While our Research roles vary across teams and departments, they are united by a structured approach to understanding problems, as well as a flexible approach to solving them.
Joining our colleagues here, you will analyse and interpret existing data to provide guidance to Policy teams, based on current evidence.
Working across the department, you will ensure a multidisciplinary approach to complex questions, and you will represent the Defra Group in the wider research community.
Operational Research
Here, you will share knowledge and seek new opportunities to increase the impact of Operational Research within the Defra Group. You will work in embedded teams alongside policy and evidence professionals, finding analytical and innovative solutions to complex policy and corporate problems.
From applying systems approaches and modelling, to simulating physical or social systems to help establish the likely impact of different policy options on stakeholders, you will find huge scope to impact on important decision-making.
You could be forecasting trends and identifying correlations in complex datasets, or anticipating the likely future needs of a Policy area and ways in which these can be addressed, or even identifying the factors that drive demand for a government service.
Social Research
Putting people at the heart of policy making, our Social Researchers play an essential role in helping Defra understand the context in which policy is delivered and its likely impact.
Here, you will be on the team that is part of the Government Social Research profession, supported by the Government Social and Economic Research Team in HM Treasury.
We work in every Policy directorate across the Defra Group, addressing issues such as reducing air pollution, planning the future of farming, and addressing marine pollution. Within any one of these areas, you will help to frame and contextualise the challenge and identify what works as a solution, as well as measuring how people and communities are affected by government decisions.
Research roles fall within our Analyst category.