Third annual Local Policy Lab Fellowship showcases success
7 August 2026
The Local Policy Lab Fellowship concluded its third successful programme on July 15th with a showcase presented by the Fellows at the Blavatnik School of Government. Introduced and supported by the Chief Scientific Advisors, the 16 Fellows shared their project plans, research methods and outcomes to a highly engaged audience of peers, academics, and community and policy partners.
The Fellowship programme is part of the Local Policy Lab, the alliance between the University of Oxford, Oxford Brookes University and Oxfordshire County Council (OCC), and provides postgraduate students from the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University the opportunity to spend 12 weeks working on a live policy challenge, supported by researchers and policy officers.
Opening the event, Aileen Marshall-Brown, Head of Engagement for the Social Sciences Division, University of Oxford, said: “For the students involved in the programme, the Local Policy Lab Fellowship offers an unparalleled opportunity to apply their research skills to real policy questions, learn more about how evidence is used in practice, and work across institutional and professional boundaries.”
With Fellows’ disciplines ranging from experimental psychology, public policy and education to computing sciences and socio-legal studies, this year’s research projects were enriched by a cross-disciplinary approach in tackling issues such as adult social care, the early years of life, green skills, employment and much more:
- Measuring What Matters: Identifying Practical Approaches to Evaluating Community Capacity Grants for Grassroot Organisations, by Freya Cole Norton and Ishbel Anderson
- Beyond the Front Door: Equity and Experience in Adult Social Care in OCC, Belen Tomic Perez and Ruben Moss-Keys
- Beyond Counting Conversations: Developing a Meaningful Evaluation Framework for Making Every Contact Count (MECC) in Oxfordshire, by Neha Bhuvarahan and Nandini Bohra
- Mapping Green-Skills Provision Across Oxfordshire, by Khin Oo Thazin and Anna Luiza Barbosa
- Understanding the Impact of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) on Young People's Engagement in Education, Employment and Training, by Nafisa Salsabil Zaman and Valter Manuel Gomes Neto
- Making the Invisible Visible: The Assessment of Harmful Parental Conflict in Children's Services, by Cameron Tan and Charlotte Mason
- Towards Meaningful Outcomes for Families, Children & the System: Evaluating the Adult-Facing Practitioner Role in Domestic Abuse Interventions, by Raquel de Almeida Lima and Otilia Rose-Marie Meden
- Best Start in Life – Good Levels of Development in Oxfordshire, by Pippa Naegeli-Evans and Yasmin Arnould
Dr James Robson, Chief Scientific Advisor and lead for the ‘Delivering inclusive growth, a skilled workforce, and fair employment’ workstream“These are huge topics, and in just a few weeks the fellows have become real experts.”
For the showcase event, the researcher teams were required to develop presentation slides detailing all the stages of their project, sharing their initial hopes, the challenges they encountered, how they addressed and solved problems, as well as the gaps and opportunities their work highlighted.
Commending the fellows, Professor Adam Briggs, Deputy Director of Public Health, Oxfordshire County Council and programme policy partner, said: “One of the most rewarding aspects of this programme is seeing students get out of the classroom to embrace the complexity of local government and deliver projects that provide really practical ways forward for us to better understand and meet the needs of local communities.”
Professor Koula Asimakopoulou, Dean for Research and Knowledge Exchange in the Faculty of Health, Science and Technology at Oxford Brookes University, said: "The success of the third Local Policy Lab Fellowship showcase is a testament to the strength and value of our ongoing collaboration with the University of Oxford and Oxfordshire County Council. It has been inspiring to see our students apply their research skills to such diverse and pressing policy challenges. This initiative not only provides invaluable experience for our postgraduates but also reinforces how vital these cross-institutional partnerships are in driving evidence-based solutions for our local community."
Dr Joanna Crocker, Chief Scientific Advisor lead for the ‘Addressing inequalities and ensuring a healthy standard of living for all’ workstream“It’s been a real pleasure and privilege to work with these talented fellows, and the dedicated policy leads from Oxfordshire County Council. The fellowship projects reflect the Local Policy Lab’s strength in building collaboration across institutions.”
Dr Jon Reid, Chief Scientific Advisor lead for the ‘Enabling Children and Young People to Thrive’ workstream“It was encouraging to see how these projects are strengthening relationships between researchers, practitioners, policymakers and communities. They demonstrate the potential of collaborative, place-based research to generate evidence that is both academically rigorous and directly relevant to local decision-making.”
Photos from the event
