News and Blog

The 7th Foundational Economy Conference, entitled ‘Making things work: social innovation for liveability’ was held at sbarcIspark on the 10th and 11th of September 2024. It brought together researchers and practitioners in themed sessions that explored foundational issues and interventions from Wales, the rest of the UK and all across Europe. Our challenge is making…

The UK’s new government has promised to take action to prevent homes ‘turning into 24/7 offices’.  The risk of ‘always on’ working has grown since the pandemic with the boundaries of home and work blurred for many more working people. Around a quarter of workers, for example, now report working some of the time at…

In June, Welsh Higher Education Brussels (WHEB) hosted a group of early and mid-career researchers from WISERD, as part of their work in supporting researcher networking for future funding bids to Horizon Europe and other funding programmes. The group, from Aberystwyth University, Bangor University, Cardiff University and Swansea University, had meetings with key European organisations,…

During the General Election campaign, there was a deluge of political information, leaving many confused about which best fits their views. To tackle this issue, a project co-led by Swansea University and sponsored by WISERD created a new online voting tool. WhoGetsMyVote allows voters to match their positions on key policy issues to those of…

Dr. Robert French is academic lead of ADR Wales’s education research programme. In this blog, he discusses his contribution to an inquiry begun by the UK Parliament examining persistent absence from school.  Levels of persistent absence from school amongst children have doubled since the Covid-19 pandemic. Statistics from the Department for Education show that, in England, one…

On the 3rd and 4th July, we held our WISERD Annual Conference 2024 at the University of South Wales and welcomed over 140 delegates from across the UK and beyond. Over 100 excellent posters and presentations come together under this year’s theme of ‘Aspiring to achieve a fairer society’. Professor Martin Steggall, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research)…

The UK’s new government has promised to take action to “promote a positive work-life balance for all workers”, and to prevent homes “turning into 24/7 offices”. The risk of “always on” working has grown since the pandemic, with technology meaning that work is often within easy reach. Legislation allowing workers to disconnect from work has been increasingly adopted around Europe, in…

In October 2023, I started an internship with Victim Support. Part of my role was to conduct a literature review in preparation for the production of an accessible report exploring the experiences of victims of hate crime through recent, pre-existing academic research in the field. The main focus of the internship was to make academic…

On the 3rd and 4th July, we held our WISERD Annual Conference 2024 at the University of South Wales. Here are just some of the photographs taken throughout the event by Michael Hall.

The official launch of Cymru Wledig LPIP Rural Wales, the Rural Wales Local Policy and Innovation Partnership, took place at the Senedd on 10 July, marking the start of a new three-year project, that will use research and innovation to address the challenges facing rural Wales. The project is hosted by WISERD and the Rural…