Ruth moved from the Civil Service to join the Open Research Programme in 2022, from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) to King’s College London. Her time at DLUHC gave her experience of policy roles, especially on housing, and corporate roles, and in EDI work, through co-chairing the Departmental Gender Equality Network. Increasingly, though, Ruth became interested in the evidence landscape around policy and practice, reflecting on how policy and policy-making could benefit from the open research agenda. Relatedly, she saw that both the methods and the insights from social sciences could be central to these questions and began her route back into academia (she had previously worked at Anglia Ruskin’s London campus) by doing a part time Masters in Sociology. The ORCA role was a perfect fit, also being part time, and fitting her experience and interests, as we will see. Read Ruth’s story.
Spotlight an ORCA: Ruth Davies
