Research Aides

At the Pardee Institute, we conduct applied research on pressing global topics like human development, conflict, sustainability, geopolitics, and more. We accomplish this by using our signature International Futures integrated assessment model, IFs , to model likely futures and by building other open source, online data and analytic tools to inform strategy and planning at country and systems-levels. DU students are central to this work. Each year, Pardee hires upwards of 100 students, most of them enrolled in Korbel, to support many of these exciting and impactful projects. Our students build their skills and resumes through these enriching real-world experiences.

Our student employees contribute meaningfully to Pardee's portfolio of policy-relevant work and help build an engaging research community at DU. Our Research Aides (RAs) build data tools, conduct literature reviews, synthesize qualitative research, code and vet data, maintain and expand our IFs database, support data modeling, underpin our Marketing and Communications apparatus, and more! Top performing, seasoned RAs can become Project Leads, who oversee some of these activities while supervising teams of their peers. Pardee also hosts a Two-year Fellows Program for a select group of highly capable graduate students seeking deep involvement in learning advanced research methods and applying them to real-world research.

Pardee's student contributions help ensure that the research we produce is both rigorous and useful for our academic, scientific, and policy-focused communities. Pardee collaborates with renowned partners like the African Union, the United Nations, and governments worldwide to aid their decision-making while also amplifying the reach and influence of the Institute's work.

Keep reading to meet our Project Leads and Research Aides.