Senior Research and Evidence Officer
The Senior Research and Evidence Officer is a new role at the Food Foundation providing the organisational expertise on the generation of evidence which The Food Foundation uses to deliver impact across all areas of our work aimed transforming food systems and shifting diets.
• Do you have experience in quantitative and qualitative research methods?
• Do you care about what we eat and its impact on our health and planet?
• Do you want to work in a small, ambitious organisation and use your research skills to deliver real impact?
If the answers to these questions are yes, we would love to hear from you!
Hours: Full time, 37.5 hours per week (willing to consider part time hours; 4 days a week minimum)
Salary: £31,500 - £32,250 per year
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Hybrid or remote working is possible. Our office is in London, Brixton.
Job requirements: An enhanced clean DBS check, obtained through The Food Foundation plus two references
Job Purpose
The Senior Research and Evidence Officer will work within our Policy and Advocacy Team but will have a role across the organisation in supporting our use of evidence to build compelling narratives about the impacts of the food system on our diets, our health and our planet, and to present evidence-based solutions.
You will participate in discussions with our academic partners in helping to shape their research questions so they maximise policy impact; you will commission research with consultants, commercial partners and academics ensuring we secure robust evidence which we can use in our engagement work; you will conduct some research in house – this might include literature reviews or small pieces of secondary analysis of existing quantitative datasets; you will lead the development of creative ways to communicate and visualise our data through metrics, dashboards and infographics; and you will work with our policy and business engagement staff to provide technical leadership on our data reporting and transparency asks of policy makers and businesses (for example for our policy engagement on the Food Data Transparency Partnership which is currently being considered by government).
The Food Foundation is well known for using evidence in powerful ways to inspire action, and your role will help us to consolidate our approaches to evidence generation, ensuring we are putting in place the right partnerships with external organisations and maximising the potential of the evidence we have generated. The role will be a fulfilling blend of providing technical leadership, managing the delivery of research, and the practical task of conducting analysis and creating visualisations yourself.
While this role is focused on evidence generation, you will be working closely with our policy and business engagement staff, and our communications teams, as they will often be informing your priorities by identifying the evidence gaps which need to be filled. You will work closely with them to discuss the most powerful ways to communicate the evidence once it has been produced. In addition to relationships within the team, you will have considerable interaction with our academic partners and commercial data providers, as well as with policy makers working on food data transparency.
A week in the job will look like:
Reviewing data on food prices published by the Office for National Statistics and presenting it visually on our food price tracker, engaging with our commercial partners to discuss the latest trends in vegetable sales and sharing the information with our team and partner organisation, working with our investor engagement staff to develop a data-driven news story for our website about the impact of meat consumption on the environment, meeting with a potential new academic partner to discuss the scope of a new food systems research funding bid, recruiting a consultant to conduct a literature review on diet in pregnancy.
Your experience
You will have a track record in conducting and managing research and a knowledge of both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Ideally you would also have a knowledge of the food system, public health or the environmental crisis.
Main Responsibilities
• Communicate clearly and coherently with other members of the organisation, to understand their data needs and to explain analytical findings in a way that is concise and easy to understand
• Work with academic partners on specific research projects to shape research questions so the evidence has the potential to deliver maximum impact
• Manage our relationships with our Expert Advisory group, planning the agenda and ensuring we are supporting them to fulfil their quality assurance and advisory function.
• Commission research from a range of providers (academic, commercial and consultants)
• Maintain productive relationships with commercial data providers such as Kantar and IRI
• Design and maintain data dashboards for our website
• Develop data stories for our website and social media stories which help build our reputation as a trusted source of information on the food system
• Find powerful ways of communicating quantitative data alongside qualitative data and lived experience narratives
• Conduct desk research into sources of data on specific issues
• Design and commission surveys and where necessary analyse survey data
• Mine and analyse large datasets, draw valid inferences and present them powerfully
• Consider new ways of addressing key data gaps, working where necessary with our academic partners
• Oversee our data processing, storage and sharing in compliance with our policies
• Monitor key performance indicators which track our organisational performance and compile these for use in reporting to funders and our annual report
Plase see the job pack for more information and for person profile requirements.
Please apply by emailing us with 'Senior Research and Evidence Officer' as the subject line, a cover letter and up to date CV (include contact details of two references in CV). Please use your cover letter to describe how you meet the person profile.
Deadline to apply: 9am, Monday 13th February 2023
Please apply as soon as you can; we will interview candidates as appropriate applications are received