Portsmouth Professor announced as new Senior Fellow to join UK in a Changing Europe

The UK in a Changing Europe (UKICE) initiative is intended to improve access to research on the relationship between the UK and the European Union and is moving into a new phase, with renewed funding and an expanded team and agenda, focusing on three broad themes:

UKICE Senior Fellows are funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), part of UK Research and Innovation, to analyse the UK’s changing geopolitical landscape. They will be contributing to UKICE's programme of work by producing high-quality original research, and communicating it to policymakers, politicians, the media and beyond. The new team will reflect this wider focus, with considerable expertise across these themes.

Professor Houston is a Professor of Economic Geography at the University of Portsmouth and has been awarded this fellowship due to his research into the geographically uneven impact of Brexit and COVID-19 on UK labour supply.  As a UKICE Senior Fellow, Professor Houston will be examining the impact of Brexit and Covid-19 on the UK labour supply, and assessing the implications for levelling up, immigration and employment support.

Professor Houston said: "I am delighted to have been awarded an ESRC UK In a Changing Europe Senior Fellowship. UKICE does fantastic work supporting policy-relevant research and bringing it to the attention of politicians, other stakeholders and the wider public. This has never been more important in our era of instant information and misinformation, and at an important juncture in British and European history.  I hope my own fellowship on the impact of Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic on labour shortages and Levelling Up the UK economy can contribute to that endeavour, in the context of wider pan-European patterns of regional economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic."