Experience

MEL Research

• United Kingdom
• Market Research
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Qualitative Research Director

  • Jul 2023 - Present



Accent MR

• United Kingdom
• Market Research
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Associate Director

  • Nov 2021 - Jul 2023

  • A full service social and market research agency, Accent delivers mixed methods research on strategic issues to clients in the private, public and third sectors. We specialise in research on health and wellbeing, utilities - including water, gas and electricity, travel and in undertaking process and impact evaluations for charities and other national organisations. • Reporting directly to the Managing Director, I both manage client accounts and deliver bespoke qualitative research programmes for senior decision makers and strategic leads within client organisations, tailoring methodological design to deliver the highest quality insights to drive evidence-based policymaking and data-driven decision making and strategy development. • Business development responsibilities include not only proactively managing client accounts but also writing bids, proposal and responding to ITTs and RFQs for commercial clients, charities, LAs and government departments. • Key to my success in this role is understanding clients’ environments and horizons and providing actionable insight that can cut through the noise to allow clarity in recommendations and future direction. • A natural collaborator, I work with colleagues across and beyond Accent, ensuring that the inhouse and broader team play to their strengths in delivering the highest quality outputs. • In this role I manage research budgets, ensure project delivery to agreed timescales, manage a team of researchers and mentor junior and mid-level research colleagues. Show less



Blue Marble Research

• United Kingdom
• Market Research
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Freelance Researcher

  • Jul 2021 - Oct 2021

  • I worked on an interim basis with Blue Marble, a full service social and market research agency, on qualitative, quantitative and ethnographic projects, managing the research process from client briefing through design and fieldwork to analysis and reporting. • I managed recruitment partners, developed discussion guides and interview scripts for qualitative research, undertook in-depth interviews, moderated a number of online focus groups and analysed and reported data to provide clients with strategic insights from the findings. • Clients included government departments, water companies and national charities, with topics covering the environment, water scarcity, water consumption behaviours and customer opinion. Show less



Qa Research

• United Kingdom
• Research
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Research Director, Social Insight & Evaluation

  • Jun 2019 - Feb 2021

  • Qa Research is an award winning, full-service social and market research agency that has provided research, insight and evaluation services to organisations throughout the UK for over 30 years. • Reporting directly to the Managing Director, I was responsible for the agency’s Social Insight and Evaluation function, specialising in qualitative social research, project and programme evaluation, and the measurement of social change initiatives. • Responsible for managing a broad portfolio, encompassing clients from the public, private and charitable sectors, working in fields including health, social care, ageing, education, children and young people (CYP), sport & physical activity and local authority. • Management of research projects from inception to reporting, adhering to the Market Research Society (MRS) Code of Conduct and the Social Research Association (SRA) Research Ethics Guidance. • Tasked with developing existing client accounts and onboarding new clients. Successfully tendered for research contracts of various sizes and values. New clients included national youth charities, education providers and charities supporting older people and those needing long-term care. • Adapted Qa’s qualitative research operation to ‘online first’ during 2020 to ensure business continuity during the COVID-19 pandemic. This resulted not only in our being able to service existing projects, but also lead to qualitative research being made accessible to more clients, thus enabling business development. • Incepted and nurtured collaborative relationships with other research providers including freelancers, academic departments and other commercial research providers, in order to deliver the most comprehensive research solutions to clients. • Responsible for managing a small team of both career-young and experienced social and market researchers, and mentoring colleagues across the business to deliver excellent work whilst developing their own skills and experiences. Show less



Tennis Foundation

• United Kingdom
• Spectator Sports
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Monitoring and Insight Manager

  • Aug 2016 - Jan 2019

  • Recruited to devise/implement a social impact measurement framework, and deliver a programme of mixed methods research to provide evidence against the framework, for Great Britain’s leading tennis charity. • Reporting directly to the Executive Director, accountable for all the Foundation’s research needs, spanning; business insight, output monitoring, project evaluation, and social impact measurement, responsible for managing research from inception to generating and communicating actionable findings. • Introduced a ‘Theory of Change’ approach to project management, process evaluation, and impact measurement. This ensured evidence was used at all stages of delivery, allowing us to maximise resource allocation for the greatest impact on beneficiaries. • Supported the Executive Director in setting and measuring progress towards Tennis Foundation’s strategic aims and objectives. • Prepared a funding bid to Sport England that resulted in British Tennis being awarded £9.65m to grow the game and to improve accessibility to the sport for disabled participants. • Working closely with Sport England, I contributed to the government’s understanding of how to measure their agenda of using sport to drive social change. • Influenced the Senior Management Team in using the best research approaches to measure and communicate the impact of the Foundation’s work. • Educated colleagues across the business on the value of research in the design, management, and evaluation of projects, and supported colleagues in the collection and analysis of research data. • Worked closely with the Foundation’s Head of Communications to produce the insights to support our marcomms strategy, including producing content for the Foundation’s Annual Impact Reports. • Appointed and managed external contractors in the provision of qualitative, quantitative and ethnographic research to support the Foundation’s measurement framework. • Responsible for the Foundation’s Monitoring and Insight budget. Show less



Cyngor Celfyddydau Cymru | Arts Council of Wales

• United Kingdom
• Non-profit Organization Management
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Research and Evaluation Officer

  • May 2015 - Aug 2016

  • Developing the Council’s Research and Evaluation Strategy and Operational Plan for 2016/17. • Managing the Council’s survey of its portfolio of sponsored arts organisations, monitoring their activity and outputs. Creating and improving qualitative and quantitative survey questions, designing eQuestionnaires, collecting, amalgamating and analysing data, reporting and disseminating findings. • Procuring research services, taking the lead on appointing an external evaluator for a £3.5m architecture and regeneration programme across Wales. I specified the evaluation work, shortlisted and appointed the supplier, later finalising the scope and outputs for the project. • Contract management of nationwide household survey research, undertaken by an external agency, negotiating scope and costs, analysing the resulting data and liaising with the supplier to ensure timely, high quality delivery. • Engaging with stakeholders across the business to understand how the research team’s work was meeting organisational needs, identifying shortcomings and gaps in data provision. I used the outcomes to improve outputs and deploy resources more efficiently and effectively. • Calling on my wealth of qualitative and quantitative research experience, I’ve offered advice to arts organisations on collecting and managing their own data, improving the quality and reliability of insights for business development. • Developing and improving the use of management information, and increasing the efficiency of other business processes. Show less



Office for National Statistics

• United Kingdom
• Government Administration
• 700 & Above Employee

• Senior Research Officer (Civil Service Fast Stream)

  • Jun 2013 - May 2015

  • Responsible for developing the UK government’s online data collection solution and strategy for the 2021 Population Census• Emphasis on facilitating the relationship between Census respondents and data users to achieve the highest quality data with the minimum burden, and best user experience, for the UK population• Undertaking developmental quantitative and qualitative research to inform data collection methods, online questionnaire design and to evaluate data quality• Interrogation of secondary data to inform future research directions• Reporting and disseminating research findings and recommending future research, including giving presentations to audiences from expert & senior data users to members of the public• Senior stakeholder engagement & negotiation and public consultation activities • Evaluation of IT systems and technical solutions to support large-scale data collection and storage, including discussion and negotiation with external suppliers• Line management, being responsible for a small team of research and operational colleagues• Coordinating staff training & development and mentoring & coaching team members• Supervising the qualitative interview work of research colleagues Show less

• Methodologist (Civil Service Fast Stream)

  • Apr 2011 - Jun 2013

  • A client-facing role in a team offering bespoke qualitative and developmental research solutions to internal ONS customers and offering research consultancy services to wider government • Project managing an array of qualitative research projects, from inception to dissemination, with a focus on developing existing data collection tools and questionnaires for key UK government metrics• Working closely with clients to understand their goals from research and designing the best approach• Qualitative sample design, recruiting research respondents, devising research methodologies (including creating interview scripts and question topic guides), collecting, collating, analysing and reporting on qualitative data• Conducting in-depth face-to-face and telephone interviews, specialising in the cognitive interviewing technique• Moderating focus groups for the collection of opinion and user feedback data• Developing, designing and testing online quantitative data collection tools, including the use of Blaise, SurveyMonkey and Confirmit software• Managing the work of external research contractors• Training team members and other colleagues in cognitive interviewing and qualitative data analysis• Mentoring junior researchers and administrative staff• Maintaining respondent databases using CRM (client relationship management) software• Successful promotion to the Civil Service Fast Stream, the UK government’s accelerated development programme for senior managers and directors, in October 2011 Show less

• Research Officer

  • Jun 2009 - Apr 2011

  • Responsible for question design and questionnaire programming for the UK Labour Force Survey, a leading source of up-to-date and longitudinal data on work & employment, education and health • Overseeing the work of our Field Operations Office, directing the work of a team of over 1,200 research interviewers across the UK• Data quality checking• Data matching to extend the usefulness of discrete data sources• Quantitative analysis of large datasets using MS Excel, SPSS and SAS• Undertaking qualitative research to improve survey questionnaire design• Presenting research work to expert data users, field interviewers and members of the public Show less



Cardiff University / Prifysgol Caerdydd

• United Kingdom
• Higher Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• Research Assistant, Social Psychology

  • Oct 2005 - Sep 2008

  • Reporting directly to 2 senior professors, working within a collaborative research group of 15 • Ownership of an ESRC-funded 3-year research project within social psychology • Responsible for managing the project on a day-to-day basis • Conceiving, designing and conducting experimental, field and online research • Manipulation and statistical analysis of raw data collected, with an in-depth knowledge of SPSS software, and calling for high levels of numeracy, accuracy and attention to detail • Presenting findings and future research proposals to subject matter experts and wider audiences, developing my verbal communication skills, with a good knowledge of MS PowerPoint • Producing manuscripts for peer-reviewed journals and preparing materials for reference books • Supervising individual undergraduate research projects Show less