”. While every pupil is required to study science until age 16, many step away from it beyond this point. Reasons for disengagement are multifactored: gender differences, socioeconomic barriers, subject popularity (maths and biology dominate over physics), and now,…

ADR Wales has been awarded almost £26million to continue its ground-breaking work using administrative data to inform public policy and improve lives across Wales. The funding will run from 2026-2031 and was officially announced today by the Rt Hon Mark Drakeford MS during his address to delegates at the ADR UK Conference in Cardiff. Following…

On the 30 June and 1 July, the 15th WISERD Annual Conference took place at Aberystwyth University, welcoming over 130 delegates. The agenda comprised 14 paper sessions, two panels, and three symposia and workshops under the theme of ‘Participation and partnership in a time of precarity and polarisation’. For the first time, this year’s agenda…

From 8 to 11 July 2025, the WISERD Politics and Governance Research Network held a four-day Quantitative Methods Bootcamp at Swansea University. This intensive course was led by Dr Kevin Fahey, Assistant Professor in Politics at Nottingham University and included lectures, practical demonstrations, hands-on practice and group work. Its aim was to provide essential training…

The care home sector is experiencing pressures arising from the fall-out of the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of Brexit on staff shortages, especially impacting on the registered nursing workforce. This is compounded by longer-term financial pressures and on-going staff recruitment concerns, particularly following the latest proposed changes to immigration policy.  The introduction of a…