ESRC Connecting Generations Highlights 2022-2024 by University of Southampton

ESRC Connecting Generations

This report includes research activity and highlights from the first two years of the ESRC-funded Connecting Generations research programme, covering the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2024.

Connecting Generations research aims to understand intergenerational connectivity in a post-Brexit/post-Covid society, producing novel science that contributes to policy debate.

Different generations provide financial, emotional and practical support to each other during different stages of their lives. These exchanges interact with, and have an impact on, life events such as:

• when we leave education

• when we leave home

• who we live with and where

• when we start and end romantic relationships

• if and when we have children

• if we become a homeowner

• when we enter and leave work, and why

• how long we live independently

• if and when we move into residential care

We are investigating how life events affect health, economic living standards, social networks and personal resilience. To better inform policymakers, we are exploring how experiences vary by gender, migrant status, ethnicity, education, socio-economic status and geographical context.

Connecting Generations is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). The research programme brings together experts from the Centre for Population Change at the Universities of Southampton, St Andrews, and Stirling, with partners at the University of Oxford Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science and the Resolution Foundation Intergenerational Centre.

We work in partnership with the Office for National Statistics and the National Records of Scotland. We involve stakeholders throughout our research process to maximise relevance of our work and ensure take-up of findings. Our research is always independent.

Our research output can be accessed at: www.cpc.ac.uk

Foreword

“There is now a greater need than ever for intergenerational solidarity, not just to ensure that living generations can thrive in an equitable and fair society, but also to ensure there is security for future generations.”

I am delighted to be supporting the work of the ESRC Connecting Generations programme as Advisory Board Chair. The research undertaken within Connecting Generations is a vital contribution to the evidence base for policy decisions affecting the whole population in the UK.

Connecting Generations research aims to understand intergenerational connectivity in a constantly changing society. There has been much turbulence as we have headed into the 2020s, with a need to work out how to navigate a post-Brexit, post-pandemic society, with pressures from conflict, climate and economic crises. There is now a greater need than ever for intergenerational solidarity, not just to ensure that living generations can thrive in an equitable and fair society, but also to ensure there is security for future generations.

Connecting Generations’ interdisciplinary research provides invaluable information for policymakers and other organisations during these difficult socioeconomic times. In my role as National Statistician, I welcome Connecting Generations members’ continued dedication and application of their extensive expertise in helping shape the future of UK statistics collection and analysis, allowing us to improve the accuracy of our estimations and projections. It is also heartening to see how Connecting Generations is active in training the next generation of researchers.

I am pleased to see the progress that Connecting Generations members have made in the first two years of the research programme and have thoroughly enjoyed reading through the impact highlights within this report. I look forward to seeing how the team continues to develop and contribute to this crucial research agenda.

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

UK National Statistician

Chair,

ESRC Connecting Generations Advisory Board

Director’s introduction

Two years ago, at the start of the Connecting Generations programme, I was excited to get to work with established colleagues, but also new research teams on this important topic for understanding societal change. The start of any research project can be an uncertain time, but it is testament to the expertise, experience, and dedication of our Connecting Generations members to be able to show you in this report just how much progress we’ve already made. It is a career highlight for me to be leading this esteemed team, and I am thankful to the ESRC for recognising the value of this collaboration and funding this major strategic programme.

In Connecting Generations we are examining inequalities in life experiences, and why this matters for improving our society. And we are already providing research-based evidence to policymakers to address growing concerns around fairness between generations.

Changes in economic, social, and family life are occurring within the broader global context of demographic transitions such as increasingly ageing societies or falling birthrates. We are also seeing more economic uncertainty, environmental degradation, and climate change, as well as recent conflicts in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Intergenerational solidarity is needed more than ever to solve some of society’s greatest challenges, and to create a more equitable world which benefits all generations, now and in the future.

To address this, our research is organised across three interdisciplinary themes: Cohorts, kinship and genetics; Changing flows of support across the life course; and Migration, mobility, communities and social cohesion.

Within each theme, team members are working within and across disciplines and institutions to examine some of our most pressing societal issues. Running throughout the research programme is a focus on inequalities and variation by educational and socio-economic resources, gender, and ethnicity. This enables us to provide evidence on both intra- as well as inter-generational differences to inform public policy discussions, interventions and reforms. Understanding the impacts of Covid-19 across, and within, generations is also a focus of the work, as well as the complex changes to the population, economy and society arising from Brexit.

In the Cohorts, kinship and genetics theme, our work packages are providing insights into how economic, social and population change have affected different cohorts and shaped intergenerational relationships through their influence on the size, structure and location of different generations.

Under the Changing flows of support across the life course theme, our work packages are focusing on the implications of increased family complexity, technological, economic and social changes for intergenerational relations, and flows of support at different stages of the life course.

Our research is also providing an intergenerational lens on migration, social and spatial mobility, and social coherence and resilience, under our Migration mobility, communities and social cohesion theme. We have access to a unique ‘laboratory’ facilitating in-depth investigation of key aspects of change in the context of place.

As you will see within this report, as well as working on this research, our members have been busy sharing their findings through academic conferences and publications, at policy meetings, presenting to businesses and at industry meetings, as well as providing training, mentoring, hosting visitors and sharing their knowledge in our own Thought Leader Talks, seminars and events. Alongside this, our members are continuing to raise the profile of their respective disciplines and expertise by appearing frequently across major media outlets, becoming recognised as a first port of call for journalists requiring comment on the many demographic issues which are frequently making the news headlines.

I look forward to the coming years as we progress with our work packages and are able to share more findings, contributing to the ESRC’s purpose of creating a more prosperous, healthy, sustainable and secure society.

If you have any questions about our research or activities, please do message us cpc@soton.ac.uk.

Professor Jane Falkingham CBE FAcSS, FRS Director, Connecting Generations University of Southampton

Connecting Generations research themes and work packages

Connecting Generations: Cohorts, kinship and genetics

I. Intergenerational Audit –understanding how living standards are changing across cohorts

Leads: Brewer, Hale

Contributors: Falkingham and all co-investigators, Broome

II. Connecting Generations through genetics and genealogy

Lead: Mills

Contributor: Kashyap

III. Modelling kinship – how is demographic change affecting the generations available to connect

Leads: Hilton, Kashyap

Contributors: Bijak, Dodd, Smith, Ellison, Butterick

IV. Connecting Generations across geography

Lead: Kulu

Contributors: Demsar

Cross-cutting research themes

Understanding inequalities by gender, age, ethnicity, socio-economic background, education, geographical region

Connecting Generations:

Changing flows of support across the life course

V. Transitions to adulthood and the buffering effect of intergenerational support

Leads: Kulu, Berrington

Contributors: Keenan, McCollum, Mikolai, Bell, Brewer, Ramos

VI. Reproductive strategies, families and intergenerational exchange

Leads: Berrington, Kulu

Contributors: Fiori, Keenan, Mikolai, Ramos, Hu

VII. Work-life balance, employment and caring responsibilities in mid-life

Lead: Evandrou

Contributors: Falkingham, Vlachantoni, Bowes, Dawson, Qin

VIII. Intergenerational flows of support in later life

Lead: Vlachantoni

Contributors: Evandrou, Falkingham, Bell, Bowes, Phillips, Rutherford, Qin, Dawson

Connecting Generations:

Migration, mobility, communities and social cohesion

IX. Migration connecting generations

Leads: Wahba, Giulietti

Contributor: Di Iasio

X. Social and spatial mobility within and across generations

Lead: McCollum

Contributor: Bell

XI. Community resilience and social coherence

Lead: Finney

Contributors: Hale, Graham

XII. Understanding changing intergenerational relationships in context: a regional case study

Lead: Bowes

Contributors: Dawson, Douglas, Phillips, Rutherford, Bell, Evandrou, Falkingham, Pemble, Emond

Understanding the differential impacts of COVID-19 and Brexit within and across generations

Contributing to change; collaborating with users and identifying implications for policy and practice

Impact summary

Connecting Generations officially launched on the 1 April 2022. In the first two years of the grant, the project has achieved significant progress towards meeting the objectives outlined in the original bid.

1 April 2022 to 31 March 2024 in numbers

207 papers presented

175 publications

13 CPC-CG working papers and policy briefings

1027 media mentions

6,862 social media followers

80,598 unique website visits per month

You can view our media output on Scoop.it! and watch recordings of some of our TV and radio appearances, seminars and events on our YouTube Channel. Follow us on social media:

@ConnectingGens

@CPCpopulation

ESRC Centre for Population Change and Connecting Generations

Research and impact highlights

Sharing intergenerational audit findings with policy

Resolution Foundation members

Molly Broome and Sophie Hale published ‘An intergenerational audit for the UK 2022’ and ‘An intergenerational audit for the UK 2023’. The 2022 report found that that the cost-of-living crisis was having profound, but varying, impacts across different age groups and generations. The 2023 report found that, unlike in the US, in recent years improvements to the living standards of UK millennials’ have not gone far enough to close long-standing generational gaps. Both reports received significant press coverage across major media outlets such as The Guardian, BBC Radio 4 and ITV News. In October 2022, Lord David Willetts was a speaker alongside Bim Afolami MP, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, at the Conservative Party Conference, discussing how to provide a brighter economic future for all age groups, as part of a Resolution Foundation fringe event. Lord Willetts also gave a presentation on ‘Fairness between the generations: Who pays?’ to the Society of Later Life Advisors, a notfor-profit organisation dedicated to regulated financial advice for older people and their families. In November 2023, Sophie Hale and Molly Broome met with the Cabinet

Further reading

Office to discuss intergenerational wealth transfers and living standards. They then presented the findings to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and policymakers from other government Departments in January 2024. Following this meeting, the 2023 report was referenced in a letter from Lord Gardiner of Kimble, Senior Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords, to Bim Afolami MP requesting a written update on the progress made of the recommendations from the Select Committee on Intergenerational Fairness and Provision.

The 2023 audit findings featured significantly in the House of Lords Library In Focus article ‘Housing needs of young people’ published on 7 March 2024, emphasising the report conclusion that “young people were still far less likely than previous generations to own their own home and more likely to find themselves in the private rented sector”. On 14 March 2024, the House of Lords debated the housing needs of young people, sponsored by Lord Young of Cookham, a former housing minister. In the debate, Baroness Donaghy referenced research on lower home ownership rates among young

An intergenerational audit for the UK 2022 (Resolution Foundation)

An intergenerational audit for the UK 2023 (Resolution Foundation)

Housing needs of young people (House of Lords Library In Focus)

Housing: Young people (House of Lords Hansard Volume 836)

An intergenerational audit for the UK: 2023

people from the Intergenerational Audit 2023, which was recorded in House of Lords Hansard Volume 836, Column 2213 ‘Housing: Young people’.

The first Connecting Generations supported Intergenerational Audit for the UK achieved significant press coverage with 224 media articles; 173 in local press, 39 in national press, 12 in international press. The second audit was covered in 220 media articles; 171 in local press, 35 in national press, 14 in international press.

Providing evidence to alleviate energy poverty

Research by Professor Melinda Mills has provided some of the first evidence to show that prepayment meters are concentrated in social rented properties, households with a higher proportion of children and the elderly, ethnic minorities, those on unemployment benefits and with lower education and income.

The study combined multiple regional data and census estimates from England and Wales to determine the prevalence of prepayment meters in different areas. The findings were published in the British Medical Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, revealing that prepayment meters are concentrated in areas with multiple types of deprivation and higher levels of emergency respiratory hospital admissions.

The research team provided policy recommendations, including financial and regulatory support from the

government and policymakers, targeted interventions for prepayment meter users, and reducing health disparities related to energy insecurity for users.

Advising the ONS on the Dynamic Population Model

Connecting Generations researchers are advising the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in their quest to transform the way population statistics are produced.

Dr Jason Hilton, Professor Peter Smith, Professor Jakub Bijak and Professor Eren Dodd, as well as Dr Joanne Ellison and Dr Andrew Hind, have been providing advice to the ONS in the areas of Bayesian statistical modelling and the estimation of demographic rates.

The Dynamic Population Model (DPM) developed in collaboration with Dr John Bryant, has now been put forward by ONS as a proposed future method for producing their population statistics. Over previously used techniques, the method provides more timely subnational population estimates that allow ONS to better respond to user needs. The estimates allow different sources of data to be used in a coherent way and contribute to the Office for National Statistics ‘Transformation of official statistics’ agenda, to develop admin-based population estimates.

The DPM is still developing, but the initial published results for 331 local authorities in England and Wales show the potential of this approach for future population statistics production. The approach is changing the way in which official population statistics are derived, from counting of people to using statistical models to reconcile different sources of demographic data.

Influencing guidance on menopause in the workplace

Research by Professor Maria Evandrou, Professor Jane Falkingham, Dr Min Qin and Professor Athina Vlachantoni on changes to employment brought about by menopause, analysed data on 3,109 employed women at age 50 from the UK National Child Development Study. The findings indicate that those with severe menopausal symptoms had a higher chance of leaving employment or reducing their working hours. The research has informed workplace recommendations by the European Menopause and Andropause Society (EMAS). The findings have been referenced in evidence to the UK Parliament, with Professor Jo Brewis, lead author of the 2017 Government Equalities Office report ‘The effects of menopause transition on women’s economic participation in the UK’, citing the research in written parliamentary committee evidence. This evidence was then used in the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee report ‘Menopause and the workplace’ published in 2022.

Mims Davies MP, Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work, hosted a policy and practice roundtable meeting at the University of Southampton in 2023. In the meeting, Professor Falkingham shared the research findings on menopause and the barriers to remaining in the workplace with Minister Davies and other politicians (including the Rt Hon Caroline Nokes MP), local business and council leaders, and private sector and charity organisations. Professor Falkingham was then invited to attend a roundtable meeting at 10 Downing Street, hosted by Minister Davies in March 2024. Highlighting the International Women’s Day theme of ‘inspiring inclusion’, the meeting focused on employer support for people affected by menopause in the workplace. The roundtable also marked the publication of the Menopause Employment Champion’s 12-month progress report, ‘Shattering

the silence about menopause’ and the re-launch of the Menopause Resources Hub on the Help to Grow portal

The research has also inspired a training course on menopause at work for staff of the University of Southampton. The course aims to increase understanding and awareness of menopause, encourage conversation, and create a menopause-friendly environment, including new training resources such as a menopause guide and a podcast.

Further reading

Menopausal transition and change in employment: Evidence from the National Child Development Study (Maturitas)

Global consensus recommendations on menopause in the workplace: A European Menopause and Andropause Society (EMAS) position statement (Maturitas)

The effects of menopause transition on women’s economic participation in the UK (Government Equalities Office report 2017)

Parliamentary committee written evidence on menopause (Professor Jo Brewis)

Menopause and the workplace

(House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee)

Government urged to improve menopause care to keep women in work (CPC-CG news)

Shattering the silence about menopause: 12-month progress report (Department for Work and Pensions)

Menopause in the workplace resources hub (Help to Grow)

Heather Pasero talks to Professor Jane Falkingham OBE about her research on menopause in the workplace (World Menopause Day podcast)

Identifying genetic determinants of fertility

Professor Melinda Mills co-authored ground-breaking research published in Nature Human Behaviour, the largest study to date which identifies genetic determinants. The findings demonstrate that fertility is affected by diverse biological mechanisms, which contribute to variations in fertility, and directly affect puberty timing, sex hormone levels (such as testosterone), endometriosis and age at menopause. There were also links to behaviours such as risk taking. The study team also identified that the human genome has been influenced by natural selection for thousands of years and continues to affect fertility today.

The research team used data from 785,604 individuals of European ancestry, including individuals in the UK Biobank study, to identify 43 regions of the genome containing genetic variants associated with reproductive success, defined as the number of children ever born to an individual.

The findings contribute to understanding changes in human reproduction over longer periods of time, reproductive biology and potential links to infertility. The study has also highlighted new biology that could help identify novel therapeutic targets for reproductive diseases, and help to better understand the biological mechanisms that link reproductive health to broader health outcomes in men and women.

Professor Mills also co-authored research which has revealed a significant association between 74 earlylife diseases and the likelihood of remaining childless throughout one’s life, with 33 of these diseases prevalent in both women and men.

Published in Nature Human Behaviour, the study examined the link between 414 early-life diseases and lifetime childlessness in over 2.5 million individuals born in Finland and Sweden. In many Western European and East Asian countries, up to 15-20% of individuals born around 1970 are now childless. Although multiple social, economic and individual preferences have been studied, there has been limited research examining the contribution of different diseases to being childless over a lifetime, particularly those diseases with onset prior to the peak reproductive age.

This study contributes to a better understanding of how disease contributes to involuntary childlessness and the need for improved public health interventions which address early-life diseases among both men and women.

New evidence on what determines asylum seekers’ country of choice

The arrival of asylum seekers since 2015 has presented a serious challenge for EU countries. While flows of asylum seekers have been welcomed by some countries, others have been more restrictive and concerned about the burden of hosting them.

Professor Jackline Wahba and Dr Valentina Di Iasio have been looking at the effect of policies in deterring asylum seekers. They examined what drives first-time asylum seekers to apply for asylum in particular destinations within the EU by exploring EUROSTAT data on asylum applications to the EU between 2008-2020. The study shows that the strongest pull factor for asylum seekers to a destination is social networks, measured in terms of previous asylum applications and previous stocks of migrants from the same origin. This might be due to social networks transmitting information about routes and destinations or due to the help of friends and families to join.

The results show that economic factors are not as influential as social networks, and asylum seekers are not as attracted by the generosity of the welfare state as they are by social networks. The findings also suggest that access to the labour market and employment rights have a modest role in attracting asylum seekers.

These findings are important for policymakers as some of the policies aiming to deter asylum seekers do not seem to be a real deterrence. For example, policies that restrict access to welfare systems or the labour market have a modest impact on decision-making and therefore are not very effective in reducing the number

of asylum applicants. In particular, banning asylum seekers from employment leads asylum seekers to become more dependent on public spending in the short term, and could result in exploitation. This also leads to negative long-term effects with respect to integration. Lifting the employment ban seems to be more cost-effective and better for the integration of refugees in the long term. The work was published in The Conversation and as a podcast

Professor Wahba shared research evidence with European policy

Advancing the field of digital and computational demography

Professor Ridhi Kashyap’s research leverages computational approaches for demographic research within the growing area of Digital and Computational Demography, co-leading the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science (LCDS) strand on Digital and Computational Science. The research encompasses how computational methods (e.g. agent-based models, microsimulation, machine learning) and new data streams (e.g. digital trace data from the web and social media), can contribute to the study of population dynamics and social inequalities. Along with colleagues at LCDS, Professor Kashyap has contributed two book chapters; ‘Digital and computational demography’ in the Research Handbook on Digital Sociology; and ‘Leveraging digital and computational demography for policy insights’ in the Handbook of Computational Social Science for Policy.

Professor Kashyap is also PI of the Digital Gender Gaps project which uses social media data together with survey data to nowcast global digital gender inequalities in internet and mobile access, a global sustainable development goal (SDG) indicator for which there is a significant data gap.

In January 2023, Professor Kashyap was an invited speaker at the ESRC Digital Footprints Strategic Advice Team launch, which brought together academic researchers, industry experts and members of government to discuss the ESRC’s major investment in strengthening and growing capacity, infrastructure and impactful research in the area of Digital Footprints data, while Professor Melinda Mills was an invited member to the No.10 Prime Minister’s Office Data Science Advisory Group from 2021-2023.

In recognition of her work on demography, social statistics, computational social science, digital and computational demography, and gender inequalities, Professor Kashyap won the 2023 Philip Leverhulme Prize

Further reading

Digital and computational demography (Research Handbook on Digital Sociology)

Leveraging digital and computational demography for policy insights (Handbook of Computational Social Science for Policy)

Digital Gender Gaps Web Application (Zenodo, Github)

Making research accessible to the Department for Work and Pensions

Researchers in Connecting Generations have been communicating their research to different teams in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), with the aim of improving their evidence base for decisions. In January 2023, Dr Jason Hilton, Professor Eren Dodd, Professor Jakub Bijak, Professor Peter Smith, and Dr Joanne Ellison met with the DWP Demography Centre of Expertise to discuss how Connecting Generations research can feed into DWP microsimulation modelling and their wider mission.

In May 2023, Professor Athina Vlachantoni took part in a discussion with DWP and presented research on ‘Population trends in the UK and globally’. Research by Professor Jane Falkingham, Professor Maria Evandrou and Professor Vlachantoni on ‘Exploring the link between demographic change and poverty in the UK’, and Professor Ann Berrington and Dr Juliet Stone on ‘Cohabitation trends and patterns in the UK’ was cited in DWP research report no. 1031 ‘Are household formation decisions and living together fraud and error affected by the Living Together as a Married Couple policy? An evidence review’, published in July 2023. The report informs DWP’s living together policy and its application to reserved GB benefits.

The ongoing relationship with DWP will be strengthened through a new PhD fellowship. Secured by Professor Vlachantoni and Professor Falkingham, and funded by ESRC ADRUK, the PhD fellowship will investigate the characteristics of WASPI women (women against state pension inequality), using DWP data.

Showcasing the Intergenerational Living Innovation Hub

Professor Alison Bowes met with Lord Malcolm Offord of Garvel, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Scotland, to demonstrate the new Intergenerational Living Innovation Hub, which forms part of Connecting Generations programme ‘Changing intergenerational relationships: a regional case study’.

The Hub includes a vital facility for testing out research innovations which support community integration, address inequality and improve intergenerational support, allowing co-production of research with local communities. Lord Offord heard details of the Hub which enables and supports transformative approaches to community resilience, wellbeing and economic regeneration in the region.

The Hub has received £7.25 million of UK Government funding under the Stirling and Clackmannanshire City Region Deal. Joining the visit was Councillor Ellen Forson, Leader of Clackmannanshire Council and Chair of the Clackmannanshire Commission, which awarded the funding to the project. Councillor Forson and University of Stirling representatives, including Professor Bowes, spoke to Lord Offord about how the Hub will bring together researchers, industry, healthcare providers and the third sector to develop innovative ways for an ageing population to live, work and socialise. Architects, designers, construction companies and technology providers will work in collaboration to help bring commercially and socially viable solutions to life.

Professor Bowes has also been sharing this research with the charity sector, giving a talk on ‘Designing Homes for Healthy Cognitive Ageing’ at the ‘Independent Living Centre’ in Wiltshire. Further supporting this agenda, Professor Judith Phillips has been appointed to the Older People’s Housing Taskforce by the UK Government.

Informing the design of inclusive pensions

Professor Athina Vlachantoni has been examining ethnic differences in pension protection among mid-life and older individuals from minority ethnic communities in the UK to help policymakers understand inequalities in pension protection between minority ethnic communities, and how to reduce them. The findings show how individuals and families from a range communities prepare financially for later life. They highlight the barriers and opportunities that different communities face to build greater financial resilience.

The project team are working with people from minority ethnic communities in Southampton to understand pension protection, finances and saving, as well as working with research partners who have fed into the design of the project and will use the project findings in their work. The partners are: Southampton City Council; Department for Work and Pensions; AgeUK Southampton; Pensions Policy Institute; People’s Pension; Citizens Advice Southampton;

and the Runnymede Trust. In January 2023, the project team hosted a meeting with the representatives from the research partners to discuss ways to work within communities, project considerations and desired outcomes for stakeholders.

In March 2024, the project team hosted a full day teaching event with 250 year 11 pupils from Cantell School in Southampton on financial resilience. Pupils discussed different ways of preparing for the future, using the project findings to discuss students’ future selves, saving for later life and opportunities and challenges of ageing and retirement.

Further reading

Informing the design of inclusive pensions (CPC-CG news)

Sharing study information on the radio (Awaaz.fm Community Hour)

Building financial resilience for later life (Virtual visual arts exhibition)

Providing evidence to the Scottish Parliament

Professor David Bell has been active in sharing evidence on the economic impact of policy with policy actors. With this aim, he was elected Chair of the Scottish Government Regional Economic Policy Advisory Group, which aims to provide Ministers and officials with independent support for understanding and managing the impact of the UK Government’s Levelling Up Agenda across Scotland, as well as developing a review into regional economic policy in Scotland. Further to this, Professor Bell authored the Scottish Government regional economic policy review papers, examining why, and in which policy areas, economic development works well on a regional scale. His research was used in the Scottish Government ‘Citizens’ Assembly of Scotland: research report’. He has given evidence to the Scottish Finance and Public Administration Committee on Scottish Fiscal Framework: Independent report, gave evidence to the Scottish Affairs Committee at the House of Commons on the Cost of living: Impact on rural communities in Scotland inquiry, and gave evidence on the sustainability of Scotland’s finances to the Scottish Parliament. He was also a speaker at the Migration Policy Scotland event ‘Migration and the Scottish Economy: Impacts and Options’, held at COSLA. Professor Bell and Professor Judith Phillips co-authored a report for HM Treasury and Scottish Government on funding for tax and welfare devolution, published in June 2022.

Connecting Generations members have also been sharing their health research with parliamentarians. Professor Bell presented evidence to the Scottish Government on ‘Trends in health inequalities in Scotland since devolution’ to inform the Scottish Government review of health inequalities in Scotland. Following on from this, he participated in a Holyrood Insight Conference on adult social care reform in Scotland. Dr Mary Abed Al Ahad shared her research on air pollution, health and mortality to MSP in the Scottish Parliament, and gave written evidence to the Public Accounts Committee on the Defra Recall: Environmental protection, published in April 2023. Additionally, she gave written evidence to the UK Parliament Environmental Audit Committee on the health impacts of outdoor air pollution

Further reading

Regional economic policy review papers 1-4 (Scottish Government)

Citizens’ Assembly of Scotland: research report (Scottish Government)

Fiscal Framework Review: Independent Report (Scottish Government)

First step to Fiscal Framework Review (Scottish Government)

Written evidence to Defra Recall: Environment protection (Mary Abed Al Ahad)

Written evidence to the UK Parliament Environmental Audit Committee (Mary Abed Al Ahad)

Fertility in Britain

Professor Hill Kulu and Professor Ann Berrington have been investigating differences in childbearing behaviour between women living in Scotland and those in England and Wales. Whilst all countries in Britain have experienced a decline in fertility rates, Scotland’s fertility has declined more than the other countries.

The research found that all three countries have seen a large postponement of childbearing to later ages. There are no differences between the countries in the rate of childbearing at younger ages, the difference appears to be due to lower rates of childbearing among women in their thirties and forties. The study also found that Scottish women with two children were less likely to intend to have another child than women living in England, even when socio-economic factors were taken into account.

The research suggests Scottish women are less able to achieve their intended fertility, particularly second and third births. It provides support for the approach taken by the Scottish Government in seeking to reduce barriers to childbearing and the gap between desired and actual family size. The research team held a workshop in collaboration with the Scottish Government Population Team to discuss these findings.

Further reading

Understanding fertility trends in Britain: Do fertility intentions differ across England, Wales and Scotland? (CPC-CG working paper 105)

Improving National Population Projections

Professor Ann Berrington is collaborating with the Office for National Statistics (ONS), National Records of Scotland (NRS) and the Northern Ireland Statistical Research Agency (NISRA) to enable fertility research findings to be used in National Population Projections (NPPs). National Population Projections are widely used in planning, for example, fiscal projections, health, education and pensions.

The research includes small area fertility estimation, fertility intentions data (from the Gender and Generations Survey) and young people’s transitions to adulthood and changing living arrangements. The work uses ONS Longitudinal Study data, The National Records for Scotland Scottish Longitudinal Study data and the Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study data. Through mutual sharing, Professor Berrington is communicating the findings of the research to the ONS Demographic Analysis Unit, the ONS Population Projections Team, NRS and NISRA

who are integrating the findings into the assumptions for NPPs. The collaboration resulted in the CPCCG Working Paper ‘Estimating the 2011 total fertility rate for England & Wales and Scotland using alternative data sources’.

Connecting Generations expertise is also being used for setting the migration assumptions of the NPPs. Professor Jakub Bijak participated in the ONS NPP migration expert advisory panel (December 2023), sharing his knowledge of the short and long-term prospects for international migration. This knowledge was used in the ONS ‘National population projections: 2021-based interim’ which was released in January 2024.

To feed expertise into national statistics more broadly, Professor Jane Falkingham sits on the National Statistician’s Expert User Advisory Committee (NSEUAC). Professor Hill Kulu is a member of the Expert Advisory Group on Population and Migration at the Scottish Government. Professor

Falkingham, Professor Berrington, and Professor Kulu met with UK Permanent Secretaries for a Strategy Seminar on ‘How the UK population is changing and why it matters’. Professor Berrington and Professor Kulu discussed their research on attitudes to family formation at the Population and Migration Policy Unit of the Scottish Government. Professor Berrington also produced a brief on the impact of global trends on domestic policy for the UK Government Cabinet Office Economic and Domestic Affairs Strategy Team, following a meeting with the Cabinet Office.

Investigating the link between partnership and health

Professor Hill Kulu and Dr Júlia Mikolai have been investigating health and mortality by partnership status in England and Wales and analysing the causes of mortality differences, using combined data from the British Household Panel Survey and the UK Household Longitudinal Study.

Published in Demography, their work has found that partnered people have a lower risk of dying compared to those without partners. While there is some evidence that healthier people are more likely to get into and stay in a partnership, the difference in mortality between partnered and nonpartnered people remains even after this is considered. This supports the idea that being in a partnership, whether married or not, is good for your health.

Further reading

Partnership status, health, and mortality: Selection or protection? (Demography)

Sharing expertise with the EU

Professor Jackline Wahba and Dr Valentina Di Iasio have been examining the effects of the Brexit referendum on migration patterns, shedding light on the significant decline in EU migration to the UK.

The research, published in the European Economic Review, found that the period of uncertainty surrounding the Brexit referendum had a profound impact on migration flows between EU countries and the UK. By examining the determinants of refugees’ destinations within the EU, the research team found that social networks are the biggest pull factor.

In June 2022, Professor Wahba met with members of the European Commission and other experts from the European Parliament, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, to share insights on the European Commission’s proposed initiatives on ‘Attracting skills and talent to the EU’. Research evidence was shared and the proposed initiatives were evaluated. Policy options and potential operational and legislative initiatives to attract skills and talent to the EU were discussed among the group.

In April 2023, Professor Jakub Bijak organised a joint Quantmig, FUME and Hummingbird event on ‘Future migration to Europe’, a gathering of migration experts and scholars with policymakers and practitioners at the European Parliament in Brussels. Professor Bijak also contributed migration expertise to a high-level policy workshop hosted by the European Commission entitled ‘Towards a resilient future of Europe’, as well as being one of 10 demography experts invited in March 2024 to meet with Dubravka Šuica, Vice-President of the EU Commission for Democracy and Demography, to address demographic changes and their impact on Europe’s competitive edge.

Professor Bijak leads a work package on migration in the FutuRes project, a HorizonEurope transdisciplinary policy lab where decision-makers from research, politics, business and civil society work closely together to create evidenceinformed solutions for ageing societies. In November 2023, he contributed to a FutuRes Policy Lab workshop of leading foresight and forecasting experts. The workshop led to a Population and Policy Brief Face the risk – Dealing with uncertainty when anticipating the future. The brief provides a guide for policymakers to inform policy action and increase societal resilience to crisis and change.

In Spring 2022, Professor Melinda Mills was appointed as of one three Special Advisors to Paolo Gentiloni, the

European Commissioner of the Economy. Paolo Gentiloni has served as the European Commissioner for the Economy in the von der Leyen Commission since December 2019. He previously served as Prime Minister of Italy from 2016 to 2018. In an extension of her previous work on the European Commission’s High-Level Group on post-Covid economic and social challenges, Professor Mills is advising the Commissioner on socioeconomic matters.

Professor Mills is also one of eleven Principal Investigators for the new Einstein Center Population Diversity. The Center aims to improve our understanding of population diversity through interdisciplinary expertise in biosocial health, and the interaction of genetics and biomarkers with population and family diversity.

The new center will also open up new opportunities for early career researchers to advance the study of population diversity, which is an alliance between experts in the LCDS, Oxford and Berlin. The research aims to identify and address inequalities across Europe, driving meaningful progress in biosocial research, and ultimately benefiting society and families.

Highlighting demographic consequences of conflict in Ukraine

Professor Ridhi Kashyap and Professor Melinda Mills undertook research to develop an innovative metric to monitor population displacement in Ukraine following Russia’s invasion. It provided one of the only quantitative estimates of internal displacement in virtual realtime, combining daily United Nations data on how many people cross the Ukrainian border with the researchers’ daily data on active Facebook users to monitor population displacement across Ukraine provinces. The metric considers the percentage of people who were active on Facebook before the invasion to mitigate any bias. This contributed to the United Nations revising their initial internal displacement estimate of 1.6 million people around three weeks after Russia’s invasion to 6.5 million as of March 2022.

Professor Hill Kulu and Dr Júlia Mikolai investigated the effect of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on the future of Ukraine’s population. They conducted a series of population projections with different assumptions on the number of casualties and refugees, and the refugees’ likelihood of return by different political scenarios. The study showed that Russia’s invasion has not only led to immense human and economic costs in Ukraine in the present, but also carries long-term demographic repercussions. With war casualties and a large portion of the Ukrainian population seeking safety abroad from the conflict, the country’s population is projected to decline by one‐third.

Professor Jakub Bijak contributed to a workshop on ‘The demography of Ukraine and the challenges of war and humanitarian crisis’ co-hosted by the Federal Institute for Population Research in Germany in April 2022.

Capacity building and sharing expertise

Additional activities to achieve wider capacity building include offering short courses on new methodological tools and techniques, schools’ outreach, and mentoring. For example, in June 2021 and July 2022, colleagues based in LCDS held the Summer Institute in Computational Sciences; a partnership with Princeton, Duke, UCLA and Montréal Universities. The summer schools focus on training PGRs and ECRs. Topics covered include the advanced techniques used by colleagues in their CG research, such as web scraping, digital field experiments, machine learning, geospatial analysis, social networks and simulations, and agent-based modelling. The twoweek programme included research talks, government and industry speakers and group projects.

Professor Ann Berrington and Professor Athina Vlachantoni co-led a training workshop in September 2022 on mixed methods in longitudinal life course studies for researchers and ECRs from partner institutions of the YouthLife project. Professor Berrington was also a mentor at the postgraduate and early career mentoring session for PhD and ECR attendees at the BSPS Conference 2022, enabling them to meet demographers and learn more about career opportunities.

In October 2022, Dr Joanne Ellison, Professor Ann Berrington, Professor Jakub Bijak, Dr Sarah Christison, Professor Eren Dodd, Dr Bernice Kuang and Professor Hill Kulu hosted two free half-day virtual workshops on Fertility Analysis and Projection. Attendees included members of national and local government statistics departments, social and demographic researchers, and others interested in understanding how to analyse fertility trends and make projections.

To share their expertise and knowledge with the wider scientific and policy communities, Connecting Generations Senior Management Team members have been appointed to a number of influential roles:

Professor Jane Falkingham is Chair of the ESRC Centre for Longitudinal Studies Board; a member of the Academy of Social Sciences Audit and Risk Committee; and a member of the UKRI ADR UK Delivery Board.

Professor Hill Kulu has been the President of the European Association of Population Studies (EAPS) for the 2022-2024 Council. He is also a member of the Expert Advisory Group on Population and Migration at the Scottish Government.

Professor Melinda Mills is a Special Advisor to Paolo Gentiloni, the European Commissioner of the Economy; an executive committee member for the Consortium on Analytics for Data-Driven Decision-making (CAnD3); an advisory board member for the Open Data Infrastructure for Social Science and Economic Innovations (ODDISEI); and was a panel chair for the 2022 ERC synergy grants for social sciences and humanities.

Professor Ann Berrington is a member of the ESRC Data and Infrastructure, Skills and Methods Expert Advisory Group.

Dr David McCollum is a member of the ESRC Peer Review College, and a member of the International Advisory Board of Population, Space and Place.

Professor Athina Vlachantoni acted as Vice-Chair of the 2022 Review Committee for the National Centre of Social Research in Greece.

Professor Jackline Wahba is an ESRC Council member.

Awards and recognition

Professor Jane Falkingham was awarded a CBE in the King’s New Years Honours for services to demographic research (January 2023).

Professor Ridhi Kashyap won a £100,000 Philip Leverhulme Prize for outstanding research achievements in demography, awarded by the Leverhulme Trust (October 2023).

Professor Melinda Mills was awarded the James W. Vaupel Trailblazer Award for the development and application of the methods of demographic analysis (August 2022).

Professor Athina Vlachantoni and Professor Jackline Wahba were conferred to the Fellowship of the Academy of Social Sciences, recognising their excellence and impact in their services to social sciences and public benefit (April 2022).

Researcher spotlight

Capacity-building is central to the Centre’s activities and is critical for its research staff and postgraduate students. We aim to lead on best practice among our staff with a recognition that advancing their knowledge is important to building capacity among the social science community. The Universities of Oxford, Southampton, St Andrews and Stirling are signatories to The Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers, highlighting their commitment to the employment and support for researchers and researcher careers in UK higher education. In line with the Concordat, all staff are provided with opportunities, structured support and time to engage in meaningful professional development.

Dr Joe Butterick is an Early Career Researcher at the University of Southampton, working as a Research Fellow on the project ‘Modelling kinship and quantifying the connections between generations’, led by Dr Jason Hilton. His research interests draw from Evolutionary Game Theory, focusing on how population structures change over time, stemming from the realisation that the methodological approaches used in studying phenotypic evolution are equally applicable to demography. Within Connecting Generations, Joe investigates mathematical problems, particularly matrix models predicting the structure and distribution of population members’ kin.

Through the institutional contribution of its partners, the Centre has so far recruited three funded PhD students working on CG projects, two based at the University of Stirling and one at the University of St Andrews. There are nine affiliate PhD students, seven based at the University of Southampton, and two at the University of St Andrews. We also host visits from researchers and students from other institutions. These colleagues benefit from participation in CG seminars, workshops, and reading groups along with training opportunities across the Connecting Generations networks.

Eve Maynard is an IAS-funded PhD researcher in the Department of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Stirling. She is also working as research assistant on several projects within the University’s Sociology department. Her work examines the use of serious gaming as an effective health and social care approach amongst older adults in the UK. Eve’s PhD is supervised by Connecting Generations members Professor Alison Bowes and Dr Alison Dawson. She is also working alongside Professor Vikki McCall and Professor Alasdair Rutherford as a project officer at their social enterprise ‘Socialudo’.

Vincent Ramos is an Early Career Researcher with a background in economics and public policy. Vincent works with Professor Ann Berrington as Research Fellow at the University of Southampton where his work examines inter-generational co-residence and young adults’ living arrangements. Vincent previously worked at the Philippine Competition Commission, before taking up PhD studies at Humboldt University Berlin. His thesis concerned labour market policies, when individuals enter and exit labour markets, and the links between fertility and employability and the nature of the bargaining.

Meet some of our ECR and PhD team

Dr Andrew Hind has recently passed his PhD viva following his time as a self-funded part-time student in Social Statistics and Demography at the University of Southampton. His research used the ONS internal migration detailed estimates to explore how internal migration shapes population change at local authority district level. Andrew’s interests lie in the associations between education and migration, including family migration driven by school catchment areas, boarding at elite “public schools”, and the residential component of the university system. His supervisors were Connecting Generations members Professor Jakub Bijak and Dr Jason Hilton.

Klara Raiber is an Assistant Professor of family sociology at Radboud University, in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. In autumn 2022, she was a postgraduate visiting researcher at CPC-CG and the Centre for Research on Ageing (CRA) in the Department of Gerontology at the University of Southampton. During her research stay, Klara worked with Professor Maria Evandrou and Professor Jane Falkingham on job satisfaction among informal care givers. Her research focuses on unpaid/informal caregiving, gender, the life course, and family dynamics in older age.

UKRI – Connecting Generations engagement session

As part of the aim to ensure Connecting Generations research feeds into wider strategic goals, in May 2022 we hosted the UKRI CEO, ESRC Executive Chair and several members of the UKRI External Affairs team. In a roundtable session, a variety of Connecting Generations members had the opportunity to speak to the UKRI team, including ECRs, PhD students, and the Administrative Team, along with strand leaders and Directors.

Topics of discussion included practice in equality, diversity and inclusion; supporting talent via training

and career development; researcher empowerment and voice; collaboration between investments; working with government, industry and other third parties; and engagement and impact.

As well as discussion of mutual topics of interest and opportunity, the event included research displays for the in-person delegation and a virtual exhibit on the UKRI event platform. This showcased our research on generational connection, economic uncertainty, changing social and family life, intergenerational fairness and solidarity.

Engagement activity highlights

Thought Leader Talks and CPC-CG seminars

We have held seven Thought Leader Talks, designed to bring in leading voices from other institutions and organisations to exchange knowledge on intergenerational connections, and open up discussion and debate to the Connecting Generations team and wider academic, policy, practitioner and public audiences. Alongside this, we have organised 31 open access seminars since 1 April 2022. Attendees can attend the seminars online, with some now being offered as hybrid sessions for visiting presenters. Where possible, recordings are made available on YouTube after our events.

As well as our academic audience from national and international institutions, we’ve welcomed delegates from the Office for National Statistics, National Records of Scotland, ISTAT, the Spanish National Research Council, the Hungarian Central Statistical Office, the National Population Council of Mexico, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the Clarion Housing Group, local and national government representatives, including from DWP, local councils and the Local Government Association, and representatives from charities such as Youthscape and Age Action.

Thought Leader Talk themes have included:

An introduction to the Connecting Generations programme with Professor Jane Falkingham, Professor Mike Brewer, and Professor Hill Kulu.

The impact of generational stereotyping with Professor Bobby Duffy (King’s College London), The Rt Hon. Lord David Willetts, and Professor Jane Falkingham.

The effects of Britain’s economic history and outlook on different generations with Professor James Sefton (Imperial College London), Professor Jane Falkingham, and The Rt Hon. Lord David Willetts.

A formal demography view on kinship, family and generations with Professor Hal Caswell (University of Amsterdam), Dr Jason Hilton, Professor Jakub Bijak and Dr Joanne Ellison.

The impacts on the ‘Covid Generation’ with Dr Jennie Bristow (Canterbury Christ Church University), Professor Jane Falkingham, Professor Ann Berrington and Dr Júlia Mikolai.

How political preferences and choices are influenced by concerns for family members with Dr Zack Grant (University of Oxford), Professor Jane Falkingham, Dr Dianna Smith (University of Southampton), and Dr Matt Ryan (University of Southampton).

How different generations participate in politics with Professor Maria Grasso (Queen Mary University of London), Professor Jane Falkingham, The Rt Hon. Lord David Willetts, and Sophie Hale.

Policy forum on local population challenges

As part of the 2023 ESRC Festival of Social Science, we organised a policy forum to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the British Society for Population Studies (BSPS). The event explored local population change and policy challenges in a science-meets-policy and practice event at the British Academy in London (and online). Hosted by BSPS President Professor Nicola Shelton of University College London, it brought together experts Professor Jane Falkingham (CPC-CG), Professor Tony Champion (Newcastle University), Jen Woolford (ONS), Professor Grant Hill-Cawthorne (House of Commons) and Professor Alison Park (ESRC) to showcase latest research knowledge, illustrate how quality population data is collected, and highlight routes to influencing public policy.

The event attracted over 100 attendees including school pupils, government members, local councillors, and local authority practitioners. Feedback was positive – 100%

Strategic away day

The Connecting Generations team came together for the first time in April 2023 for a strategic away day to share research progress, synergies and to plan future work as the project moved into its second year of funding.

The meeting took place over two days at New Place, Southampton, with colleagues joining from the Universities of Southampton, St Andrews, Stirling, Oxford and the Resolution Foundation. We also welcomed colleagues from the CG Advisory Board, including Eve Forrest from the ESRC, Mike Daly

of attendees stated that they were glad they attended the event, and that they had learnt something new, with one delegate commenting: “The event was very interesting, insightful, and thought-provoking. I have learnt a lot, which is very motivating to me as a social researcher focused at the local level and, particularly, at the level of the community.”

from the Department for Work and Pensions, and Gunnar Andersson from Stockholm University.

Alongside progress presentations from each project team, we heard from members of the CG Advisory Board about their organisations and how their research complements that of Connecting Generations. In two interactive sessions, attendees discussed topics which could feed into future Resolution Foundation Intergenerational Audits, as well as discussing subject crossover and areas for future research and collaboration.

TV, radio and podcasting

1 Professor Jane Falkingham took part in an episode of BBC News’ Talking Business, commenting on themes including life expectancy, ageing societies, and the demographic transition. Professor Falkingham also appeared on BBC News to discuss the release of the initial Census 2021 results, and on TRT World News discussing the world population reaching 8 billion. She was also a guest on the BBC Science Focus Instant Genius podcast discussing the world’s ageing population.

2 Molly Broome was interviewed about intergenerational fairness for BBC Newsnight, Good Morning Britain, and LBC Radio. Research from the Intergenerational Audits also featured in major outlets including The Guardian, The Telegraph, Money Week, and The Independent

3 Professor David Bell featured in a two-part BBC Scotland programme on ‘Who lives in Scotland?’ discussing Scotland’s changing population, including issues surrounding unpaid carers and the costs of dementia care. He also featured on the podcast ‘Constitutionally Sound’ discussing migration challenges after Covid and Brexit.

4 Dr David McCollum was interviewed about the Scottish Census results for BBC Reporting Scotland TV News. Dr McCollum was also interviewed by BBC Radio Scotland’s Mornings show and BBC Radio Scotland’s Lunchtime Live programme about net migration figures, and featured on BBC Radio Nottingham discussing his research on working from home and the pandemic.

5 Professor Melinda Mills was interviewed on LBC Radio about rising childlessness in younger generations, and featured on The Why Wait Agenda podcast discussing delayed parenthood. She discussed her research on lifetime childlessness for the BBC World Service Newsday radio programme, as well as discussing the world population reaching 8 billion on BBC Radio 4. She featured in a profile article for the Big Challenge series in Front Line Genomics, discussing the challenges in demography and population health, highlighting the issues surrounding data sharing and working in an interdisciplinary way.

6 Professor Jackie Wahba and Dr Valentina Di Iasio published the article ‘Hotels and employment aren’t major ‘pull factors’ for refugees – here’s what really draws people to move’ in The Conversation, and Dr Di Iasio also took part in The Conversation Weekly podcast ‘Debunking migration myths: the real reasons people move, and why most migration happens in the global south’.

Fertility research

Our fertility research, particularly on declining birthrates, has appeared in numerous media outlets either as research references or researcher interviews, including The Financial Times, The Scotsman, TES Magazine, The Observer, The Telegraph, and The Times

Sleep research

Research by Professor Falkingham et al. on how sleep was affected during the pandemic received widespread coverage between 2021-2023, including in Women’s Health Magazine, The Times, The Sun, and The Express.

Research by Professor Mills et al. on the protection from sleep loss for shift workers offered by the genetics of night owls was also reported across multiple outlets, including Sleep.com

The war in Ukraine

Professor Jakub Bijak was quoted in international media about the importance of accurately recording civilian deaths in times of war. Research from the MigrantLife project team was referenced in The Economist on Ukraine’s shrinking population, and Dr Sarah Christison was interviewed for the Wall Street Journal on Ukraine’s demographic collapse. Professor Kulu was interviewed on BBC Good Morning Scotland on 17 March 2022 about the effect of the war on Ukraine’s population.

Economic affairs in the UK

Professor David Bell has been prolific across the media commenting on economic affairs, particularly in Scotland but also nationally, as well as migration, population change, ageing and social care, and university student places in Scotland. Articles and comment pieces have been published in The Financial Times, The Times, The Herald, BBC News, and The New Statesman.

Connecting Generations Team

Award title: Highlight CPC – Connecting Generations Centre

Funder: UKRI / Economic and Social Research Council

Connecting Generations Team

Jane Falkingham

Principal Investigator

Award number: ES/W002116/1

Award timeframe: 01/04/2022 – 31/03/2027

External Advisory Board Administration and Knowledge Exchange Team

Mike Brewer

Co-Director Resolution Foundation

Co-Investigators

Sophie Hale

Melinda Mills

Co-Director

LCDS, Oxford

Co-Investigators

Ridhi Kashyap

Alison Bowes

Co-Director

Stirling

Hill Kulu

Co-Director

St Andrews

Maria Evandrou

Co-Director

Southampton

Co-Investigators

David Bell

Alison Dawson

Elaine Douglas

Co-Investigators

Urska Demsar

Nissa Finney

Francesca Fiori

Co-Investigators

Ann Berrington

Jakub Bijak

Eren Dodd

Corrado Giulietti

Judith Phillips

Alasdair Rutherford

Jo Mhari Hale

Katherine Keenan

David McCollum

Júlia Mikolai

Jason Hilton

Peter W Smith

Athina Vlachantoni

Jackie Wahba

Strategic Advisory Board members

Professor Sir Ian Diamond Chair

Professor Gunnar Andersson

Professor Hal Caswell

Professor Grant Hill-Cawthorne

Ian Diamond is the UK’s National Statistician. He is the principal adviser on official statistics to the UK Statistics Authority and the Government, and Head of the Government Statistical Service.

Gunnar Andersson is Professor of Demography at Stockholm University where he is Head of the Stockholm University Demography Unit (SUDA).

Hal Caswell is Professor of Mathematical Demography and Ecology at the University of Amsterdam.

Grant Hill-Cawthorne is Managing Director of Research and Information and Librarian at the House of Commons. He is also Adjunct Professor of Global Health at the University of Sydney.

Alison Clyde Alison Clyde is the Chief Executive Officer at Generations Working Together.

Alan Ferrier

Cllr. Toqeer Kataria

Sam Mold

Professor Jacqueline O'Reilly

Dr Lucy Peake

Rich Pereira

Professor Sally Power

Rachel Sunderland

Professor Helga de Valk

Alan Ferrier is Head of Demographic Statistics, National Records of Scotland.

Toqeer Kataria is Cabinet Member for Communities and Customer Engagement at Southampton City Council.

Sam Mold is lead at the Demography Centre of Expertise, Pensions and Later Life Analysis Division Policy Group, Department for Work and Pensions.

Jacqueline O’Reilly is Professor of Comparative Human Resource Management at the University of Sussex Business School where she is Co-Director of the ESRC Digital Futures at Work Research Centre.

Lucy Peake is the Chief Executive of Kinship, the leading kinship care charity in England and Wales.

Rich Pereira is Deputy Director for Population Statistics and Head of the Centre for Ageing and Demography, Public Policy Analysis at the Office for National Statistics.

Sally Power is a Professor at Cardiff University where she specialises in Education and Sociology. She is Co-Director of the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research and Data.

Rachel Sunderland is Head of the Population and Migration Division at the Scottish Government.

Helga de Valk is Professor of Migration and the Life Course at the University of Groningen where she is Director of the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI).

Keep in touch!

To discover more about our work, visit the CPC website: www.cpc.ac.uk

To subscribe to our regular newsletter and keep up-to-date with research activity, news and events, please register at: www.cpc.ac.uk/news/newsletter

You can view our media output on Scoop.it! and watch recordings of some of our TV and radio appearances, seminars and events on our YouTube Channel.

@ConnectingGens

@CPCpopulation

ESRC Centre for Population Change and Connecting Generations

T: +44 (0)23 8059 2579

E: cpc@soton.ac.uk

Editors

Becki Dey

Teresa McGowan

ESRC Centre for Population Change Connecting Generations University of Southampton

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ESRC Connecting Generations Highlights 2022-2024