Policy Data Analyst

Data Analyst supporting KE policy projects using research, innovation and ONS data analytics.

We are looking for a motivated and collaborative Data Analyst to support the delivery of strategically important, data-driven projects over the course of 2026 that contribute to the unit's long-standing partnership with Research England (UKRI).

Excellent interpersonal, networking and communication skills are required for this role as you will be required to work collaboratively in teams to deliver projects with interdependent work packages, as well as communicate complex methodologies, concepts and tools to non-technical audiences.

In addition to this, you will have:

• Knowledge and use of one or more programming languages e.g. R, Python.
• Experience using tools for data analysis and visualisation, pipeline development (use of APIs), version control (e.g. Git).
• Strong problem solving skills and an analytical, solutions focused mindset.
• Strong project delivery skills, with experience working in a team based, milestone driven environment and delivering projects to successful completion.
• Ability to work independently, and in teams, within an environment with limited existing processes or guidance, developing novel and innovative methods, workflows and protocols from scratch to meet project needs and ensure reproducibility and scalability.
• Demonstrated strong motivation for undertaking data analyses with policy communities in mind, to inform policy/funding approaches.

The ideal candidate will have a keen interest in research commercialisation, knowledge/technology transfer or innovation processes. Experience working with research and innovation related data (e.g. data on grants, patents, publications), company level databases, and/or ONS secure research data would be useful, but is not essential.

If you feel you meet all (or some) of our requirements for the role, we would be delighted to hear from you.

The Data Analyst, working collaboratively and under the guidance of UCI leadership, will be responsible for data collection, cleaning, and linking across multiple datasets, and will undertake / support data analysis and data visualisations as required by the projects. It is expected this will include at minimum the following types / sources of data: funding grants, patents and trademarks, company financials, shareholding data available through Companies House, and text based information available through documents and websites.

The role-holder will also be expected to become an Approved Researcher with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and deliver projects within its Secure Research Service environment that leverage the micro level data made available by the ONS. They will also support the UCI team with developing systems for storing data held by UCI to enable efficient repeated analyses as new data emerges.

Additionally the role will have the opportunity to work on some of our exciting projects in the following key areas:

• The expansion of the new university Spinout Register to integrate new sources of data (e.g. patents, people, funding, deal terms, investment).
• Building a comprehensive database of patents linked to UK universities.
• Producing national commercialisation metrics leveraging data from a range of established data sources (including from the Office for National Statistics and Higher Education Statistics Agency).
• Supporting the extraction, interrogation and analysis of text based information available on websites, documents, grants etc. on the approaches universities are developing to support commercialisation and wider forms of knowledge exchange.

Key responsibilities include:

• Support the delivery of strategically important data driven projects as part of the UCI Research England 2025-26 work programme. Perform, support and lead various aspects of data collection, integration, analysis, visualisation/presentation of data, and solutions development as required by the projects.
• Working with colleagues and partners, develop and support data collection, cleaning, integration, analysis, visualisation/presentation to enable the delivery of UCI projects to agreed timescales and milestones. Support the development and implementation of clustering and classification algorithms to identify structure within datasets and develop typologies/taxonomies. Undertake statistical and other forms of analysis of data generated in house and by external partners and providers as required to support project delivery.
• Support the translation of approaches/pipelines into automated procedures and/or standalone tools where appropriate. Carry out performance testing and optimisation of developed pipelines to ensure they run efficiently. Document and manage source code within an appropriate environment. Produce clear documentation for the deployment of tools by non technical users.
• Support the design and development of databases and their day to day management, production of supporting documentation and maintenance of data backups. Liaise with experts in various disciplines to successfully collect and integrate databases from different sources. Ensure accurate and detailed cataloguing and processing of data for publications.
• Present work on key findings, analysis approaches/workflows at internal and external meetings to share findings and build capabilities of the team and of UCI partners. Communicate effectively with UCI's key partners at Research England and elsewhere, including exchanging technical ideas, sharing protocols and standardisation of data pipelines and analytics.
• Support and advise the UCI leadership team on the development of the unit's capabilities around applying AI/data science for policy applications and insights. This will include training group members in the use of these tools. Provide support to other UCI team members on data related tasks where appropriate.
• Adhere to best coding practices (including ethical standards) and compliance to relevant regulations (including GDPR) and security procedures, including the safe use of sensitive data from national data providers such as the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and its publication according to regulations and guidelines.
• Maintain awareness of current and emerging technologies, experimental techniques, methods and tools. Keep abreast of relevant scientific literature, attend training courses and conferences. Be a champion of data science and AI/ML to inform policy/funding contexts, communicating its value to colleagues across the unit and external partners and stakeholders.

This is a 12 month fixed term position until 31st December 2026 in the first instance. As such, we are ideally looking for someone to start as soon as possible in January 2026, and the interviews will take place during the week commencing 15th December 2025.

The University of Cambridge Policy Evidence Unit for University Commercialisation and Innovation Policy (UCI) is a leading UK centre of excellence dedicated to improving the data, evidence and insights available to governments, funding agencies and universities to help them drive a step change in university contributions to innovation through commercialisation and knowledge exchange. Funded by Research England (UKRI) since 2020, our work has had a significant impact on the development of government policies related to commercialisation and knowledge exchange, and on university practice. Our partnership with Research England currently centres around developing novel data, metrics and evidence on commercialisation and wider forms of knowledge exchange.

A key milestone of our work programme was reached in mid 2025 with the launch of the UK's first comprehensive national University Spinout Register a line by line dataset of all UK university spinout companies. Work is now underway to integrate other sources of data and information (including on patents, grants, and people involved, and company financials), to unlock new insights on the health, performance and impact of the UK's spinout ecosystem.

Find more information on our website:

Policy Evidence Unit for University Commercialisation and Innovation (UCI)

Institute for Manufacturing, Cambridge, CB3 0FS