What is your role within ARK? 

I am co-director of ARK. This involves a variety of activities including strategic planning, helping to secure funds, financial oversight, leadership and delivery of specific projects, publicising ARK and generally supporting the team.

What do you most enjoy about your role in ARK?

The variety of work is something I find really enjoyable. It is also a great privilege to work with such an enthusiastic and passionate group of people. Over the past 25 years ARK’s work has had an impact on the availability of data and on policy, but one of our key aims has been to make research and data available and accessible to audiences beyond academia. Our policy roundtables have successfully brought diverse stakeholders together to think how to make progress on  some of our greatest policy challenges.  This is something I enjoy and am absolutely passionate about.

As a Co-Director in ARK, what is the focus of your research?

My research interests are in social care, gender and social policy and devolution. This has included an ARK ESRC funded project on abortion in Northern Ireland, a three-phase project on gender budgeting, research on hidden homelessness and the completion of the fifth and sixth Northern Ireland Peace Monitoring Reports. ARK’s focus on effective dissemination and policy engagement has helped to secure benefits from these projects. For example, Northern Ireland Life and Times data on attitudes to abortion provided a reliable assessment of public opinion on this issue which was an important contributor to policy change. Our research on gender budgeting and engagement with policy and NGO colleagues has led to better understanding of the potential of gender budgeting to contribute to a more equal and fairer society.  In many respects ARK’s research has been important in providing independent, reliable and robust quantitative and qualitative data. This has supported evidence informed policy discussion and decision making. 

Find out more about Professor Gray’s work: https://pure.ulster.ac.uk/en/persons/ann-marie-gray