We are happy to announce that the Housing Studies Association (HSA) and UK Collaborative Housing Evidence Centre (CaCHE) have formed a strategic partnership to support the housing researchers of the future.
HSA, the UK’s longstanding membership organisation for housing researchers and practitioners, provides a forum for housing-related debate, promotes the study of housing, and seeks to encourage the practical application of research in policy and practice. During the HSA’s 2017 Annual Conference it was announced that that Professor Ken Gibb and a multi-disciplinary, cross-sector consortium of partners had received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council, Arts and Humanities Research Council, and Joseph Rowntree Foundation to establish a centre for housing evidence.
CaCHE aims to influence and transform housing policy and practice through better problem diagnosis, policy evaluation and appraisal of new opportunities, and generate improved housing outcomes for all. Since launching at the end of last year, a series of exemplar research projects have commenced, four PhD researchers have started their work, and an evidence-mapping exercise across our seven key themes has been started. Five Knowledge Exchange Hubs and resident voice focus groups are being set up across the UK which will co-create CaCHE’s future priorities.
Core to CaCHE’s programme of work and HSA’s aims as a learned society is to create a legacy of new housing researchers with multi-disciplinary and multi-methods expertise to the address the housing problems of the future, and it is on this task that the CaCHE/HSA partnership will focus.
The HSA’s annual conference in Sheffield on 11-13th April this year provides the first opportunity for us to work together on these shared aims. The Conference is renowned for it’s supportive and vibrant Early Career Research (ECR) Workshop stream, and this year the stream will be supported by CaCHE. CaCHE are providing financial support for a number of bursaries enabling early career housing researchers to attend and members of the CaCHE team will attend the ECR sessions to support and give feedback on ECRs research.
Professor Gibb, Director of CaCHE will also be chairing the conferences opening plenary on the Politics of Housing Policy featuring Keith Jacobs (University of Tasmania), Brian Lund (Manchester Metropolitan University), Marisa Gerstein Pineau (Frameworks).
We hope to see you at the conference in April and look forward to working together on our shared aims in the future.
Professor Kenneth Gibb, Director of CaCHE
Dr Beth Watts, Chair of the HSA
