Elizabeth Woodcock is a Research Fellow with Inlogov in the School of Government. Her current research examines how assets-based governance structures can change wellbeing inequalities. She is a founder member of the research and practitioner network, SPARC (Social Prescribing, Assets and Relationships in Communities) based at University of Birmingham.
She gained her PhD in Sociology and Social Policy at Bangor University. Her thesis was based on an extended action research project with a Public Services Board and other organisations in Wales. In 2019, she was awarded ESRC funding to accelerate the impact of her research. Subsequently, Elizabeth has worked with multiple organisations across Wales to co-produce a series of Policy Briefings, putting the research findings into practice.
Elizabeth’s PhD built on her previous research with Wales Centre for Behaviour Change at Bangor University, using behaviour change approaches to enhance environmental, social and economic sustainability of small and medium-sized businesses and voluntary organisations. Her interest in organisations’ environmental sustainability developed during her master’s in project management at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her dissertation examined how Isle of Anglesey County Council could enhance its communication around sustainable development with multiple stakeholders. She was awarded a distinction and won two prizes for her research.
Elizabeth’s skills as project manager developed during her time working on a Welsh language project, ‘Twf’. As Health Sector officer, she contributed to successfully establishing training in bilingualism on the curriculum for Community Practitioners (level 7 professional training) in all Universities in Wales. She also led the way in the dissemination of research findings from the ESRC Centre for Research on Bilingualism (Bangor University). This led to the publication of an article in the professional journal, Community Practitioner.
Elizabeth’s skills in qualitative research, including action research and the use of NVivo and QGIS, complement her early training in statistical methods. She gained her Bachelor’s degree at London School of Economics, specialising in analytical and descriptive approaches.