The 2026 ECRP
The prize gives early career housing researchers an opportunity to showcase their work to a wide and influential audience. The competition is open to those with up to eight years research experience. Candidates with or without a PhD, and those working within academic or non-academic institutions (the voluntary sector, think tanks, membership organisations, the media, housing associations etc) are welcome to apply.
Sponsored by
The 2026 competition is now open for entries. It will close at 5pm on the 24th September. The judges will meet in October. The winner will be announced and the prize will be presented on the 24th November at the Homes UK conference.
Prize objective
This prize will give early career housing researchers an opportunity to showcase their work to a wide and influential audience. This is the fifth year that the competition has run. We want to promote shared learning across the housing sector and encourage early researchers in their career.
Entry criteria and requirements
The competition is open to those with up to eight years’ research experience.
We welcome candidates with or without a PhD, and those working within academic or non-academic institutions (the voluntary sector, think tanks, membership organisations, the media, housing associations, local authorities etc).
Please note that time spent in doctoral-level research study counts as research experience (as such, entrants who spent three years completing their PhD may have up to five year’s further work experience).
Co-authored papers are permitted in cases where all authors meet the entry requirements.
It is open to UK and non-UK applicants.
Applicants from Sponsor organisations may apply, on the basis they declare their interest.
It is our preference that papers have a focus that matches the broad interests of Thinkhouse. This is policy publications that cover ways to increase the amount and quality of the UK’s housing stock and the related economic, social and community benefits of doing so. We are also interested in international research that has relevance to UK housing. If you have a paper that does not match this outline but relates to housing and connected issues then please contact us before submitting as the judging panel may accept your application.
We will consider think pieces, review papers synthesising existing evidence and policy analysis, research-based business cases/board papers/insight pieces from within housing associations or local authority landlords, papers sharing the findings of original empirical research or investigative journalism type pieces. Journal articles or other papers already published or under review will be accepted.
Submission should be between 4,000-8,000 words in length and submitted in a MS Word format, which includes the following information: author(s) name(s), any institutional/organisational affiliation, current job title (if applicable), email address, paper title, declaration of whether and how AI tools were used, 200 word abstract and word count.
The work must be the authors' own. It is not acceptable to use Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools to write or substantially shape the content of the paper. Authors may use GenAI in a limited assistive capacity (such as checking grammar, improved clarity or structure, and proof reading, or supporting discrete, ethically sound elements of their research, which might include producing code snippets or labelling unstructured data), but the final submission must be their own work. All authors must provide a clear declaration of whether and how AI tools were used as part of their submission. Please note that inappropriate or undisclosed use of AI carries significant academic, professional, and reputational risks.
Papers must be submitted to contact@thinkhouse.org.uk by 17.00 Thursday 24th September 2026. Please note that we will retain a copy of your contact information for communicating about future iterations of the prize. If you do not wish to be contacted in future, please let us know when submitting your paper (this will not affect judgement of your entry).
The winning entry
Authors of the winning paper will be awarded a £500 cheque, will have the result covered by our media partner, Inside Housing, and have their paper published on the Thinkhouse website. We reserve the right to have editorial control over any item published on the site.
The winner will be announced at Homes UK conference on 24th November 2026. Applicants should ensure they are available for the prize ceremony.