Candidate Specification
RESEARCHER
CITIE (City Initiatives for Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship)
Salary: £25-£30k pro rata + benefits
Location: London
Hours: Full-time
Term: 2-3 months fixed-term
About the role
The CITIE (City Initiatives for Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship) team is looking for a
Researcher to lead on three research projects looking at city innovation and entrepreneurship in the
UK.
Nesta intends to take the CITIE framework and apply it to three new country and regional analyses, to
provide a like for like comparison with the CITIE 2015 global analysis, and inform UK city policy at the
local and national level. The three country and regional analyses are Scotland, the Northern
Powerhouse, and Wales.
The post-holder lead on the development of these three projects working with internal Nesta
stakeholders to deliver three bespoke reports tailored to the policy specifics of each region/country.
This will require desk-based research combined with interviews to develop the CITIE framework
diagnostics and further policy research to frame the city level policy context alongside regional and
national policy initiatives.
The three reports should deliver the following outcomes;
1. Assessment of the cities as listed above against the CITIE Framework
2. A set of targeted policy recommendations for cities in each region/country to improve their
performance
3. An analysis of the city level structures to explore which CITIE policy roles are best dealt with at
local/regional/national
4. Recommendations on where cities in each region/country could collaborate on best practice
5. Recommendations on how to use a CITIE type framework to further elaborate Nesta's city
analysis to incorporate other areas of interest for Nesta i.e. sharing economy, public sector
innovation.
The role requires excellent research and communication skills, as well as the ability to prioritise work
and coordinate meetings and briefings with internal and external stakeholders.
About CITIE
CITIE provides city policymakers with a resource to support the development of policy initiatives to
catalyse innovation and entrepreneurship in cities.
The objective of CITIE was to create a consistent, comparable and replicable set of judgements about
whether, and how extensively, cities are using policy to better enable innovation and entrepreneurship
in their cities.
CITIE comprises three main components:
1. A framework for understanding how policy in nine key areas at the city level can be used to
support innovation and entrepreneurship.
2. A diagnostic tool that allows cities to understand how they perform against this framework
relative to 40 global cities.
3. A range of examples and case studies that shine a light on best practice from around the
world.
CITIE is designed to be used by policymakers in cities. To the greatest extent possible, it focuses on
those policy levers that city governments have at their disposal, although this inevitably varies from
place to place.
Explore the framework, diagnostic tool and case studies with city leaders further at: www.citie.org, and
see the Appendix for further detail on the research methodology.
The role
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Undertake research, gathering information from different sources, including academic research
and face-to-face or telephone interviews; synthesise and summarise information and present it in
a clear and engaging way for an external audience
Project manage the development of three concurrent research reports
Write research reports for policy and practitioner audiences
Develop strong relationships with internal and externals stakeholders
Work with the CITIE consortium, and internal partners to maximise the policy impact of the
reports
The person
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A strong researcher with a minimum Bachelor’s level degree, in social science or equivalent
subject/level of experience (e.g. technology policy)
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Outstanding written communication skills, including a proven ability to convey complex
quantitative and qualitative research findings in ways that are clear, compelling and credible, and
to draft high-quality outputs from research
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Highly confident in interpreting and communicating the diversity of approaches to social science –
including different research designs, methods and data collection relevant to policymaking
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Credible face-to-face communicator, able to talk to senior decision-makers in Government,
charities, local authorities, think-tanks and academia
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Good interpersonal skills, particularly the ability to work effectively with a diverse, highperforming, busy team
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Good attention to detail, high standards of accuracy
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Strong knowledge of UK public policy at local and national levels in relation to cities
How to apply
To apply for this role, please complete your application on the following link
http://nestarecruitment.submittable.com/submit/7da8763d-011c-4167-ad6d-a949c98ea886 by 12pm 4th
January 2016.
1st Interviews will take place by TBC
2nd Interviews will take place by TBC