POST launches new research collaboration with academics based in Parliament

At an event in Parliament, the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST), in collaboration with the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), announced the appointment of three new academic ‘Thematic Research Lead’ roles, funded by ESRC.

The three postholders will each join new thematic policy hubs which will bring together staff from POST, the House of Commons Library and Select Committee teams, ensuring greater co-ordination and a better flow of research information through Parliament.

Speakers at the launch event included Sir Lindsay Hoyle MP, Speaker of the House of Commons, Adam Afriyie MP, Chair of the POST Board, Professor Alison Park, Interim CEO of the ESRC and Sir Philip Vallance, Government Chief Scientific Advisor.

The Thematic Research Leads will strengthen links to the research community bringing topical, policy-focused research to the desks of MPs, Lords and those working in Parliament. Based on the concept of Chief Scientific Advisers, they will ensure a strong evidence base for debate and legislation.

For nearly ten years, the ESRC has collaborated with Parliament by investing in the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST). Together, they have embedded social science research in Parliament, developed a world-leading Knowledge Exchange Unit, and established a culture of knowledge exchange between Parliament and the research community.

The appointed researchers

The three Thematic Research Leads are the first to take up these new roles and will begin work in January 2023. Each academic will join a different thematic policy hub, working alongside Parliamentary research staff to share their impartial expertise and deep knowledge of a policy area. They will bring insights from the wider academic community and support horizon scanning to ensure that Parliamentarians and their staff are able to access high quality and relevant research briefings on current and future issues.

The appointed academics and their policy areas are:

Climate and Environment

Dr Tamsin Edwards (Reader in Climate Change, King’s College London) is a climate scientist specialising in quantifying the uncertainties of climate model predictions, particularly for the ice sheet and glacier contributions to sea level rise. She was a Lead Author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report in 2021, a Contributing Author to two IPCC reports in 2019 and 2022, and a co-author of the UK Climate Projections 2018. Tamsin regularly provides advice on climate science to the public, policy makers, media, business and charities. She is an award-winning communicator – most recently, receiving the Royal Meteorological Society Climate Science Communications Award in 2021 – including through her blog for the Public Library of Science, PLoS (All Models Are Wrong), and articles for the Guardian. Tamsin also co-presented the BBC Radio 4 series “39 Ways to Save the Planet”.

International affairs and defence

Dr Kristen A. Harkness is a Senior Lecturer and the Director of the Institute for the Study of War and Strategy in the School of International Relations at the University of St. Andrews. She previously held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame after earning her PhD from Princeton University. Her research focuses on understanding how ethnicity shapes the loyalty and behaviour of military institutions, including under dictatorships, during democratization, and against mass protests. She is the author of When Soldiers Rebel: Ethnic Armies and Political Instability in Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2018) and her work has been published in journals such as Conflict Management & Peace Science, the European Journal of International Security, International Affairs, the Journal of Conflict Resolution, the Journal of Peace Research, and the Journal of Strategic Studies. She also currently serves as an associate editor for Democratization.

Parliament, public administration and constitution

Dr Rick Whitaker is an Associate Professor in Politics at the University of Leicester. His research focuses principally on the UK Parliament, British political parties and the European Parliament. His recent projects include a study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council of how Parliament dealt with the Brexit process and of the divisions within political parties during that time. He has also analysed the strategic use of parliamentary questions under the period of coalition government (2010-15) at Westminster. His research has been published in leading political science journals and he is the author of The European Parliament’s Committees: National Party Influence and Legislative Empowerment. He is the review editor for Government and Opposition and was a visiting fellow at the Australian National University in 2019.

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