Dr Heejung Chung and Dr Ben Baumberg, Lecturers in Sociology and Social Policy, have both been successful in securing Future Research Leaders funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
Ben Baumberg is looking at how the benefits system assesses ‘incapacity’ – that is, whether someone is fit for work. In particular, he is looking at the role of socioeconomic disadvantage (alongside disability) in incapacity, and whether the public/policy elites think that these socioeconomic disadvantages should be taken into account in assessing incapacity.
Heejung Chung will examine who is taking up flexi-time, in which companies and countries, and in which family, company, and country contexts it can provide good work-life balance outcomes for workers and good productivity outcomes for companies.
The Future Research Leaders scheme aims to support outstanding early career researchers to carry out excellent research and to develop all aspects of their research and knowledge exchange skills.
ERSC is the UK’s largest organisation for funding research on economic and social issues. It supports independent, high quality research which has an impact on business, the public sector and the third sector. Further information can be found on the ERSC website.