Practitioner/ Researcher in Residence
(SROI)

We are looking for a Practitioner/Researcher in Residence to support a festival organisation in developing a practical, SROI-informed approach to measuring and communicating social value - in a way that fits the realities of festival work (programming cycles, partners, funders, audiences, artists, city stakeholders, and the wider festival network).

This RiR role is practice-first: you will work closely with festival staff and stakeholders to translate activities impact into a clear set of implementable SROI indicators and a digitalised dataset that can be used for reporting, learning, and internal decision-making.

What you will do (core activities)

• Facilitate knowledge transfer to the organization through workshops, working sessions, and hands-on guidance on SROI, following SROI steps while supporting staff to understand, adopt, and operationalise the approach in their own workflows.

• Co-develop an SROI-informed indicator set tailored to a festival organisation (clear outcomes, feasible proxies, and “minimum viable” measurement options), building on existing SROI practice without aiming for a full, formal SROI assessment.

• Collaborate closely with mentors (e.g., technical/digitalisation mentor and other thematic/organization mentors) to ensure the SROI activities and approach align with wider innovation and implementation activities.

• Analyse the data that will be collected with support from the project (you will not be responsible for primary data collection), translating results into practical insights and recommendations.

• Produce light, actionable reporting outputs/cards focused on learning, adoption, and usability (e.g., short notes, indicator guidance, dataset/codebook inputs), rather than full SROI reporting requirements.

What we’re looking for

We are especially interested in candidates who can bridge SROI evaluation logic + cultural practice + operational feasibility.

You likely bring:

• Proven experience working with cultural organisations, and more specifically festivals (or comparable live/event-based settings with multiple stakeholders).

• Strong, demonstrated experience with SROI (this is a must).

• Quantitative mindset and expertise (mixed is a plus).

• Comfort with data structuring

• Experience collaborating with multiple partners and roles (pilot teams, intermediaries, mentors), and the ability to keep work aligned across stakeholders.

• A practitioner-oriented mindset: you understand constraints, timing, and the need for “good enough to use”, not “perfect but unusable”.

  Background: MA required (PhD welcome but not required). Preferred field: cultural economics. Other fields: cultural policy/evaluation, sociology, cultural studies or related applied disciplines.

Expected outputs (deliverables)

• A short SROI framework scan (what exists, what fits festivals, what doesn’t).

• A festival-specific impact logic (outcomes map / ToC light) aligned with stakeholder needs and SROI requirements.

• A curated SROI indicator set (definitions + measurement guidance + feasible proxies).

• A standardised dataset + codebook ready for adoption (and compatible with network-level comparability where relevant), developed in coordination with the digitalisation/tech mentor.

• A brief implementation note (roles across pilot/intermediaries/mentorship, timing across the festival cycle, and minimum viable data collection workflow).

Compensation and time

The compensation for this role (independent contractor) is set at €10.000, tied to the successful completion of specific deliverables. We anticipate an overall involvement of approximately 110 hours throughout the project.

The work period is scheduled from April to September 2026 with high intensity periods in April-mid-May (defining methodology, carrying out initial workshops, co-designing SROI indicators) and June-July (data analysis).

This position requires traveling on approx. two occasions. Travel expenses are covered.