A team from ARK successfully bid for a project funded by the Integrated Education Fund. This project - Methods for Assessing Demand for Integrated Education - will identify, collate and analyse existing literature and evidence on the methods currently used to assess demand for integrated education in Northern Ireland. The study will also identify and evaluate alternative and additional measures that could be utilised by stakeholders in Northern Ireland to ascertain demand for integrated education within the context of the Integrated Education Act (Northern Ireland) 2022.

Led by Erin Early, the team also comprises Paula Devine and Minchen Liu.

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In 2020/21, with funding from the Office of the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People (NICCY), the Young Life and Times (YLT) survey and Kids' Life and Times (KLT) survey asked children and young people about their experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Internationally, there are attempts to pool the research evidence collected about the effects that COVID-19 had on young people's lives. The YLT and KLT Coronavirus data have been deposited in a database of international research evidence at the Covid19 Study Hub, and will soon be available, along with 27 other international studies.

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ARK invites you to the launch of the third in a series of working papers on gender budgeting, produced by researchers at Ulster University led by Professors Joan Ballantine and Ann-Marie Gray. This latest research analyses the Northern Ireland draft Programme for Government as an example of high level policy, in order to explore how gender equality is positioned, understood and addressed.

Dr Michelle Rouse (Ulster University) will present the paper, followed by responses from a panel of expert practitioners in the voluntary and public sector.

The event will be held in Ulster University, Belfast Campus, on Friday 10 March 2023, from 9.30-12.00. Further information, including registration details are available here.

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Professor Dirk Schubotz (Young Life and Times Director) is currently looking for applicants interested in undertaking a PhD study with the aim of repeating and updating the Towards Better Sexual Health study, which was the first large-scale study of sexual attitudes and lifestyles of young people in Northern Ireland. 20 years later, this PhD project will record the current attitudes and experiences of young people.

The PhD study will be a fully funded 3-year project starting in October 2023, based in the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work at Queen's University Belfast. The collaborative partner organisation is Common Youth, which provides sexual health services for young people. The deadline for applications is 24th March 2023, and full details of the application process can be found here.

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ARK is Northern Ireland's social policy hub. Established in 2000 by researchers at Queen's University Belfast and Ulster University, its primary goal is to increase the accessibility and use of academic data and research. Most of our dissemination is via our website at www.ark.ac.uk, which is divided into five main areas:

• Surveys
• Projects
• Resources
• Publications
• Events

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