Chris Taylor

Chris is Professor of Social Sciences at Cardiff University and is the Academic Director of the Cardiff University Social Science Research Park (SPARK). Prior to this he was a Co-Director of the Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research, Data & Methods (WISERD).

Chris has published extensively on a wide range of educational and social issues and has undertaken research across all education sectors, from early years to higher education. This has included government-funded evaluations of the Foundation Phase for all 3-7 year olds in Wales, the Pupil Development Grant and the Welsh Baccalaureate qualification, an ESRC Fellowship studying the geography of growing up in the UK and an ESRC Large Grant on the political economy of school exclusions across the UK. He recently established the WISERD Education Data Lab, utilising education administrative data to support education priorities in Wales and helps convene the annual WISERD Education Multi-Cohort Study (WMCS). He is also part of the PISA 2021 team for England and Wales, working with the University of Oxford and Pearson. Chris is also a member of the ESRC Large Centre on Civil Society in WISERD, leading on a number of work packages on civil society including the impact of graduates on civil society, the intergenerational transmission of civic attitudes and engagement, the role of grandparents in children’s formative years and the opportunities and barriers to children’s participation in civil society.