ESRC funds Bristol work on social research methods

7 March 2011

The tools for analysing research data in the social sciences are to be further refined and developed, thanks to funding from the Economic and Social Research Council that includes £1.4 million for a group from the University of Bristol.

After fierce competition, the ESRC National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM) has awarded funding for six national ‘nodes’ (or branches) for the third phase of its work. Bristol’s is the only node to have had its funding continued from Phase II.

The three-year project will be led by Professor Fiona Steele from the Centre for Multilevel Modelling in the Graduate School of Education (GSoE), along with colleagues in GSoE, the Centre for Market and Public Organisation and the School of Geographical Sciences.

‘The LEMMA 3 Node aims to develop more effective methods of analysing longitudinal data in the social sciences, and to make these developments available to social researchers via free software,’ said Professor Steele. ‘We’re also undertaking a set of major research projects with experts from medical sociology, health psychology, economics and developmental psychology. Just as importantly, we will be further developing our training and capacity building programme for social researchers.’

The Bristol-led project, entitled ‘LEMMA 3: Longitudinal Effects, Multilevel Modelling and Applications’, begins on 1 October 2011. Co-investigators are Professor Harvey Goldstein, Dr George Leckie and Chris Charlton from GSoE, Dr Paul Clarke and Professor Frank Windmeijer from the Centre for Market and Public Organisation, Professor William Browne from the School of Veterinary Science, and Professor Kelvyn Jones from the School of Geographical Sciences.

Further information

NCRM promotes excellence in social science research methodologies by undertaking research, training and capacity building activities and by disseminating up-to-date information. The Centre forms part of ESRC's strategy to improve the standards of research methods across the UK. NCRM is a ‘Hub-Node’ network of research groups, each conducting research and training in an area of social science research methods. Work is co-ordinated by the Hub at the University of Southampton.