News and Blog

ESRC-Funded PhD Studentship in Social Sciences: Fuel Poverty in Wales

Applications are being sought for a prestigious (1+3 or +3) full time PhD Studentship which will undertake analysis on linked administrative data on fuel poverty and/or energy efficiency in Wales with secondary survey data. This studentship will be linked to the Wales Administrative Data Research Centre, the ESRC-funded initiative led by Swansea University. This studentship is…

WISERD celebrates a successful 2014 Annual Conference

The fifth WISERD Annual Conference was held on 3-4 July 2014 at Aberystwyth University. The event was a great success with nearly 130 delegates and over 70 papers presented throughout the two days. The programme reflected WISERD’s inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional profile, with presentations from researchers from the academic, policy, public and third sectors from across…

Career opportunity: Research Assistant/Associate

An opportunity has arisen for a Welsh speaking research assistant/associate within the WISERDEducation research team. The successful candidate will work closely with schools, teachers and children to establish and maintain a series of longitudinal studies across Wales, collecting and analysing qualitative and quantitative data. WISERDEducation, which commenced in 2013, is a one million pound three year…

‘Civil Society’ linked studentship opportunity available

Applications are invited for a three-year ESRC-funded PhD studentship linked to the WISERD ‘Civil Society’ research programme. The studentship, which will examine the contemporary social significance of literary representations of coal-mining communities, will commence in the Autumn of 2014. While the studentship will be based at Cardiff University, the study is expected to make use of the…

WISERD 2014 Annual Conference

Wales’ largest social science conference is taking place at Aberystwyth University this week. Now in its fifth year, the WISERD Annual Conference brings together practitioners, policy makers and social scientists to discuss and debate themes such as health; social care; wellbeing; education; culture & values; environment; labour markets; devolution; and civil society. Established as an…

What role do the political parties think the voluntary sector should play in delivering welfare services? How have parties’ ideas changed over the post-war period? And, what impact has devolution had… ?

These are some of the questions that I set out to address in a study that is to be published this month. Despite an extensive academic literature extending back decades – perhaps surprisingly, there has been little work on elections and how the political parties envision the role of the third – or voluntary –…

WISERD at the Workers Educational Association Conference

Dr Stephen Drinkwater gave a presentation Workers Educational Association in Llanelli to celebrate their centenary. On Saturday 7th June, Dr Drinkwater delivered a presentation focusing on recent and possible future economic and demographic developments in the Llanelli area.   The event, held at the Furnace Theatre, was well attended with guests including the Mayor and…

WISERD Project to feature on BBC Coast programme

BBC Coast presenter ‘stress tested’ by WISERD biomapping project. This week the WISERD funded biomapping research project (led by Dr Jon Anderson (CPLAN) and Professor Chris Taylor) ‘stress-tested’ the BBC presenter Nicholas Crane for the forthcoming series of the popular television programme ‘Coast‘. The research project uses ‘qsensor’ technology to quantify the affect of the built,…