The Thinkhouse Early Career Researcher’s Prize gives early career housing researchers an opportunity to showcase their work to a wide and influential audience. It also promotes shared learning across the housing sector and encourages early researchers in their career. Winners receive a £500 cheque at an award ceremony (part of Homes UK conference on Tuesday, 25th November), a write up of their research in Inside Housing (who sponsor the prize, along with Altair Ltd, Aster Group and L&Q), and their paper published on Thinkhouse’s website.
In terms of entry criteria and requirements, the competition is open to those with up to eight years’ research experience. We will consider think pieces, review papers synthesising existing evidence and policy analysis, research-based business cases/board papers/insight pieces from within housing associations or local authority landlords, papers sharing the findings of original empirical research or investigative journalism type pieces. Journal articles or other papers already published or under review will be accepted.
Papers should have a focus that matches the broad interests of Thinkhouse, including policy publications that cover ways to increase the amount and quality of the UK’s housing stock and the related economic, social and community benefits of doing so. We are also interested in international research that has relevance to UK housing. Please contact Thinkhouse if you have a paper that does not match this outline but relates to housing and connected issues as the judging panel may accept your application. You can read the full requirements on Thinkhouse’s website.
Submission should be between 4,000-8,000 words in length and submitted in a MS Word format, which includes the following information: author(s) name(s), any institutional/organisational affiliation, current job title (if applicable), email address, paper title, 200 word abstract and word count.
Papers must be submitted to [email protected] by 17.00 Thursday, 25th September 2025.
