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Between 2023-24 Fellows were embedded within DESNZ, GO Science, whilst a cohort of three fellows were embedded within Newham Borough Council.
Associate Professor in Applied Materials and Structures
Department of Civil, Environment and Geomatic Engineering (CEGE).
Yasemin has extensive research experience in the impact of flooding, wind driven rain and other climate-induced and atmospheric hazards on built environment, heritage structures, indoor mould testing, hygrothermal characterisation via environmental monitoring, and sustainable building and urban design.
Fellowship: Based at GO-Science in partnership with colleagues from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA), Yasemin supported the development of The Climate Adaptation Research and Innovation Framework (CARIF).
Outputs:
- Blog post - Academia-policy partnerships to combat climate crisis’ on UK Universities Climate Network.
- Learn more about Yasemin's fellowship
Yaroslav Melekh
Research Fellow at the Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources
Yaroslav's research spans a broad range of green transition areas, such as climate finance in developing countries; energy innovation; electricity markets and UK-EU (hybrid) interconnection; and the political economy of European energy scenarios and phasing out natural gas. Currently, he is working on the development of energy sector recovery scenarios in Ukraine, with a focus on green hydrogen opportunities and de-risking investments in renewables. His research also looks at the role of a guaranteed instrument in risk underwriting for low-carbon investments in lower-income countries.
Fellowship: Embedded within Department of Energy Security and Net Zero, Yaroslav’s fellowship examined issues related to the UK-EU climate diplomacy and electricity trade arrangements post-Brexit, the role of the UK in European energy security and the potential for offshore 'hybrid' electricity transmission infrastructure, a vital pillar of security and decarbonisation.
Senior Research Fellow in Statistics and Health Economics
Department of Statistical Science
Nathan is part of the Statistics, Modelling and Economics Department at UKHSA. He has several years of experience working across government and academia on a wide range of projects in both defence and health. Nathan’s broader interests include health economics, survival analysis, evidence synthesis, simulation, and epidemiology. He is also an enthusiastic R programmer. In addition to his research, he teaches at BSc, MSc, and postgraduate levels, covering topics from introductory probability and statistics to advanced, cutting-edge methods. He is actively involved in public engagement and is a former British Science Association Fellow at The Guardian newspaper.
Fellowship: Nathan assessed the factors that determine health literacy and the size of their influence/impact for Newham.
Outputs:
- Health Literacy in Newham report (draft)
- Web-based tool providing an overview of health literacy in Newham
Assistant Professor and Programme Director for MSc Social Policy and Research at the UCL Social Research Institute and is based in the EPPI Centre (Evidence for Policy and Practice Information), Social Science Research Unit
Her research expertise centres around qualitative methods, qualitative evidence synthesis, co-production and participatory methods. Over the years she has developed a portfolio of research that focuses on social and health inequalities amongst vulnerable and marginalised communities. These were specifically on policy-relevant systematic reviews funded by the Department of Health and Social Care England. Meena is one of the co-leads on the UCL Menopause Network and member of the Menopause Project Group both of which are currently shaping UCL policy on this. Meena’s UCL Profile.
Fellowship: Mental Health in South Asian Women with the Public Health Unit
Meena’s fellowship analysed data collected by the charity Blossom Place on South Asian Women in Newham’s attitudes towards mental health support. Her analysis showed that amongst this community there is a low number of GP registration which is not only a barrier to mental health support but other forms of health support for them and family. This has provided insight for better service design and service configuration and community collaboration.
Outputs:
- Awarded UCL Public Policy QR-PSF Expert Engagement for ‘Developing Mental Health Interventions with South Asian Women in Newham: A community engagement and Policy Impact project’.
- Awarded QR-PSF funding – Expert Engagement for ‘Developing Mental Health Interventions with South Asian Women in Newham: A community engagement and Policy Impact project’.
- Report tbc
- Learn more about Meena's fellowship
Lecturer (Teaching) in Quantitative Research Methods and Political Science at the UCL Department of Political Science
His primary research focus has been Europeanization in the Western Balkans, namely in environmental policy and the rule of law. More recently, Indraneel has investigated citizen-led mobilisation in Southeast Europe.
Fellowship: Citizen Assembles with the Research and Inclusion Team
Indraneel’s fellowship involved a review of past approaches to citizen assemblies and increase democratic participation and action in local policy-making. The Fellowship provided a perfect opportunity for Indraneel to complement his research interests on bottom-up democratic innovations in Southeast Europe with an investigation of participatory and deliberative democratic initiatives led by local government closer to home.
In the original fellowship brief, Newham Council planned to hold a Citizen Assembly in Autumn 2024 focused on making the borough disability-friendly. These plans were put on hold, which allowed Indraneel to look at the Council’s approach to participatory democracy more broadly and how to develop participatory practices in a constrained environment.
Indraneel did this through an analysis of previous citizens’ assemblies and other Council policy documents, as well as a number of conversations with Council staff, officers from other local governments, and experts in deliberative democratic design. The resulting presentation and recommendations, “Citizens’ Assemblies Project”, was delivered to relevant teams and staff networks at Newham who work on resident engagement, participation, and co-design.
A version of the presentation for non-Council audiences was shared at roundtables organised by UCL Grand Challenges to discuss: the results of a climate adaptation panel in a London borough; and heat risk in comparative context (with UCL partners from India). Building on this work, Indraneel is contributing to the CADENCE (Consequences of Adaptation for DEmocratic AdvaNCE) project (supported by UCL Grand Challenges), which is investigating to what extent local climate adaptation efforts in Harehills (Leeds) can foster democratic gain.
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