Paul Bradshaw

Paul is Director of the Scottish Centre for Social Research (ScotCen), NatCen’s Edinburgh-based team. In a career spanning more than 20 years, Paul has worked on a wide range of studies involving quantitative and qualitative methods and across a number of policy areas. His interest and experience lie mainly in survey methods, particularly longitudinal surveys, and broadly in the areas of families, children and young people.  

Paul’s principal research role over the last two decades has been associated with the leadership and delivery of the Growing Up in Scotland study, a large scale, multi-cohort, multidisciplinary prospective longitudinal birth cohort study commissioned by the Scottish Government, which he has led since the study’s launch in 2005.

In the last decade, he has overseen the delivery of several high profile Scottish and UK wide survey projects including the Scottish Crime and Justice Survey, the Scottish Health Survey, the 1970 British Cohort Study and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. He has also contributed to significant UK-wide longitudinal projects and initiatives including the Early Life Cohort Feasibility Study and Population Research UK.

Paul regularly delivers presentations on survey findings and methodology to a wide range of audiences including policymakers, practitioners, academics and students.  He has also given evidence to a number of parliamentary committees in Scotland and Northern Ireland.