DfT Connectivity Levelling Up
Lead Research Organisation:
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON
Department Name: Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis
Abstract
Each fellowship will last up to 18 months to cover a three-month inception phase for set up activity, followed by a 6-12-month placement with the host organisation, and concluding with an impact phase lasting up to three months.
Fellows will co-design projects and activities with their host and produce analysis to inform government decision-making across a range of policy priorities. Fellows will also engage across the host organisation, building effective working relationships and supporting wider knowledge exchange with researchers. This will be supported through their embedded role within the host organisation, including line management support.
Fellows will co-design projects and activities with their host and produce analysis to inform government decision-making across a range of policy priorities. Fellows will also engage across the host organisation, building effective working relationships and supporting wider knowledge exchange with researchers. This will be supported through their embedded role within the host organisation, including line management support.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Jens Kandt (Principal Investigator / Fellow) |
Publications
Kandt J
(2025)
How do major public transport investments induce gentrification? Evidence from consumer data
in Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment
| Description | I am about to complete the analysis of business registers to understand patterns of business relocations following the opening of major transport investments. Major findings include: * In less tight labour markets, transport investment are more likely to attract businesses. * If transport helps businesses gain access to skilled labour, businesses tend to open or move in. * If transport 'unlocks' access to business of the same industry, businesses are more likely to open or move into the area. * Major schemes tend to increase churn (business openings, closures, moves). * Businesses located in the catchment of the major transport schemes tend to experience employment growth. These patterns are helpful to understand implications of transport investments for the Levelling Up agenda, which is both of policy and academic interest. |
| Exploitation Route | Academic routes: At the moment, the output will consist of academic publications in the field of transport geography. Non-academic routes: These findings will inform updates of policy guidance, specifically transport appraisal guidance, which will be published in November 2024. The work will also feed into the specification and commissioning of future research by the Department for Transport (DfT) on the wider economic benefits of transport investments and their potential to help level up the economy. In addition, the analyses will add to the stock of DfT's ex-post impact evaluation studies and set out re-usable a work flow to conduct similar evaluations in-house in the future. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy Transport |
| Description | The findings of my research are currently used in writing policy guidance about the evaluation of transport schemes. This guidance will be published this year. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2025 |
| Sector | Transport |
| Impact Types | Policy & public services |
| Description | ESRC/DFT co-funded studentship award |
| Amount | £72,792 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ES/P000592/1 |
| Organisation | Department of Transport |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2023 |
| End | 09/2026 |
| Description | ESRC/DFT co-funded studentship award |
| Amount | £88,630 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Department of Transport |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2024 |
| End | 03/2028 |
| Description | Secondment |
| Amount | £60,275 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | UCL Contract 8796039 |
| Organisation | Department of Transport |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 11/2024 |
| End | 05/2025 |
| Description | DfT/ESRC Co-funded PhD studentship - will begin in academic year 2023/24 |
| Organisation | Department of Transport |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | I instigated a bid for a co-funded PhD studentship to explore in more detail a research question that has arisen from this grant. |
| Collaborator Contribution | My collaborators contribute half of the funding for the PhD studentship and will provide research supervision (in-kind contribution). This will be £36,396. In addition, they will provide up to £10000 for data access charges. |
| Impact | Successful PhD studentship grant |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | Dissemination of findings at DFT's Evaluation Network |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | I presented my research findings to DFT's Evaluation Network, which is a cross-departmental group of civil servants working on evaluation in transport at different levels of seniority. The session was attended by ~20 civil servants. The discussions and followup exchanges focussed on the use of administrative data for evaluation and the evidence of transport of contributing to economic prosperity. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023,2024 |