Dr Melissa Jogie, Senior Lecturer in the School of Education and the Institutional Research Culture Lead for Roehampton, has won a prestigious UKRI Policy Fellowship worth £200,000 to enhance the understanding of approaches that enable local authorities, police and other enforcement agencies to work effectively together to address rough sleeping.
The award, hosted by What Works Centres, the Centre for Homelessness Impact (CHI), with support from The College of Policing, will provide important evidence to inform how government, the police and local agencies can work together to reduce homlessness.
The University of Roehampton was one of only 28 other universities and think tanks to become part of the scheme, which is designed to ensure researchers and government work together in addressing the challenges and opportunities facing citizens, society and the economy.
It provides another example of how the research colleagues at Roehampton produce improves the communities and lives of people in London and beyond.
Dr Jogie’s work focuses on tackling policy change to address groups that experience multiple deprivation in society (homeless, violence and abuse of women and girls, looked after children and the elderly). For this fellowship she will collate interventions which advocate for the police forces playing a key role in helping reduce rough sleeping. Her work will shed light on concerns that involvement of the police might result in the criminalisation of people sleeping out, versus the views that it can improve the effectiveness of street outreach responses. Dr Jogie’s work will help evidence and trial bespoke interventions that can potentially add value in joint approaches between police and homelessness services.
On receiving the news of the award, she said “I’m extremely excited to bring this win home to Roehampton and to use this as an opportunity to showcase our good work to policy makers and to also support my colleagues with lessons learnt navigating the policy universe. On a personal level, this is a career milestone for me, and I want to personally thank the Institution and the Research Office for their continued support”.
ESRC’s Executive Chair, Stian Westlake said ‘this programme represents a major increase of UKRI’s investment in connecting research and policy. It will put some of the UK’s brightest researchers at the heart of government, to help inform the way policy is made.’
What is a Policy Fellowship?
The UKRI Policy Fellowships provide opportunities to do cutting-edge research and inform decision-making on the most pressing policy problems of our time by working within the bedrock of policy making. The fellowship provides an opportunity for policymakers to engage with academic research and expertise. This helps to bridge the gap between academic research and policy development, ensuring that policies are informed by the latest research evidence. It also offers researchers a chance to understand the policy-making process better, the challenges faced by policymakers, and how research can be best utilised in the policymaking environment.
This year 44 Policy Fellowships have been awarded across 21 government departments and 5 What Works Centres (6 awardees) across the UK. The Fellowship scheme was piloted last year with 22 successful fellows. All successful fellows can be located on directly on UKRI’s policy fellow page. Fellows from the pilot have positively reviewed their experiences to gain firsthand experience and insight into the policy-making process while contributing their academic knowledge and expertise to real-world challenges.
Find our more about our Research and how it improves society and informs policy on our research web pages.
The University of Roehampton, London has a range of engaging courses for those who looking to work in government, the third sector and in public policy development. The University has also launched a new degree in Professional Policing.