
Bringing innovative data science and survey methods to social and political research, we help our clients understand a rapidly changing world.
Who we are

Dr Shaun Ratcliff
Principal, Accent Research
Shaun is a political scientist, survey researcher and applied data scientist. He works on complex social and political research projects, studying how the public thinks and behaves, what influences their beliefs and actions, and collaborates with clients to develop strategies to engage with them.
He was previously Director of Data Science at YouGov, and before that, a Lecturer at the US Studies Centre at the University of Sydney.
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He has extensive experience working with political and public health messaging campaigns, not-for-profit organisations, corporate clients, and running public opinion polling. This includes consulting on the winning 2022 federal Labor campaign.
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Shaun regularly writes and comments on Australian and international politics. This has included commentary in the Washington Post, in The Australian, and at the National Press Club.
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With YouGov, his work included a prediction of electorate-level results for all 151 seats at the 2022 Australian election (produced for The Australian; with a discussion on the methodology here), Australia's largest poll on attitudes towards climate change (for the ACF) and a detailed analysis of support for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament (for the Uluru Dialogue).
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He was also chief investigator of the 2019, 2022 and 2025 Australian Cooperative Election Surveys, some of the largest academic election surveys run in Australia (details on this project can be found here).
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Shaun has a PhD in Political Science from Monash University.
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For more details visit Shaun's personal website.