The UK Data Service Data Impact Fellowship is a great opportunity for early career researchers to celebrate their work in this space, to meet like-minded individuals and to learn more about how familiar datasets and analysis techniques are being applied in different spheres. The UK Data Service team do a fantastic job of facilitating the scheme, bringing the fellows together for both networking opportunities but also providing insightful webinars and talks. The grant funding is also hugely beneficial for investing in your development – the flexibility with which the funding can be used allows you to tailor it’s use to whatever you think indonesia rcs data would benefit you most. I also particularly enjoyed helping out at the Poverty in Data event this spring, getting to meet fellow fellows in person, and to hear more about what they are up to with their research. Additionally, I’m appreciative of how accommodating the team have been in fitting the scheme activities around my working schedule, which has at times sadly limited what I have been able to give back to the scheme, but the team have been completely understanding of this.
As for my plans for the future, I’m currently really enjoying my new role at the Youth Futures Foundation, and am really looking forward to getting the programme of work I am leading on off the ground. Working with employers to engage in research and evaluation comes with its challenges, but I’m excited by how the work is taking shape, and the scale of the potential impact the findings could have on the futures of young people from marginalised backgrounds. Given the poor labour market outcomes many individuals with special educational needs and disabilities, from ethnic minorities, and that are care leavers or experienced with the criminal justice system experience, I see this work as critical not just for these individuals but also for society as a whole.