School of Social and Political Science

SPS academics receive the Pippa Norris Prize from the Political Studies Association



The Scottish Election Study team holding their prize certificates and smiling into the camera

School of Social and Political Science (SPS) academics who run the Scottish Election Study have received the 2025 Pippa Norris Prize from the Political Studies Association (PSA) for outstanding contributions to advancing knowledge in political studies. 
 
The PSA is the UK’s leading professional association dedicated to supporting and promoting the study and public understanding of politics. It celebrates the best of the discipline through its annual academic prizes, with the award categories recognising outstanding dissertations, professional contributions, teaching, and scholars across the profession.  
 
This year’s Pippa Norris Prize from the PSA was awarded to the team behind the Scottish Election Study (SES). The SES is an independent study of Scottish voting behaviour, and studies social attitudes and political behaviour between elections. It is funded by the by the UKRI Economic and Social Research Council. 

In the award announcement, the PSA said: “The Scottish Election Study team has made a truly outstanding contribution to political studies. The team includes colleagues who have been involved since 2007 and is led by Professor Ailsa Henderson. The outputs have gone from strength to strength. The breadth of data collected and the public impact of the work is impressive. Team members are regular media commentators bringing rigorous analysis and insight into public debate. They provide data and analysis for the BBC’s widely consumed election coverage, ensuring that facts are a salient feature of political discourse.”

The SES has been led since 2016 by Professor Ailsa Henderson, Professor of Political Science at SPS. The wider team includes Dr Fraser McMillan, a Career Launch Fellow at SPS, as well as colleagues at The University of Glasgow, Cardiff University, The University of Southampton and Royal Holloway, University of London. 

Professor Henderson said: “It’s a tremendous honour to lead the nation’s election study, and it’s been a real pleasure to work with fantastic colleagues and to inject useful evidence of Scottish attitudes and behaviour into Scottish public life.”

The prizes were announced and presented at the PSA’s Annual International Conference in Birmingham on 15 April. 

Read the announcement on the PSA website. 

Find out more about Politics and International Relations at SPS.