Meet Devyani Gajjar

I grew up in Manchester and I chose an education and career path based on what I enjoyed (which changed over time). As a result, my background is a mixed bag of math, software development and, the social sciences. In May 2022, during my PhD, I had the opportunity to do a POST Fellowship and I absolutely loved it! After finishing my PhD, I returned to POST in July 2023 as a Physical Science and Digital Adviser. I was involved in recruiting and supervising PhD Fellows, writing briefings, developing research proposals, providing committee support, building and maintaining a network of stakeholders, and keeping up to date with cutting-edge physical sciences and digital topics. In September 2024, I moved to the House of Commons Library to be a senior health policy researcher. This involves answering bespoke questions from MPs and their staff, writing debate packs and writing topical briefings.

The roles are quite different, and it’s been really interesting to learn about how various sections of R&I work in diverse ways to meet the information needs of Parliament! Both teams have been really supportive and kind, which has helped me to settle in, and there’s lots of training opportunities. It’s also been very rewarding and exciting to learn new skills, to work on topics that are of interest to policy makers, to work in such a dynamic environment where lots of different opportunities crop up, and to go into Westminster and be at the heart of where everything is happening.