Cheesbrough Rejoins NatCen in Policy Research Role

UK body The National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) has appointed Sarah Cheesbrough as Director of its Policy Research Centre, starting next year. She is currently Director of the Communities team at IFF Research.

NatCen is a registered charity and the largest independent social research organisation in the UK, working for and partnering with governments, NGOs, charities and others to investigate topics from climate change to health via crime, education, employment, travel, social attitudes and families. Its work includes one-off projects and complex, multi-year social surveys. Former Kantar man Michael Davis took up the role of CEO in August.

Cheesbrough (pictured) joined IFF in 2022 from BritainThinks, where she served as an Associate Partner. Before this she led NatCen's Communities, Work and Income department; and TNS BMRB's UK's policy research offer across Whitehall and the public sector.

'Our Policy Research Centre encompasses several policy-focused areas, delivering a variety of mixed methods research in a fast-paced environment, in order to respond to and help inform policy' says Davis. 'We are very excited for Sarah to lead this Centre and deliver on our ambitious plans, empowering policy with quality research evidence'.

The Centre is on the web at www.natcen.ac.uk .