News and Blog

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…

Research explores how communities can work together to bring about positive change. Academics will investigate how citizens, civil society organisations and policymakers are collaborating to tackle some of society’s most pressing problems. WISERD has secured £1.6m of funding from the UKRI Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for the three-year research programme, ‘People, Places, and…

“Working from home? It’s so much nicer if you’re a man” writes Emma Beddington in a column for The Guardian, which mentions that “60% of men had a dedicated room for work at home and only 40% of women”, according to the latest findings from the Skills and Employment Survey 2024. (The Guardian, 01/06/25)

“Professionals are losing control of their work,” writes Sarah O’Connor in a column for the Financial Times, which explores the findings of the Skills and Employment Survey led by WISERD’s Professor Alan Felstead of Cardiff University. (Financial Times, 27/05/25)

On 13 May 2025, Dr Sophie Bartlett, an ADR Wales research associate based at WISERD, at Cardiff University, presented education research at ‘Science and the Senedd’, the Royal Society of Chemistry’s 20th annual event held at the Senedd and the Pierhead in Cardiff Bay. The event was sponsored by the Deputy Presiding Officer of the…

Based on his previous research on working at home – some of which has been published by WISERD – Professor Alan Felstead has submitted written evidence to the House of Lords  Committee on Home Based Working. This follows Professor Felstead’s invitation to give oral evidence to the first session of the Committee in early March….

Horserace Politics (HRP) offers a pioneering platform that enables users to predict the outcomes of political events in a competitive, gamified environment. HRP is led by WISERD academics Drs Matthew Wall and Louis Bromfield (both at Swansea University’s Department of Politics, Philosophy and International Relations) in collaboration with Focus Games Ltd. – a commercial partner…