Claire Cullen, postdoctoral research fellow at the Blavatnik School, was awarded a 2020 OPEN Fellowship. Claire is partnering with Young 1ove Organization, a non-government organisation based in Botswana that connects youth to proven life-saving information in education and health. Together, they will support policymakers to rapidly scale-up and evaluate a 'low-tech' SMS and phone call intervention to stem children’s learning losses during COVID-19,  and to build rigorous evidence-based policy systems using iterative approaches, such as A/B testing.  Claire looks forward to contributing to Young 1ove's efforts, in partnership with J-PAL and other researchers and innovators, to stem children’s learning losses during the pandemic, and to building systems of rigorous evidence to make communities more resilient to future challenges. 

Claire recently received her DPhil from the Blavatnik School and now is working jointly with CSAE and Young 1ove. 

Oxford Policy Engagement Network (OPEN) Fellowships enable Oxford researchers with a passion for improving public policy to understand better the relevance of their research to local, regional, national and international policymakers; to work with policymakers to identify and explore mutual interests; and to develop and leverage networks and other resources to generate benefits to research, policy and the wider world.