Research Role Commission

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A Research Commission for CAAT: updating and expanding CAAT's country and company profile pages

CAAT is seeking one or more freelance researchers to update and expand our country and company profiles on our website

Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) is a UK-wide campaigning organisation working to end the International Arms Trade. CAAT’s research underpins much of our campaigning work and helps inform the overall direction of the organisation, as well as providing a resource for others working on arms trade issues.

Among our key information resources are the [country]([link removed] and [company]([link removed] pages on our website. Unfortunately, many of these have become seriously out of date, due to lack of staff capacity to update them.

CAAT has now received a grant from the Network for Social Change to help us update these crucial information resources. As such, CAAT is inviting applications for one or more freelance researchers to update some of the most important country and company pages.

1. The Commission

Budget and fee
We have a budget for the researcher(s) to carry out a total of 34 days of work, at a rate of £288.89 per day.

Content of work
The work will consist of:

1) Updating CAAT’s online company profiles (17 days work). These are attached to an interactive map of arms company sites around the UK and globally, which is a highly valued resource for supporters and activists. Information on companies can change rapidly, through mergers & acquisitions, and spin-offs, or new major contracts and export markets. Company website links also frequently become out of date. The researcher(s) will update the profiles for the top 25-27 UK companies, including overseas companies with a UK presence.

2) Update and expand CAAT’s online country profiles (17 days work). These include information on some of the UK’s most significant and most controversial arms customers, the political situation in these countries, conflicts, and the arms trade between them and the UK, in both directions. At present, these profiles vary from roughly a single page of text to several separate web pages with text, images, and links to other resources. Again, this is information that all ages rapidly. The researchers would update information on 9 countries that currently have written profiles (the rest have a set of standard data which is automatically updated), and create new profiles for 7-8 more.

The existing country profiles to be updated are: Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates, and the USA. The additional country profiles would include India, Indonesia, and Pakistan, with others to be determined.

Split of work

The work may be awarded to a single applicant or split between two or more, depending on the interests, availability, and experience of the applicants. It is likely that some countries and companies will involve more work than others. If more than one researcher is commissioned, precise work splits and fees will be negotiated with the individuals concerned.

Timing

It is expected that the project will be carried out over a period of around 6 months from the point of commissioning of the researchers, but this could be extended depending on individuals’ availability.

Support and supervision

The work will be overseen by CAAT’s Research Coordinator Dr Sam Perlo-Freeman, who will also provide basic training in the use of CAAT’s WordPress website, and guidance in key information sources, messaging, etc. during the course of the project. It is expected that the researchers will work primarily remotely, but will be able to use the CAAT office in Cambridge Heath, London, from time to time if that would be helpful.

Notice concerning AI

AI, specifically Large Language Models such as ChatGPT, may not be used to generate text for these profiles. Researchers are free to use AI tools in conducting research for the pages, although this is not encouraged, but the text itself must be human generated.

2. Requirements for the Role

Applicants must have:

- Some experience in carrying out open source research of a social, political, and/or economic nature, for example to the level of what might be required for an undergraduate dissertation or equivalent. This can have been acquired in an academic, work, or voluntary capacity. No specific level of academic qualification is required.
- Excellent written English skills, including the ability to communicate important information in a concise and accessible manner.
- Some basic web editing experience, using common content management systems such as WordPress. (Experience with WordPress itself, which CAAT’s website uses, is helpful but not essential).
- An interest in issues relevant to the work, such as international peace, security and conflict, the arms trade, human rights, climate justice, anti-racism, etc., and broad support for CAAT’s aims of restricting and ultimately ending the international arms trade. Specific knowledge of the arms trade is not required.

3. How to Apply

Please send a CV and cover letter to CAAT Research Coordinator Sam Perlo-Freeman, [email protected]. In your cover letter please be sure to state the minimum and maximum number of days of work you would be interested in carrying out. (The maximum can be as high as all 34 days, i.e. the entire project, but you should also specify the minimum number of days you would be interested in doing, in case we decide to split the work between more than one person).

The deadline for applications is 12:00 on Monday 7th April.

[PLEASE SUPPORT CAAT's CAMPAIGNING - HERE]([link removed]

Campaign Against Arms Trade

Unit 1.9, The Green House,
244 - 254 Cambridge Heath Road,
London
E2 9DA

Tel: 020 7281 0297

Web: [www.caat.org.uk]([link removed]

Email: [email protected]

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