IPR Honorary Professors
Ricardo is a Full Professor of Social Psychology at the University of A Coruña, Spain where he has been leading the People-Environmental Research Group during the period 1995-2022. He was a member of the Spanish Parliament (2016-2019), where he held the position of spokesman for Climate Change in the Ecological Transition Commission. Most recently, he has been Coordinator of the ENTRANCES European Research Consortium (H2020) on the social impact of the transition towards clean energy in Europe (2020-2023).
Sue is an Honorary Professor at the University of Bath. Her work on the topics of education, employment and social policy have earned her great distinction and much recognition in her field. Her expertise in research which explores youth transitions, and specifically the challenges faced by disadvantaged and disengaged groups of young people, has made a significant impact on academic thinking and policy formation, both nationally and internationally.
Professor Allister McGregor
Allister is a former IPR Visiting Fellow and previously worked as Professor of Political Economy in the Department of Politics at the University of Sheffield. Before that he was Head of the Vulnerability and Poverty Team at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. While at the IPR, he will continue to work on issues of inclusive development and on initiatives that bring the University and local community together. He will also help supervise our students undertaking the Professional Doctorate in Policy Research and Practice, and support teaching for the Department of Social and Policy Sciences.
Contact Professor Allister McGregor
Professor of Practice
The Rt Hon Chris Skidmore OBE MP is Professor of Practice at the University of Bath, where he works with colleagues researching the closely linked challenges of sustainability and climate change, including at the IPR, the Institute for Sustainability and the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations. Chris has held a number of ministerial positions and was twice Minister of State for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation from 2018-19 and then 2019-2020, where he signed the UK’s Net Zero targets into legislation. He is widely known as the Chair of the Independent Government Review on Net Zero, “Mission Zero”, which was published in January 2023 and which urged the UK to seize an “historic opportunity” afforded by the transition to Net Zero.
IPR Visiting Fellow
Dr Anthony Halog is Lecturer at the School of the Environment, University of Queensland, and is Head of the Research Group for Industrial Ecology and Circular Economy. He joined from the University of Maine, where he was a professor in Industrial Ecology and Sustainable Bioeconomy. He has been researching the circular economy and bioeconomy since 2008. At the IPR, he will explore the scientific advancements, ethical considerations and societal implications associated with green hydrogen production.
Fran Bennett is an Associate Fellow in the Department of Social Policy and Intervention at the University of Oxford. She is also an independent consultant, who has written extensively on social policy issues for the UK government, NGOs and others; a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences; former Director and Deputy Director of the Child Poverty Action Group; and former policy advisor on UK and EU poverty issues for Oxfam GB. During her time at the IPR, Fran was part of the ESRC-funded IPR project, 'Couples balancing work, money and care: exploring the shifting landscape under Universal Credit'.
Jurgen De Wispelaere is a former occupational therapist turned political theorist and policy scholar. He is a Visiting Professor at the Götz Werner Chair of Economic Policy & Constitutional Theory (University of Freiburg, Germany). His major research interest is the political analysis of basic income, with current projects focused on the policy impact of basic income experiments, the commitment problem in basic income policy development, and the political economy of national, regional and municipal basic income models. He has consulted on basic income with the World Bank, ECLAC/CEPAL and several national governments. He is currently completing a special issue of the International Social Security Review on Emergency Basic Income during COVID-19 with Troy Henderson and (trying) to complete a short book on basic income experiments with Evelyn Forget. Jurgen is the Research Coordinator of BIEN and a member of its Executive Committee and also a scientific advisor of the Catalan Basic Income Pilot project.
Malcolm Torry is General Manager of the Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN). He is the former Director of the Citizen's Basic Income Trust and Senior Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). At the IPR, Malcom will work on research for the Microsimulation group, as part of our collaboration with the Freiburg Institute for Basic Income Studies (FRIBIS).
Steve Webb is Partner at Lane Clark & Peacock and a public policy expert with considerable political experience, including roles as Pensions Minister (2010 – 2015) and MP (1997 – 2015). Prior to his political career, he was an academic at the University of Bath. During his time at the IPR, he will conduct research to examine later life financial prospects through a holistic lens. Using secondary datasets, he will look at financial trend projection, pension provision, and other facets affecting household wealth. Through his research, Steve seeks to influence pensions policymakers and public policymakers more broadly, when formulating policy around later life wealth.
IPR Visiting Policy Fellow
Jorge is an Associate Professor in the Applied Economics and Moral Philosophy Department at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos. Dr Sainz has more than ten years of management experience in public educational policy design and has served as an advisor to the Minister of Education of the Madrid Region, Deputy Director for Research, Chief of Staff of the Minister of Education of Spain, General Director for University Policy, and Secretary General of Universities of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport.
Kit Vaughan is Climate Policy Advisor to The Elders. Prior to joining The Elders in 2023, he worked as Senior Climate Change Adviser at Save the Children, Climate and Environment Director at Care International UK and was Head of Climate Change Adaptation and Impacts at WWF, as well as working at the Department for International Development (DFID). He has a special interest in international development and politics with a focus on environmental sustainability and climate change.
Affiliated academics and researchers
Hannah Durrant is a Senior Research Fellow at the Wales Centre for Public Policy, with a focus on the politics and practice of knowledge production, evidence use and expertise in policymaking. She previously worked at the IPR and oversaw our research programme, and led a number of co-produced projects on the use of connected (‘big’) data to inform policy and public service delivery at the local level.
Dr Luke Martinelli
Luke Martinelli previously worked at the IPR as a Research Associate and was a lead researcher on Universal Basic Income. His publications include Basic Income, Automation and Labour Market Change, The Fiscal and Distributional Implications of Alternative Universal Basic Income Schemes in the UK, Exploring the Distributional and Work Incentive Effects of Plausible Illustrative Basic Income Schemes, and Assessing the Case for a Universal Basic Income in the UK.