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Co-Director recruitment

Our recent changes

The Scottish Policy & Research Exchange was founded in 2019 as a project within the Academy of Social Sciences. Over the past year we have re-formed as an independent charity (SCIO), recruited a new Board of Trustees and shifted to a Co-Director model of leadership

Dave Bell has just been appointed as one new Co-Director, and this page outlines our approach to recruiting a second.

Embedded within these organisational changes, we have re-imagined our approach to supporting the needs of Scottish research-policy communities. This involves placing values, equity, learning and improvement at the root of everything we do, as we grow into a new organisation. We refer to this as an ‘intersectional praxis’.

Meet Dave – SPRE’s new Co-Director

A conversation between Freya Collier-Sewell, one of SPRE’s new Trustees, and Dave Bell, the first of SPRE’s new Co-Directors.

In this discussion, Dave shares personal and professional reflections on his values and beliefs, what he finds exciting about working for SPRE, and his thoughts on SPRE’s new direction of travel.

Our values

Last year, SPRE did some initial work to surface the values that will guide our work, and we used these 6 ‘values’ as key criteria for recruiting our Board of Trustees. Once the second Co-Director is in place, we will be revisiting them with a view to engaging more deeply with their meaning and practical implications.

The following descriptions are an indication of where we might go with this…

  • Creativity –  Shifting perspectives, prototyping, embracing paradox, rejecting binaries, co-production, joy, intrinsic motivation…
  • Inclusivity – Accountability, transparency, belonging, equity, anti-oppression, participation, responsiveness, accessibility…
  • Reflexivity – Exploring taken-for-granted framings and assumptions, learning to ‘see’ and name power relations, illuminating our own ‘blind spots’ and ‘deaf spots’…
  • Relationality – Trust, mutuality, solidarity, care, respect, response-ability, attention to context and everyday interactions, being holistic…
  • Collaboration – working through partnerships and networks, recognising and respecting overlaps and differences in agendas, building shared ownership…
  • Praxis – theory and practice, learning by doing, dialogue, listening, relational rigour, purpose, curiosity, humility, responsiveness, adaptability…

Our approach to Co-Director recruitment

We are taking a two-phased approach to recruitment. Our aim is to hold ourselves accountable to candidates for making this process relational, equitable, inclusive, accessible and responsive to their needs.

In the first phase, anyone interested can provide feedback on SPRE, the job description and the recruitment process, until 10th August. We will then adapt our approach to phase two in response to the feedback we receive, when formal recruitment opens.