Research Fellow (110976-1025)

Location: University of Warwick Campus, Coventry

Duration: Fixed-term contract for 1 year.

About the Role

For informal enquiries, please contact Halima Jibril (Assistant Professor) at halima.jibril@wbs.ac.uk.

This role is part of an ESRC-funded project that seeks to improve understanding of effective business support provision in the UK. This is an exciting collaboration between the University of Warwick, Aston University, City University of London and the Innovation Growth Lab atNesta.

The project aims to inform policymakers and government agencies, and to guide the design and implementation of targeted interventions that strengthen the UK’s business support system. The project will achieve this through leveraging existing data from business support experiments (Randomised Controlled Trials) related to the adoption of digital technologies and management practices to improve productivity. 

The postholder will be responsible for cleaning and linking multiple experimental survey datasets with administrative data to construct panel datasets. They will also apply advanced econometric techniques to both cross-sectional and panel data. The role provides opportunities to work closely with, and be mentored by, academics across the partner organisations, as well as to engage with policymakers and other non-academic stakeholders.

The postholder will have the opportunity to engage with a vibrant research community through the Enterprise Research Centre and the Innovation and Research Caucus.

About You

You will have a PhD in economics, business studies or a related quantitative social science discipline. You should have demonstrable experience of quantitative methods, in particular panel data econometrics and experience in linking data at different levels of aggregation.

You will have experience working with administrative firm-level datasets, and preferably be familiar with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) business datasets and working environment.

You will be flexible, motivated and creative, with the ability to take initiative in leading the analysis and applying demonstrably strong problem-solving skills. You will also have the ability and interest to collaborate widely across institutions to deliver the objectives of the project.

A strong interest in conducting robust, policy facing research is highly desirable, as is experience with firm-level experimental data.

For details on the experience and skills required, please refer to the job description attached as a PDF below.

PhD Status

If you are near submission of your PhD, or have not yet had it conferred, any offers of employment will be made at Research Assistant level, at the highest spinal point of pay grade 5 (£34,610 per annum).

Upon receipt of evidence confirming the successful award of your PhD, you will be promoted to Research Fellow, at the lowest spinal point of grade 6 (£35,608 per annum).

CLOSING DEADLINE: Thursday 6th November 2025 at 11:55pm (UK Time) 

Full details of the duties and selection criteria for this role can be found in the vacancy advert on the University of Warwick's jobs pages. You will be routed to this when you click on the 'Apply' button.

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