Job Description
Position Details
Department: City REDI
Location: University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham UK
Grade/Band: Grade 6
Hourly rate: £15.26 plus holiday pay (2.77)
Casual contract from 01/07/2023 to 01/09/2023
Closing date: Friday 9th June 2023
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Our offer to you
People are at the heart of what we are and do.
The University of Birmingham is proud to have been a part of the City of Birmingham and the wider region for over 100 years, and we are equally proud to be recognised as a leading global university. We want to attract talented people from across the city and beyond, support them to succeed, and celebrate their success.
We believe there is no such thing as a typical member of staff and that diversity is a source of strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation, and debate. We warmly welcome people from all backgrounds and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment where diversity is at the heart of who and what we are, and how we work.
The University is situated in leafy Edgbaston and there are excellent transport links to our beautiful campus, including main bus routes and a train station on site. On campus we have a state-of-the-art sports centre with pool, shops, places to eat and drink, our own art gallery, museum and botanical gardens.
Find out more about the benefits of working for the University of Birmingham
Background
The team is an innovative hybrid approach of academic, policy research and support staff delivering relevant and impactful research with local, national and international partners. Five professors/associate professors with expertise in international business, local and regional economic development, innovation and entrepreneurship, skills and labour markets lead an inter-disciplinary team focused on a place-based approach to city region growth. All embedded within a Triple A rated Business School and Russell Group university.
Role Summary
The successful applicant will work with members of the team on one of the projects listed below. It is proposed that the intern will be employed for 6-8 weeks. When submitting your application please list your preferred project choices.
Main Duties
The post will contribute to: Producing policy outputs (such as research reports, policy briefings, blogs and presentations). The wider WMREDI programme of academic research, policy engagement and impact and knowledge exchange. Wider City-REDI activities, such as partner research projects and consultancy, external engagement and support the development of practical tools and products and services in the above areas. The post holder will contribute to quantitative and qualitative research and analysis.
Person Specification
- Strong academic performance
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Experience or knowledge of public policy, economics, human geography, labour market studies, management and business studies or applied social science.
- Knowledge of the application of qualitative methods, survey methods, interviews and impact evaluation.
- Ability to prioritise own work under pressure.
- Ability to work with initiative and think creatively.
- Confidence to express new ideas and approaches.
- Evidence of being able to plan a schedule of work and to deliver the plan to a strict deadline.
- Ability to work within a team and collaboratively across the organisation.
- This internship is open to students from all degree disciplines.
List of Projects:
- Abigail Taylor a.taylor.7@bham.ac.uk
The title of this project is ‘Making the most of international leadership learning in Birmingham and Leipzig: changing perspectives, challenges, and opportunities’. The project forms part of the WMREDI research programme.
The project investigates what motivates cities to learn internationally from each other, particularly following austerity and Brexit. It explores partnership working between Birmingham (UK) and Leipzig (Germany). These cases are chosen for their different governance structures and because they are twinned cities with similarities as large metropolitan centres/regional hubs with existing relations through the EuroCities Network. Whilst the two cities have existing partnerships, the research looks to explore how the different contexts in which cities sit may influence place leadership approaches. The research investigates the types of partnerships that have taken place between Birmingham and Leipzig over the last thirty years, the barriers to developing partnerships between the two cities, factors facilitating such partnerships and future opportunities for the two cities to learn from each other to support local economic development.
As an intern on this project, you will be working alongside City-REDI researchers and policy analysts. You would be assisting in finding examples of partnership working between Birmingham and Leipzig, conducting qualitative interviews in German with local government and university representatives in Leipzig and analysing themes emerging from the interviews. The intern will have the opportunity to contribute to the development of an academic journal article. This position provides an excellent opportunity to develop skills in qualitative interviews and analysis, develop understanding of local government, contemporary policy issues and develop academic writing skills. We would expect the successful applicant to have strong qualitative research skills, excellent written English and proficient (near native or native) German language skills. For informal inquiries about the internship, please contact the Project Lead, Dr Abigail Taylor a.taylor.7@bham.ac.uk
- University of Wolverhampton – Joanne Mills J.Mills8@wlv.ac.uk and Laura Caulfield L.Caulfield@wlv.ac.uk
Social prescribing for children and young people
WMREDI is collaboration that includes nearly all universities within the West Midlands and therefore WMREDI internship can be with a partner institution. In this case Institute of Community Research and Development (ICRD) at the University of Wolverhampton in collaboration with the University of Wolverhampton.
This project you would be working on is investigating the economic and employability benefits of social prescribing for young people in the West Midlands. The project is looking at current policy, regional data sources, and new evidence, in inform youth social prescribing interventions in the region and develop a novel framework for evaluation measures to capture how such work has an impact on the employability and economic status of service users.
As intern on this project, you would be assisting in finding examples of good practice from existing evaluations to build into the framework and contribute to the framework itself and the development of a published report arising from it. This position provides excellent opportunity to develop skills in evaluative thinking and practice which are highly in demand as many roles in public sector and consultancy involve sometime working as an evaluator. We would expect the successful applicant to have good analytical skills, some understanding of evidenced-based outcomes, and some experience in undertaking critical literature reviews, primary research (e.g. developing questionnaires, interviewing) and secondary data analysis. You may wish to look at What is Evaluation and Careers in evaluation pages on the UK Evaluation Society website before applying.
More information about the project can be found at https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/business/research/research-projects/city-redi/wm-redi/theme-5/social-prescribing-for-young-people-in-the-west-midlands.aspx .
- Kelvin Humphreys k.humphreys.1@bham.ac.uk
Business case options appraisal process
Exploratory research into the quality of the options appraisal process in business case development practice. This would involve reviewing real-world business cases and interviewing/surveying practioners in the field across a range of organisations and then mapping the different process flows in reality versus the ideal-state prescribed in the Better Business Cases and Green Book materials.
(This could form the start of a larger piece of work into the reasons and costs of weaknesses in the options appraisal process. Simon seemed interested in this topic at the Writing Retreat.)
Alternatively...
Multiplier & additionality factor database
We are aiming to compile a database of multipliers, including additionality factors, to support business case development as part of our toolkit. This would involve finding and reviewing project business cases and other evaluations across policy areas including innovation, skills and sustainability. The multipliers and additionality factors would then require assessment for the quality of evidence against pre-determined criteria and standards.
(Alice and I were about to kick off this work and so I wouldn't necessarily want to wait months to begin.)
- Charlotte Hoole c.hoole@bham.ac.uk
The title of this project is ‘Key Megatrends Affecting the West Midlands Region – looking to 2035’. The project is being carried out in association with the West Midlands Combined Authority and Midlands Engine.
The project investigates megatrends in the West Midlands, UK. A megatrend is a major movement, pattern or trend emerging that has a transformative impact on business, economy, society, cultures, places and personal lives. In particular, we will be examining how the following key trends are affecting the West Midlands: 1) business models and innovation, 2) development in work, training and broader implications for economic geography, 3) demography, generational issues and health, 4) energy and net zero, and 5) future mobility. The project will look to 2035 and will make recommendations for powers, interventions and policies at the local and regional level. It builds on previous work carried out by City-REDI that focused on how megatrends were impacting on urban centres in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.
As an intern on this project, you will work alongside City-REDI researchers and policy analysts. You will assist in undertaking a review of literature and policy documents, the analysis of key local and regional statistics and report writing in relation to some of the five themes set out above. You may also be asked to contribute to blogs and policy briefings published on the City-REDI website.
The internship is suited to someone with interest in contemporary policy issues and provides an excellent opportunity to gain insight into local and regional government bodies and policy development. The position will also assist the applicant in developing their skills in quantitative and qualitative methods and reporting on policy. We would expect the successful applicant to have some existing research skills in qualitative methods and secondary data analysis and excellent written English. For informal inquiries about the internship, please contact the Project Lead, Dr Charlotte Hoole c.hoole@bham.ac.uk .
- Stuart Mitchell s.mitchell@bham.ac.uk
Asset Mapping exercise
Undertake an asset mapping activity for the Local Policy Local Policy Innovation Partnerships (LPIP) Coordination Hub. Identifying activities, institutes and organisations that might help the LPIPs to achieve their aims:
These activities, institutes and organisations will fit into the following themes:
Inclusive and sustainable local economic performance
living and working sustainably in a greener economy
Innovation
Skills
Communities in their places
Felt experiences
Pride in place and cultural recovery
The mapping activity will then be used to build a directory on the LPIP Hub website which will act as resource for members of the LPIPs to direct them to useful website to help them with their work.
- Chloe Billing c.a.billing@bham.ac.uk
The Midlands Space Cluster: Space sector strengths, Underpinning assets and Market opportunities
The aim of this project is the understand the current space sector strengths, underpinning assets, market opportunities and local priorities within the Midlands region.
An important part of the region’s strengths and underpinning assets is local universities, which cover not only the development of basic science and research, teaching of the workforce, but also the translation of ‘space-based solutions’ into useful products, technologies and services.
As an intern on this project, you would be assisting in finding best-practice examples of university-based space research and education programmes that are being developed within and outside the region. This will involve desk-based research, as well as, helping to conduct interviews. You will then contribute the development of a published report arising from it.
The UK space Agency –is the funder of this project – and was established in 2010 to provide a clear, single voice for the UK space ambitions. Their ambition is to capture 10% of the global space market by 2030 – and they would like to see the sector growth across all parts of the UK – aligning with the Central Government’s levelling up agenda.
- Matt Lyons m.lyons@bham.ac.uk
Economic Impact of International Students
The purpose of this project is to understand the potential economic impact international students have on the West Midlands economy. International students make up a significant share of universities intake each year. International students contribute to the local economy through various channels, both in the short-term and in the long-term. There are various methodological approaches to evaluating this contribution from economic impact studies using input-output and CGE analysis, to environmental accounting approaches.
This project will include i) an evaluation of the academic and grey literature on the role of international students in regional economies. ii) use secondary data sources to provide some context to the scale and trends of international students within the UK and West Midlands iii) make some tentative steps towards evaluating the wider impact of international students on the economy of the West Midlands.
- Annum Rafique a.rafique@bham.ac.uk
Understanding the role of university-based assets on innovation in SMEs. A Framework for Incubation Support
Innovation policy has always been central to the UK government's agenda to reduce regional disparities and increase economic activity. The government aims to increase regional innovation through increasing public R&D expenditure, especially in regions lagging behind London.
We are conducting a study focusing on university-based incubation assets, which are physical facilities dedicated to the translation, development and knowledge exchange of technological or scientific innovation, leading to improvement in products, processes or services. We will examine the workings of Tyseley Energy Park (TEP) and STEAMhouse, located in the West Midlands, which supports several SMEs' innovation practices through incubation activities. We are looking for a motivated individual who would be responsible for summarising the literature and collecting data regarding the outcome of the support provided by the university-based assets.
View our staff values and behaviours here
Valuing excellence, sustaining investment
We value diversity and inclusion at the University of Birmingham and welcome applications from all sections of the community and are open to discussions around all forms of flexible working.
The University of Birmingham restricts all students to working up to 15 hours per week during term time. If your application is successful and your course does not follow the usual academic term timetable (e.g. PGT, PGR or PhD student), you and your supervisor must formally agree vacation periods if this role exceeds 15 hours per week. In addition to this, please be aware if you are an International student you will be required to apply to the Registry for the appropriate Authorised Absence.
You are only eligible to apply to this role if you are a current University of Birmingham student. If you are not a University of Birmingham student your application will not be considered.
To work you will need to carry out a right to work check. These checks will need to be completed prior to work commencing.