📢 Job vacancy: Policy Officer @WhatWorksGrowth Help improve how local growth policy uses evidence and evaluation, working with mayoral authorities on research, training, advice & evaluation tools 🏛️📊 💼 £43,277–£51,714 | 6 months 📅 Apply by 6 Sept → https://ow.ly/H3Mc50ZCpNF

🚂 Do researchers benefit from better trains? In a new report kindly funded by the Innovation and Reserach Caucus and supported by DSIT, we find that: Yes, they do 🚅! Research teams connected by rail lines that are often delayed produce fewer outputs 🛤️. Details: tinyurl.com/3575zrup

I have a whole theory of What Is Wrong With The UK Economy based on Peppa Pig Tails and the fact that Peppa is not mentioned anywhere in the discussion below ads proof.

Nathan Goldwag @goldwagnathan.bsky.social · 4w ago

Every six months a writer goes on parental leave, is driven insane by watching 10,000 hours of Paw Patrol, and writes another one of these articles, and they're always great.

See also: Google Scholar 😵‍💫

Alex Selby-Boothroyd@alexselbyb.bsky.social · last mo.

Impossible to put into words how useless Gmail search is. No wait, these guys did it!

📢📢 Research Policy 12th online conference for Early Career Researchers! Fri 25th September 2026, 2-4pm (UK time) Submit a 3 page abstract by Sun 23rd August Link for submitting: forms.gle/Xu7oXsSV2zYX... Link to RP page: www.sciencedirect.com/journal/rese... #EconSky

When the Turkish team was playing in the semi-final or something at the Japan/Korea world cup the Turkish kids got special permission to check the score with the school secretary at half time. It was so cool I still think about it 😅

Mollie Goodfellow@hansmollman.bsky.social · 2mo ago

how has this man not been shoved in a locker

📢 We're hiring! Join us and work with ‪@neillee.bsky.social on a funded project exploring how public green lending shapes private investment and local growth. A great opportunity for aspiring PhD students interested in green finance, data and applied research. 🍃 zurl.co/70mkq

🎉To celebrate 20 years of RSA journal Spatial Economics Analysis we are hosting a webinar. SEA has recently published Special Issue (open access until end July) to mark the occasion. 🎉 📅 1 July 2026 🕙 10:00 BST / 11:00 CEST / 17:00 CST For info and to register 🔗 bit.ly/4ezXmxB 🔁🤗

Even the asphalt is trying to run away from the heat 😬

I'm recruiting for a pre-doc to work on Green Investment Banks - details here, please share: jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

University website: This is where the future happens! Learn today about tomorrow! Something something AI! University PhD certificate: Issued in *Latin* 🥴

🚨 👩‍🎓 👨‍🎓 📚 PHD OPPORTUNITY! Fully-funded 3 year UCL PhD at @casaucl.bsky.social. Start in October 2026 or February 2027. Deadline to apply is Weds 1 July 23:59 BST. Please share widely! www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/cas...

The CASA Dearden PhD Scholarship

The Dearden Scholarship is open to UK/home students who wish to embark on PhD level study that links to the research interests of CASA academic staff and the research interests of Joel Dearden.

ucl.ac.uk

North London is really invested in me finishing off this paper before disappearing on holiday 😁

Trying to buy some e-books for the child as I'm not lugging 20 books halfway across the globe. You'd think this is an easy task in this day and age. Alas! (suggestions welcome - illustrations are the issue, we have a Kindle, Kobo and iPad, only the latter working reliably and I'd rather avoid it)

New post: Research Fellow in the Economics and Geography of Innovation (Fixed Term) Ref: 43560 Closing Date: 10 June 2026 To apply visit: jobs.sussex.ac.uk/job/aae5d67d...

JOB🔥@mariasavona.bsky.social and I are hiring a research fellow in the economics and geography of innovation to join us at @sussexunibusiness.bsky.social this autumn as part of PACT - Past and Current Transitions: A new pact for fair and resilient European regions. jobs.sussex.ac.uk/job/aae5d67d...

I always find these stats a little surprising, I’d find it more stressful to have a 9-5 rather than academic “laissez-faire as long as you turn up for your teaching”. There’s a bunch of things academia could do better of course but compared to your average office job it’s just remarkably flexible.

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 5mo ago

'A third of [Danish] women no longer work in academia eight years after having a child, according to new research that suggests extra childcare responsibilities are hindering women’s abilities to climb the career ladder.' 1/2

“Do you think using commuting zones instead of cities would affect your results?”

The New York Times@nytimes.com · 6mo ago

Thinking of saying goodbye to big-city life? In these smaller U.S. metros, job opportunities abound and a higher quality of life awaits, according to a new study. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/19/r...

ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship Competition (via SEDarc, www.sedarc.ac.uk/postdoctoral...) is now open! If you want to bring your #research (on either #Metascience or the #CreativeIndustries) to #SPRU for 2026-27, get in touch ASAP. EOIs are due 16 April.

Welcoming the class of 2042 to our @sussexunibusiness.bsky.social open day 😁

1) Use the windfall to extend the metro to the airport 2) Make Tbilisi the layover destination of choice Crucially: 3) DO NOT help Kakha Kaladze out of Dubai

Jo Kibble (Political Animal)@politicanimal.bsky.social · 6mo ago

If anyone is friends with any Georgian air traffic controllers, buy them a nice bottle of wine. As guardians of pretty much the only narrow gap still available between Europe and Asia that avoids both Iran, the Gulf, Ukraine and Russia, they are under some substantial pressure.

Looking for a hotel in Shanghai and every single one has pictures of the same AI generated beds 😵‍💫 On the plus side this can go straight into my lecture on digital technology as an example of negative externalities…

Evidence is a public good. Once generated, everyone can benefit. This blog from @ioramashvili.bsky.social looks at why evaluation of local growth policy is underprovided, and how devolution could change that 👇 buff.ly/SjuUj3b

Evaluation for the common good - What Works Growth

What do the air you breathe, the Thames Barrier, and the Armed Forces have in common? It is impossible to exclude anyone in society from benefitting from them. We breathe the same air, flood…

whatworksgrowth.org

Hivemind: I read a blog a few months ago on the missing productivity impacts of AI and how AI currently solves the wrong bottlenecks, particularly in software development. I think the writer was (former) NHS Digital? Article possibly based on a public lecture?? Does that ring any bells??

Finally got around watching the scarecrows wedding and what I hadn’t realised from the book is how much it is about to-do list anxiety. Inane item on your list taking 3x as long and derailing your life? Boy does Harry O’Hay have a story to tell 🫠 (should’ve watched it before starting marking 🫣)

Worse than reading an AI slop essay is to read a really great essay and have the lingering ‘ahh but did they really write it’. Takes the last little bit of joy out of marking ugh 😞

I did a double bill today of presenting @mariasavona.bsky.social and my research on structural change and knowledge diffusion at Utrecht and then (online) at @productivity.bsky.social! Thanks to @kjschaefer.bsky.social and @lideyu.bsky.social for the invitation, great company and discussions!

Clear sign I've spent too much time trying to understand local government: Instagram is now serving me adds for manufacturers of playground equipment 😬

I went to Australia thanks to the Mercator projection!

Ulrike Franke@rikefranke.bsky.social · 8mo ago

I really think there is a PhD thesis waiting to be written on the impact of the Mercator projection on geopolitics.