Scottish Government Internship Scheme
Projects starting Spring 2020 onwards
Application Deadline: Monday 24 February 2020 at 5pm
The Scottish Government is the devolved government for Scotland and has a range of responsibilities that include: the economy, education, health, justice, rural affairs, housing, environment, equal opportunities, consumer advocacy and advice, transport and taxation.
Government social science research aims to provide high quality evidence and advice for Ministers and Scottish Government officials to inform policy development, implementation and evaluation. Analysts in government help generate new ideas and open debate, challenge assumptions, beliefs and attitudes, test policy ideas and develop a deeper understanding of issues as they affect Scotland.
The core functions of researchers in government include:
- the interpretation of evidence and the provision of research based advice
- engaging with the academic and wider research community to bring expert knowledge into the policy making process
- commissioning external research projects
- undertaking research such as reviews of the existing evidence base
- disseminating research findings and encouraging their wider use
There are internships available with social research, economist, statistician or mixed teams. All tend to work alongside each other in ‘Analytical Services Divisions’ in the Scottish Government.
The Office of the Chief Researcher (OCR) in the Scottish Government is responsible for central co-ordination of this internship scheme.
The internships
There are 37 advertised internship projects available, in addition to the ‘pool’ (applicants to the pool are considered for unfilled advertised projects or others which may later arise in any area of the Scottish Government).
See the table below for project titles and numbers (which you’ll need to include in your application). Full details of all of the internships can be found on this internship brief document.
No. | Host Area | Project Title | Project Contact |
| Any | Analyst Pool | Rik Kay |
1 | C&F | Analysis of sources collecting data on child sexual exploitation | Catriona Rooke |
2 | Ch&F | Child Mental Health and Wellbeing – Realigning Children’s Services | Anniek Sluiman |
3 | Ch&F | Evaluation of Children and Young People Improvement Collaborative | Franca MacLeod |
4 | Communities | Scottish Household Survey: using data visualisation to develop data dissemination | Emma McCallum |
5 | Constitution &ExA | Constitution and Inter-Governmental Relations | Donna Easterlow |
6 | Constitution & ExA | Elections and Freedom of Information | Gillian Cruickshank |
7 | Constitution & ExA | International | Eva Kleinart |
8 | Constitution & ExA | International Data | Eva Kleinart |
9 | Constitution & ExA | International Futures Internship | Louise Halpin |
10 | Constitution & ExA | Making Sense of Brexit | Simon Wakefield |
11 | Constitution & ExA | Population and Migration | Sophie Ellison |
12 | Constitution & ExA | Promotion of Franco-Scottish relations (with time spent in Paris) | Lucy Sterne |
13 | Digital | Developing a transformation programme for Data Standards | Shona Nicol |
14 | Environ | Biodiversity Duty Reporting – analysis | Gita Anand |
15 | Health | Contributing to a minimum data set of outcomes for adult support and protection – feasibility study | Christine McGregor |
16 | Health | Diet and Healthy Weight | Eilidh Shearer |
17 | Health | Mental Health Policy Mapping | Niall Kearney / Carol Brown |
18 | Health | Promoting pharmacy services in the community: monitoring the extended Pharmacy First service | Fiona MacDonald/ Emma Milburn |
19 | Health | Scotland’s Cancer Strategy: exploring its development process with key stakeholders | Debbie Sagar |
20 | Health | Stigma in perinatal mental health | Rebecca Macpherson/ Carol Brown |
21 | Health | Understanding Younger People with Drug Problems – Literature review | Maggie Page |
22 | Justice | Fire and Rescue Policy in Scotland | Eilidh Currie |
23 | Justice | Guidance to Strengthening Fire Safety in High Rise Domestic Buildings in Scotland | Connie Smith |
24 | Justice | Veterans: Improving the Evidence Base | Hannah Davidson |
25 | Learning | Bringing together evidence on implementation of the national Digital Learning and Teaching Strategy | Wojciech Hupert |
26 | Local Govt | How do we build capacity for Collective Leadership across public service? | Keira Oliver |
27 | Local Govt | Public Service Reform and the Third Sector Research | Liz Ravalde |
28 | Marine | Review of Barriers to Entry, Retention, and Progression of Women in Scottish Aquaculture | Peter Greene |
29 | OCEA | Employability: outcomes achieved by support participants | Neil Davidson |
30 | OCEA | Enterprise & Skills Analytical Unit – Understanding the drivers of productivity and inclusive economic growth in Scotland | Suzanne Motherwell |
31 | OCR | Deliberative Democracy in action: Researching Scotland’s first national Citizens’ Assembly | Evelyn Bowes |
32 | OCSPA | Social capital and societal wellbeing | Ben Cavanagh |
33 | PSO | Strategic Insights Unit | Aileen McIntosh |
34 | Rural | Equalities and Rural/Island Data | Brendan Nisbet |
35 | Tourism | UEFA Euro 2020 Legislation | Lucy Carmichael/ Derek Bearhop |
36 | RESAS | Developing a tool to analyse the Scottish Greenhouse Gas Inventory for Agriculture | Richard Haw |
37 | Constitution & ExA | Implementation of Scotland’s Arctic Policy Framework | Francesco Bertoldi |
