Dr Pallavi Banerjee is an Assistant Professor in Education at the University of Cambridge and an ADR UK Ambassador. She specialises in educational inequalities, social mobility, and the use of linked administrative data and large-scale longitudinal surveys to inform policy and practice. Her research focuses on educational attainment and examines how structural, institutional, demographic, and behavioural factors shape children and young people’s life chances across the education system and beyond.

Pallavi works at the intersection of academia and government, with a strong track record of translating complex evidence into policy-relevant insights. She is currently leading an ESRC-funded project and is on secondment to the Department for Education as a UKRI Policy Fellow, where she contributes to evidence-based policymaking using linked administrative datasets. Her work draws on major data sources, including the National Pupil Database, PISA, LSYPE, and Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO), as well as cross-departmental linkages, to analyse pathways from early life experiences through education and into labour market and justice outcomes.

She is the Director and Principal Investigator of the Inequalities Action Lab at Cambridge and chairs the Education Inequalities and Policy Evaluation Community (EIPEC), advancing the use of administrative data to address inequalities. 

"Administrative data allows us to move beyond snapshots of inequality and instead understand how disadvantage unfolds across the life course. In my research, I use it to connect systems and generate evidence that is not only rigorous, but directly actionable for policy. As an ADR UK Ambassador, I am particularly committed to use these data resources, building capacity across sectors, and ensuring that research leads to meaningful change in the lives of children and young people."