Policy pitch: Vote for a better future!

The Scottish Graduate School of Social Science is a national PhD programme that funds, supports and trains PhD students across Scotland in next-generation social research.  Focused on social science excellence, SGSSS equips PhD graduates to develop into future research leaders on the national and global stage.  

SGSSS funding and training is organised around a set of key societal challenges. These challenges develop capacity for interdisciplinary connections within the social sciences and represent the kinds of challenges social science research can address in policy, industry and third sector work. The pathways reflect the themes of the Scottish Government’s National Performance Framework and the UN Sustainable Development Goals. 

CHAIR

Sarah is Chief Executive of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE). A familiar face to the RSE, having been the RSE’s Director of Programmes for two years. Prior to this, Sarah was Director of Policy Engagement at Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), where she worked for just over two decades. Sarah is Professor of Rural Society and Policy.

For 30+ years, Sarah has researched rural community resilience, disempowerment, poverty and rural mental health. She has enhanced rural and national policies and made a difference in rural communities via robust data, particularly lived-experienced evidence. Sarah works with Scottish Government task forces, Scottish and UK Parliaments, universities, private, public and third sectors, communities and development agencies in Scotland and internationally. Following a two-year secondment with Audit Scotland, Sarah is retained as their rural adviser, having established their Islands Forum in 2017. Sarah is also Scientific Director of the Scottish Consortium for Rural Research (SCRR).

Sarah’s charity Board appointments have included: Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), Rural Housing Scotland and Scotland’s Regeneration Forum (SURF); she is currently on the Board of the Scottish Power Foundation; and in 2026 she was appointed to the Open University’s Council and chair’s the Open University in Scotland’s Scottish External Engagement Group.

SPEAKER

Julie Salama is a PhD researcher at Heriot-Watt University working within the TransiT research programme. Her research explores how the transition to low-carbon transport can be made more equitable and fair, with a particular focus on disability, hidden impairments, and the barriers that can shape individuals’ ability to use public transport. Her work draws on social science, disability theory, human factors, and psychology

to consider how transport planning and future mobility systems can better reflect the diverse experiences and needs of the people who use them.

SPEAKER

Cheyne Wooderson is a doctoral researcher in Management at Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University, and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). Her research explores intrapartum best practice through an operations management lens, examining autonomy, safety, and quality in maternity care. Over the years Cheyne has taught business and operations management at various Universities in Scotland. She is the author of a peer-reviewed journal article in Continuity & Resilience Review and has a paper accepted for presentation at the 2026 British Academy of Management Conference.

SPEAKER

Rinaldi is a PhD student in Energy Economics at the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy (CEPMLP), University of Dundee. He is also a public official at Indonesia’s Ministry of Finance, where he has experience in public policy and government. 

His research examines how Indonesia can reform energy subsidies while protecting household welfare and supporting the transition towards cleaner energy. His current work focuses on the distributional impacts of fuel subsidy reform, exploring who bears the costs of energy price changes and how policy can better protect vulnerable households