Behavioural Scientist

Permanent This is a full-time role, but we offer a range of flexible working arrangements and encourage our people to take advantage of them. Many do. We are hiring a Behavioural Scientist About Nesta We are Nesta, the UK’s innovation agency for social good. We design, test and scale solutions to society’s biggest problems. Our three missions are to give every child a fair start, help people live healthy lives, and create a sustainable future where the economy works for both people and the planet. For over 20 years, we have worked to support, encourage and inspire innovation. We work in three roles: as an innovation partner working with frontline organisations to design and test new solutions, as a venture builder supporting new and early stage businesses, and as a system shaper creating the conditions for innovation. Harnessing the rigour of science and the creativity of design, we work relentlessly to change millions of lives for the better. Find out more at nesta.org.uk The role Nesta is looking to appoint one Behavioural Scientist into our A Fairer Start mission. Nesta’s Fairer Start Mission is on a 10-year endeavour to close the gap in school readiness between those growing up in poverty and the national average across the UK. To achieve this, we focus our work on strengthening the support that families experiencing disadvantaged receive to improve the home learning environment, cope with financial pressures and access high-quality formal childcare. Leveraging Nesta’s multiple capabilities, we use a multi-pronged approach to maximise the chances that change happens. For example, we work with families and frontline partners to design and deliver interventions to support the home learning environment, and evaluate their effectiveness at scale; we study the impacts of existing policies to make policy recommendations; we invest in ventures to create social impact through business; we build coalitions and campaigns to shift attitudes and norms. Whatever the approach we take, we strive to be evidence-led and impact-focused, and to measure the impact of our activities on our mission goal. The work of the post holder could include working across many stages of the work of our teams, from shaping ongoing strategy developments, to scoping, designing, implementing and evaluating projects that contribute to our impactful portfolios of work. You can expect to leverage your behavioural science knowledge more or less on different projects, depending on the need for a behavioural approach. Most of our projects involve multiple disciplines, so behavioural science may form part of an approach or solution, but rarely will be the entirety of the solution. This is a role with the potential for a lot of variety. We prioritise personal learning related to the mission or to skills development; we work in multidisciplinary teams by default; and run ad hoc projects with other teams in Nesta. Through these you will have the opportunity to grow your skills and experience and learn new ways of working. As a Behavioural Scientist you will: Provide a behavioural science perspective, as part of a multi-disciplinary, on a variety of projects in your mission or policy area; Deliver projects, including helping to set up and track project plans, carrying out day-to-day work on a variety of projects and updating team members on progress; Conduct mixed methods research and analysis, including qualitative and quantitative research, interpreting research findings, analysing and summarising relevant evidence and carrying out analysis. You may use any of the following techniques in a desk or field setting: interviews, observations, literature reviews, data deep-dives using statistical techniques. You will also work alongside analysts and mission managers, designers and other qualitative and quantitative experts. Develop and suggest practical policy solutions or intervention ideas to address social issues, informed by behavioural science; Help to plan and organise evaluations including randomised controlled trials and quasi-experimental designs; Support development of new work, including scoping, research and writing pitches and proposals; Play a key role in partner engagement and project management, including helping sustain partner relationships (e.g. preparing agendas, minuting meetings and coordinating project updates); and Prepare project deliverables (e.g., theories of change, interview guides, logic models, evidence summaries, final reports) with a clear understanding of the overall project objectives. Candidate Criteria Essential We are looking for people who understand what we do, share our values and are keen to learn and develop their expertise. We are looking for candidates with the skills listed below. We expect to provide training and development support in some of the areas. An understanding of behavioural science . You can explain the implications of theoretical concepts such as defaults, loss aversion and social norms. A releva