Sprinting Students: Making the most of an Agile Sprint

Agile Sprints are about doing research differently, and even within the Sprint pool, “How can we prevent childhood sexual abuse in climate disasters?” was notable for the way it involved students: centrally, flexibly, and visibly. Nine MPhil-DPhil students, three post-docs, and three early-career policy team members worked on our Sprint at various points, meaning that early-stage academics made up the majority of our team. Guided and supported by Sprint co-leads Professor Lucie Cluver, Associate Professor Seth Flaxman, and Dr Neil Hart, these emerging researchers more than pulled their weight on the project. In this post we are taking a moment to celebrate their contributions.

The researchers

Dr Bothaina Eltigani, DPhil student and research assistant at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention, conducted complex spatial analysis on large survey datasets and fine resolution climate data, using advanced statistical methods such as multilevel modelling and various sensitivity analyses. This is represented in the analysis of her recently published Lancet paper examining the relationship between drought exposure and violence risk among adolescents in Southern Africa. These findings are fundamental to the research following on from this Sprint – and make a novel contribution to the emerging field of climate-informed social science.

Also at DSPI, DPhil student Diana Mwala investigated the association between heat and multiple sexual partnering among adolescents and young people in Zambia. Her efforts produced cleaned Tanzania VACS data as part of a multi-country analysis of drought and transactional sex and age-disparate sex in Southern Africa. 

Henry Throp, DPhil student at Intelligent Earth, Centre for Doctoral Training, conducted a preliminary analysis into the impact of extreme rainfall and flood exposure on the prevalence of violence in children and young people. Using climate data from MSWEP and ERA5, as well as socio-economic information in VAC surveys, he built simple and flexible machine learning models that predict incidences of child sexual violence in Tanzania, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe. Henry’s research showed that when floods occur, violence is likely to increase, and he continues to investigate pathways that might result in amplified violence, such as exposure to militarism and agricultural soil stresses.

Also at Intelligent Earth, DPhil student Theano Xirouchaki used VAC surveys in conjunction with weather data from the year preceding the survey to establish the strength of the relationship between exposure to extreme heat and the likelihood of young women and girls suffering sexual violence. Causal Forests results indicate a significant relationship – a key finding for anticipatory planning.

Laura Zampini, MPhil student at Blavatnik School of Government undertook a rapid literature review on the relationships between climate shocks (heat, drought, floods) and food insecurity, especially reviewing the various methodologies for measuring climate shock impacts on food insecurity and vulnerability.

The detailed statistical analyses of these student Sprint team members were actively supported by postdoctoral researcher Dr Paolo Andrich, who played a key part in enhancing methodological approaches and evidential interlinkages across the Sprint. Paolo’s forthcoming paper highlighting the significant association between frequent exposure to high temperatures with higher levels of sexual violence draws together the strands of the team’s research and builds on the team’s collaboration with project partners from the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Childlight Global Child Safety Institute,  the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Population and Just Societies Program, and The Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action.

Collectively, the work of these and the other early-career members of the Sprint contributed critical components to the project’s achievement of its aims. And it was the collaborative ethos and approach of the Sprint which these emerging researchers most valued.

Reflections from the researchers

“The Sprint brought together colleagues from social science, computer science, and climate science in a very focused way. This is basically unheard of, because interdisciplinary research is hard and usually takes a lot of time to align people’s work patterns, etc, but the Sprint made it possible!”

“During the Sprint I worked on analysis on the intersection of drought and HIV risk behaviour. This new research area and its methods that are new to me have been seamless through the collaborative platform that Agile created.”

“This Agile Sprint has enabled me to engage with other researchers in a way that would otherwise been impossible. Not only have I been able to learn and collaborate with others, I have also been kept on my toes – committed to the progress of my own research.”

“I am a first-year DPhil, with my mind focused on choosing my project area. The Agile Sprint has opened my eyes on how to do impactful and interactive research in collaboration with teams from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines – computer science, environmental research, social policy.”

“It feels as though the Sprint has set this team up to continue to do impactful research in the future – giving a boost and momentum to our research, that means after the Sprint has finished, we are well placed to continue from the foundations, connections, and partnerships that we have made.”

In these ways, this short timeframe Sprint played a pivotal part in what Sprint Lead Lucie Cluver describes as “the long game” of nurturing a student into an established researcher. The future of scientific endeavour is all the brighter for the Agile Sprint experience.