Dr Elizabeth (Liz) Jones is the Commercial Engagement and Research Development Officer at the Awen Institute.
Liz is a Chartered Psychologist, with a PhD in Educational Psychology, specialising in Early Intervention and multi-disciplinary services to children with special educational needs. She has been a Chartered Member of the British Psychological Society since 1998.
She ran her own research consultancy business (focussing mainly on health and social care research and evaluation) for over 20 years, focusing on service mapping, needs assessments, project and service delivery planning, and the bespoke evaluation of projects and programmes aimed at provision of support within the areas of mental health, disability, social inclusion, poverty and social justice. During that time Liz worked with several academic institutions across Wales and England. Liz has also conducted research evaluations on Wales and UK government funded projects and programmes on behalf of Local Authorities; Welsh Government; Third Sector; the Social Care Institute for Excellence; Institute for Public Care; the Department of Health; the Ministry of Justice, and the Forestry Commission.
Her areas of research interest include: healthy ageing, social isolation and loneliness, older people and technology; disability; poverty and social inclusion.
Liz has a broad range of experience of tendering for funding grants. This includes developing research proposals for external funders, active engagement in designing research, building collaborations and consortia with a range of partners, and writing proposals for external funding, e.g., Innovate UK, UKRI, DASA, Ufi Voch Tech Trust, Armed Forces Covenant Fund and National Lottery. She has worked supportively and collaboratively in research and development across a range of sectors, e.g., small and large businesses; the creative industries; academia; public and third sector, and has presented findings of the research at conferences, workshops and seminars at a national/international level, e.g., Helsinki, Brussels, Ireland. Some of the research projects that she has conducted for the third and public sectors have been used to inform policy development and implement procedural changes, e.g., within social services in relation to safeguarding and child protection procedures.
She has also conducted community engagement/consultation with older people on behalf of local and national government and coproduction events for targeted programmes and research projects.
Liz’s role at the Awen Institute is to support the three powerful research clusters that focus on: Health & Wellbeing (effective experiences, products and services in the creative industries); Place (design for age-friendly and dementia-supportive places); and Work (age-friendly workplaces in creative industries).
She will also support the cross-cutting theme leads for digital economy, design and development, and media, culture and performance. She will also assist in building routes to market within the Awen Institute.
As part of her role as Research Officer, Liz will be working with a range of stakeholders, initiating and supporting co-produced Ideas Labs, priority setting workshops and Research Development Groups, and testing activities that lead to the creation of research grant proposals.
