Research & Evaluation Coordinator

Research & Evaluation Coordinator Job Description

Salary: £35,000 pro rata (£28,000 @.8 FTE)
Status: Potential for extension into a full-time contract dependent on funding
Benefits: 4% pension, 25 days annual leave (Pro Rata)
Length of contract: 8 month fixed term August 2024 to March 2025, with potential for extension
dependent on funding.
Schedule/ hours: 30 Hours per week. Provision for flexible working. Some evening or weekend
work required .
Work Location: You will have an office base at The Forum@Greenwich, Trafalgar Road, London,
SE10 9EQ provision for flexible work from home. You will be expected to work from the office
base at least one day per month.

To Apply

Please initially email us your cv, and contact details, and position applied for. You will next be asked to complete a more detailed application form. Please send your CV and details to James Bennett: [email protected]

About Selce and Repowering London

South East London Community Energy (Selce) and Repowering London are award-winning community
energy organisations. We both specialise in co-creating and delivering community-led energy and
renewable projects. We are different to ordinary businesses as we are Community Benefit
Societies, a type of co-operative social enterprise. We put people at the heart of everything
we do and care about the communities we work with and each other. This is reflected in what we
do and how we work.

We exist to ensure our communities can benefit from and participate in the development of the
energy systems of the future. We are excited to partner together for the first time to deliver
a new and innovative programme of community-led domestic retrofit.

About the Future Fit Homes project

Selce and Repowering London are partnering to deliver an innovative approach to domestic
retrofit that will insulate homes, alleviate fuel poverty and play a leading role in responding
to the climate emergency. We will implement a community-led approach to address one of the
great engineering challenges of our time – improving the energy efficiency of the UK’s housing
stock. Solving this challenge will address fuel poverty and climate change.

Our aim is to make retrofit easy to understand and access. We will provide a holistic retrofit
coordination service that can be tailored to meet the needs of all households and residents. We
will put people and residents at the heart of the process by taking a neighbourhood approach.
To begin with, we will be working in four geographical London communities: Greenwich, Lewisham,
Lambeth and Newham.

We do not work alone. Both Selce and Repowering London are part of a quiet but growing
community energy powered revolution that has been building across the UK over the last decade.
This project is only the start; our long-term ambition is to develop an ongoing service across London that can
also be replicated by community energy groups across the country. Join us for the start of this
retrofit revolution! We have a number of new roles to help us deliver this ambition – we look
forward to hearing what you can offer and how you can play a leading role.

About the role – Research Coordinator Domestic Retrofit

This is an exciting opportunity for a community-based researcher who cares about tackling
energy-related issues and working towards a more inclusive and sustainable future. We recognise
that an effective research process is a key component in delivering the roll out of at scale
domestic retrofit projects. We work with the most vulnerable in our communities to help get
installations over the line. The results and findings of this project will contribute to how
the UK approaches retrofit and energy advice going forward.

As research Coordinator, you will work with a diverse and supportive team. Ideally you will be
locally based covering Greenwich, Lewisham, Lambeth, and Newham, with a strong interest in
climate issues and community retrofit. Your role will be to implement an action research
process whereby we gather data about every aspect of the domestic retrofit advice and
implementation project on an ongoing basis and then on a quarterly basis analyse what works
well and what doesn’t work well in terms of engaging individuals and communities in retrofit.
Based on your research we’ll implement changes as we go along. Your research will feed into the
retrofit process from start to finish, working closely with the project lead, outreach
officers, retrofit assessors, retrofit coordinators, designers, installers, and contributing to
the research project. You will ensure the research aspects of the project keep to time and are
of the appropriate quality.

The project aims are to bring retrofit into the public eye, on a neighbourhood and borough-wide
level. Focussing on a neighbourhood approach to street by street and block by block retrofit.
Addressing the challenges of the need to decarbonise the UK housing stock, and provide warm,
healthy homes, and alleviate fuel poverty.

You will also work to support the ‘Greenwich and Lewisham Love Lofts’ projects whereby we are
working to communicate the benefits of loft insulation to self-funding clients and support them
to go ahead with loft insulation providing free services to support them such as a man and van
able to move the stored stuff out of the loft. Your role will be to support the team to design
research to investigate whether loft insulation acts as a motivator for whole house retrofit,
assess the impact of the project and report to the funder.

You will collaborate with the University of Sussex Energy Group EDRC- Energy Demand Research
Centre “Place-Based Retrofit Programme Case Studies” project and the funder DESNZ evaluators,
to support them in their research that investigates the effectiveness of community approaches
to retrofit.

Job description

Reporting to: Project Lead and the Project Steering Group, with research support from Selce
CEO.

Your Role

Research lead – Local Energy Advice Demonstrator project, Future Fit Homes

• Work collaboratively with partners to define research questions: Broadly your research will
  focus on an overarching research question- which aspects of our approach to engaging households
  in retrofit are most effective; how we could improve our work; and what is the impact of it.
  Constituent research questions could include (but are not limited to): What are the benefits of
  place-based engagement as opposed to borough-wide? What is the impact of early adopters of
  retrofit on attitudes of neighbours toward retrofit? What kinds of messaging (intrinsic or
  extrinsic) is most effective for different client groups? What barriers do households face to
  retrofit and how can these be overcome? What are the impacts of domestic retrofit on energy
  costs and well-being? What is the SROI of our approach?
• Develop an action research methodology. These will include some quantitative and some
  qualitative research and utilize existing systems for data collection.
• Input into requirements of the CRM and its development.
• Understand our funders’ KPI reporting requirements and design a methodology for collecting data
  via the CRM. KPI’s will include comparative pre-and post-retrofit measures, C02 emission
  reductions, comfort and customer satisfaction.
• Contribute to data collection. This could include training the RA’s and RC’s to collect pre and
  post intervention data; conducting in depth interviews with clients; hosting a focus group with
  stakeholders.
• Analyse the data (this could include both some quantitative data analysis and will almost
  certainly include qualitative data analysis).
• You will coordinate quarterly action research meetings with the project team and steering group
  and facilitate quarterly reflection, and biannual implementation of adaptations. Build a
  relationship with academics working in the field of energy demand.
• Represent Selce and Repowering London at external events and conferences as required.

Other duties

• To undergo training and development in line with the needs of the business and be an active
  Manager within the organization.
• To assist with other duties within the scope and nature of position.
• To assist in other areas of the business when required e.g., complaints or auditing.

Skills

Essential

• Research design and analysis skills ideally covering qualitative and qualitative approaches.
• Facilitation and the ability to chair meetings.
• In-depth interviewing skill.
• Excellent written and spoken communication skills both academic and non-academic audiences.
• Experience of customer-facing roles, in particular dealing with private
  households/owner-occupied clients.
• Good presentation and public- facing skills.
• Excellent data analysis, using excel and CRM applications.
• Competency in Microsoft Office applications.
• Ability to adapt to changing situations in project delivery and to meet challenges positively,
  directly and with determination.
• Methodical, systematic, and detailed approach to work with the ability to problem solve.
• To be well organised and self-motivated, and able to contribute effectively as a team member.
• Good negotiation skills and the ability to work with a range of stakeholders.

Desirable

• Participatory Action Research experience.
• Training skills e.g. training others to conduct interviews.
• Competence in CRM software eg. CiviCRM, Salesforce, Air Table.

Qualifications/ Experience

Essential

• Undergraduate or postgraduate qualification in a relevant discipline. This could include energy
  policy, social policy, social research methods, behavioral science or architecture.
• A minimum of 2 years’ professional experience of research project delivery. This could be in an
  applied or an academic setting. Ideally you will have conducted research relevant field and you
  will be familiar with literature relating to energy demand and domestic retrofit.
• Experience of working with hard-to-reach communities.
• Experience of outcomes-based project monitoring and evaluation.
• Experience of working with local authorities or other public and voluntary sector partners.

Desirable

• Knowledge of the energy efficiency and Energy Company Obligation Scheme.
• Understanding of the whole house and fabric first approaches to domestic retrofit.
• Post Occupancy Evaluation, and Energy monitoring skills.

Repowering London and Selce are equal opportunity employers. We are committed to equality of
opportunity for all staff and applications from individuals are encouraged regardless of age,
disability, sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race,
religion or belief and marriage and civil partnerships.