Hi All!
I'm a researcher over at the University of St Andrews and, for the past 5 weeks, have been the co-lead on a Holyrood '26 election monitoring project aimed at teaching our undergraduates about quantitative methods and giving them hands-on research experience, which we hope will give them a leg up in what appears to be a worsening job market.
Over the course of five short weeks, our 14 research assistants have collected polling data, built marginals, and tracked down candidate-specific data. I collated this data into an interactive dashboard, accessible here. Amongst other things, it shows live polling averages, data by pollster, an incumbency tracker, and a seat projection (which exists comfortably within the margins of error for big firms like YouGov).
The students are presenting their findings on the 7th at School V (St Salvatores Quad, St Andrews) from 1:00-3:00 PM, if anyone's interested.
I would appreciate it if you could help to amplify my students' findings - whether by sharing, joining us, or even having a look. They've done an exceptional job and, I believe, deserve to have a fuss made over them.**
** As a reminder, these are students, so please keep things constructive.