ESRC – National Crime and Justice Laboratory Academic Lead

A 12-month opportunity for a senior academic to provide leadership and strategic guidance to the National Crime and Justice Laboratory at the Home Office.

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is seeking applications for a 12-month opportunity for a senior academic to provide leadership and strategic guidance to the National Crime and Justice Laboratory (NCJL) at the Home Office. The lead academic will advance efforts to derive new insights from Home Office data to guide criminal justice system policy and shape the direction of research, and explore how to make this data available to the academic community.

The lead academic will:

• Work with the Home Office NCJL team to develop the strategy and roadmap for academic engagement with the lab, including how best to do this within existing budget and helping to create a case for further investment for expansion
• Play a pivotal role in leading a paid Academic Advisory Group of six to eight academics.
• Provide guidance and supervision to the government analysts and social researchers working on this project as well as any others who may work on the programme
• Work with the core lab team to determine research priorities and explore routes for commissioning these based on newly acquired data
• Champion the project and raise awareness through engagement with the research community
• Deliver quarterly research seminars with the external research community on a diverse range of relevant topics
• Help to overcome challenges throughout the project, particularly in relation to opening Home Office data and external data-shares with other government departments
• Work with stakeholders to identify pathways to data being made available through secure platforms to the UK academic research community, devising and taking forward activities to achieve this where possible.