The Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) is recruiting a Research Advisor, who will support the Chief Scientist to design, conduct, and evaluate Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs), with a particular focus on RCTs in education, be that in primary or secondary schools, further education, or universities.

The then Prime Minister created BIT in 2010 to apply behavioural science to public policy in the UK. In February 2014 we became a social purpose company, owned by the Cabinet Office, Nesta (an innovation charity) and our employees.

The Behavioural Insights Team works with governments around the world in almost every area of Government policy. Whilst the subject and output of our projects varies considerably, there are common threads: we try to understand the contexts in which their people make decisions; we notice small details; we find out what has and hasn’t worked before; and we measure everything we do as robustly as we can.

The company today spans four continents but has the same relaxed and non-hierarchical office culture as it did when it was a team of just eight employees. Though our origins are from within the UK government, staff at BIT today come from countries across the world. We regularly eat lunch together; play sport; and socialise outside of work time.

As well as displaying professional excellence, BIT selects staff according to our company values. All our staff believe passionately in always prioritising social impact; empiricism and humility; fresh thinking, collaboration; and public service.

As well as applying behavioural science to public policy, BIT is also at the forefront of a revolution in evidence based policy. The team has conducted RCTs across the policy spectrum, in fields ranging from health, to energy, to charitable giving and employment. The Research team, which heads up the design of these trials and their analysis, is responsible for ensuring the rigour of these trials is kept to the highest possible standard, while ensuring that BIT continues to conduct impactful, pragmatic research. Few organisations offer the opportunity to work on as wide a variety of trials as BIT, and none with the same focus on trials coordinated and run alongside government.

#Role and Responsibilities You will work across a range of behavioural insights projects providing specialist trial design, implementation and analysis. This role sits within BIT’s Research and Evaluation team and will suit a candidate with a strong background in econometrics and trial design.

This role will provide you with the opportunity to:

• Familiarise yourself with BIT, its way of working and its clients;
• Learn about BIT’s research processes and practices;
• Put your expertise in econometrics to practical use on today’s biggest policy problems in the UK and beyond;
• Work with colleagues to develop and run RCTs across the policy spectrum, but with a particular focus on education trials; and
• Continue to design and implement trials in collaboration with senior members of the team and policy colleagues.

• Experience of running large and small scale RCTs in education;
• An understanding of the academic literature around education research and behavioural science, with a particular focus on social psychological interventions and social support;
• Good working knowledge of Stata and/or R, (this will be tested);
• Ability to manage several projects at one time and to deliver to a high standard on deadline;
• Ability to work collaboratively, with a range of stakeholders in delivery, policy and academic fields;
• A good, intuitive understanding in econometrics or statistics;
• The ability to communicate complex topics to a large audience clearly and effectively;
• Experience conducting original research in the field;
• Excellent communication skills, including ability to communicate to non-technical and policy audiences;
• The ability to think creatively and solve problems emerging during a trial in real time;
• Strong understanding of research ethics and participant protections; and
• Experience safely handling and storing sensitive data and developing data agreements with research partners.

• Experience applying for grant funding and/or writing proposals; and
• Experience managing research assistants working on site in multiple settings