Select Committee on Science and Technology Written Evidence


APPENDIX 2

Memorandum from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

1.  ESRC'S REMIT

  ESRC covers a wide and disparate range of disciplines and topics, perhaps more than any other research council, ranging from economics through psychology to anthropology, and including management and education, and from issues such as environmental sustainability and international security to youth crime and family welfare. The ESRC has the largest research community of all the councils, accounting for some 25% of those staff returned in the last Research Assessment Exercise and our work is relevant to a diverse body of research users across all areas of government, business and the voluntary sector.

2.  THE VALUE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH

  The work supported by the ESRC contributes to the social, political, economic and intellectual life of the UK and beyond in a number of ways. It directly informs public policy and professional practice across all sectors of the economy. It strengthens our knowledge of and our ability to address a wide range of complex issues central to our development as an advanced and civilised society. It contributes to the teaching of large numbers of undergraduate and postgraduate students. And, it enhances the wider public's understanding of the world in which we all live. Some examples of recent achievements and impacts, funded by ESRC, that have contributed towards these in the last few years are:

    —  World-class research on the application of evolutionary and learning approaches to economic game theory at the Centre for Economic Learning and Social Evolution based at University College London. A recent ESRC evaluation confirmed that this research team has few peers in Europe and rivals the best in the US.

    —  Work over a number of years on the psychology of face recognition which has influenced the ways in which images are used in police investigations and how identification evidence is used in court.

    —  The major independent evaluation and report on the public's attitudes to GM food by a research team led by Professor Nick Pidgeon which informed the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee report on, and Government Response to, the GM Nation?

    —  Work on families and social change, including the influential report "Rethinking Families" which was welcomed by the Minister for Women at its launch in June this year as a major influence on government thinking in this area.

    —  The Review of Government Social Classifications as the basis for major government datasets, including the census. This has had widespread international impact such that the EU has accepted it as the basis of socio-economic classification across Europe.

    —  The work led by Professor Harvey Goldstein on the development of multi-level modelling as a tool for handling complex data involving multiple variables which has led to a major shift in the practice of social science data analysis.

    —  Groundbreaking work by Professor David Hendry at the University of Oxford to develop a new general theory of economic forecasting, which is already influencing work in government departments and central banks.

    —  The core funding that sustains the analytical base for the regular analyses and briefings provided for MPs and policy makers by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, such as the annual budget briefings.

    —  Work in our Innovative Health Technologies Programme on the role of technology in medical practice leading, amongst other things, to the development of a CD ROM for NHS training purposes.

    —  The central role played by ESRC-funded Research Centres in the DTI's recent Innovation Review and the Government's Productivity Initiative as reflected in the subsequent reports in both areas.

3.  MAIN ACTIVITIES

  Our total expenditure in 2003-04 was £100 million of which £67 million was spent on research, £26 million on postgraduate training and the remainder on communications activities, evaluation and administration. The Council's budget is set to increase further over the next few years following the overall increase in the science budget announced in the 2002 spending review and is £119 million this year rising to £130 million in 2005-06. At any one time, we are supporting about 2,000 doctoral students, 700 grants and fellowships, 350 projects within our 20-30 managed programmes, and 30 large-scale research and resource centres. Approximately 1,500 researchers are employed on these awards in addition to the members of staff leading the research. The balance between directive and responsive mode funding is approximately 2:1. Annex 1 provides a breakdown of our funding across these main areas of activity over the last five years.


  Overall strategy and policy is the responsibility of the Council. The commissioning, management and oversight of the scientific output of our work is taken forward by four advisory Boards that report to Council. These Boards comprise senior social scientists and research users and are chaired by members of Council. They are:

    —  Research Grants Board—responsible for responsive mode funding ie in response to ideas from the social science community.

    —  Strategic Research Board—responsible for the pro-active, or directive, mode of funding primarily through programmes and centres.

    —  Research Resources Board—responsible for infrastructure, data resources, large-scale surveys and research methods.

    —  Training and Development Board—responsible for doctoral training, postdoctoral fellowships and researcher career development.

  These activities are all discussed in more detail in the sections that follow.

4.  PLANNING, PRIORITY SETTING AND DECISION MAKING

  This year ESRC has adopted a new mechanism for making major, long-term strategic decisions. Hitherto we had used our seven thematic priorities to shape our research agenda. However, it had become increasingly apparent that a more broadly based approach was required in order to embrace fully the range of activities to which we wish to give priority, to facilitate more focused and transparent decision making, and to allow for more radical shifts in our portfolio where this was judged to be appropriate. The themes will remain as a useful description of the work we support across broad topic areas but future funding decisions will instead be driven by the four priority categories of Capacity, Research, Engagement and Performance.

  The main features of the new approach are:

    —  A more explicit recognition of the importance of building future research capacity through the recruitment, retention and professional development of top class researchers and the development of the social science infrastructure in terms of facilities and resources.

    —  Greater enabling of activities addressing cross-disciplinary collaboration, user engagement, knowledge transfer and science and society.

    —  More frequent consultation with our key stakeholders both within and beyond the social science research community.

    —  Greater integration between the Council and its Boards and Committees throughout the planning cycle to develop a shared agenda and set of priorities.

    —  Greater flexibility to respond quickly to opportunities for collaboration and co-funding through the creation of a new Research Venture Fund. We have already used this fund to support a new initiative on demographic change in Scotland with the Scottish Executive and to become a co-funder of the National Preventative Research Initiative.

How does this work in practice?

  We are now in the first year of implementing this strategic framework. A major consultation exercise on what our future priorities should be was launched in the spring involving universities, learned societies, government departments, organisations in the business, public and voluntary sectors and other key stakeholders.

  In October, Council will consider the responses to our consultation exercise alongside proposals for new or additional activities. The ESRC Boards and office will then submit strategic plans to the Council meeting in April 2005 for final decisions. It is already clear that strong proposals will be put forward for substantially more new work than can be afforded. The Council will therefore have to take a carefully considered long-term view on the key priorities for ESRC in the coming years before deciding which of these should be supported. This will include feeding into RCUK-level discussions about new initiatives, the allocation of SR2004 funding over the next few months and implementation of the government's 10 year framework for science and innovation.

5.  THE RESEARCH AND TRAINING PORTFOLIO

  ESRC's approach to the funding of research is based on two key principles:

    (i)  That we should fund the highest quality research wherever it is found, underpinned by independent peer review. There is no policy in favour of either institutional dispersal or concentration. ESRC currently funds research at over 120 different institutions. However, 44% of ESRC funding goes to 10 institutions as illustrated in the table below.


Overall Expenditure Research and Training 2003-04 (£K)%

1.

University of Essex

6,806
7.3
2.

London: School of Economics and Political Science

5,204
5.6
3.

University of Oxford

4,553
4.9
4.

University of York

4,111
4.4
5.

University of Manchester

4,076
4.4
6.

University of Cambridge

4,023
4.3
7.

University of London: University College

3,423
3.7
8.

University of Sheffield

2,965
3.2
9.

Cardiff University

2,903
3.1
10.

University of Warwick

2,816
3.0

Total

40,880

43.9


NB These figures include major centres and surveys.


    (ii)  A balanced research portfolio. This will include a combination of directive funding to support research in areas of strategic importance and to develop capacity in important emerging areas and a strong responsive mode, providing opportunities for the best ideas to emerge from the research community. The portfolio also needs to allow sufficient support for the development of world class researchers, resources and infrastructure to underpin future social science research.

STRATEGIC DIRECTED FUNDING

Programmes and Networks

  Programmes and priority networks are co-ordinated mechanisms that draw on and bring together expertise from across the UK science base, wherever it is located. They address key research challenges ranging from devolution to innovative health technologies. An increasing number of our programmes have been funded through specific spending review allocations and many of these entail cross-disciplinary collaboration with our RCUK partners. The work of these programmes is discussed further below.

Research Centres

  Research Centres, usually funded for ten years at a single location, foster the development of international centres of excellence in partnership with host institutions; the development of longer term research agendas beyond the period of ESRC funding; inter-disciplinary teams; capacity building; and, the development of partnerships with stakeholders. New Centres established in recent years include the Centre for Business Relationships, Accountability, Sustainability and Society (BRASS) at Cardiff University, the Centre for Competition Policy (University of East Anglia) and the Centre for Public Organisation (Bristol University). Current centres have the potential to reapply for continued funding for further five year periods in competition with other proposals. In the last year the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the Centre for Economic Performance and the Centre for Micro-Social Change have been given continuing support on this basis.

  A full list of current programmes and centres is provided at Annex 2.

RESPONSIVE MODE FUNDING

  Our responsive mode mechanisms are open and flexible. Applications are invited in any area within our remit. We have no fixed closing dates and provide support for research grants up to £750k and for research fellowships. Small grants provide a particular route for supporting new researchers. In addition, the Training and Development Board supports one-year postdoctoral fellowships for those who have just completed their doctorates.

  We also introduced last year a new Professorial Fellowship scheme to provide up to five years of funding for the UK's best social scientists in order to pursue innovative and creative agendas that will make a major contribution to the development of social science in the UK. The first fellows include Professor Gerry Stoker, whose recent book "Transforming Local Government" was cited as "recommended reading" in a recent House of Commons debate on Local Government Finance and Professor Tony Barnett, co-author of the world's first research-based account of the social and economic effects of the AIDS epidemic in Africa, lead author of the UNDP report on HIV/AIDS in Eastern Europe and recently awarded the Royal Anthropology Institute's Lucy Mair Medal for contributions to practical anthropology.

Success rates

  Demand for ESRC funding is high and there has been a substantial increase in grant applications (from 595 in 2000-01 to 831 in 2003-04). The overall success rate in 2003-04 was 35%. However, the success rate for large grants (over £45k) was only 23% and for fellowships 27% and a substantial proportion of applications with high alpha (ie fundable) ratings remain unsupported. An additional £20 million a year would be required to enable us to support all the proposals in the top half of the alpha range. Data on responsive mode applications and awards over the last five years by discipline are provided at Annex 3.

Peer Review

  Our assessment mechanisms are based on peer review. We select reviewers from the whole research community in order to access specialist expertise and spread the responsibilities and learning opportunities involved in peer review. The Research Grants Board then provides expert comparative assessments and a virtual College of assessors supports the streamlined assessment of small grant applications. We are keen to encourage openness and transparency in our decision-making processes. We therefore discourage the submission of confidential comments so that referees' and panel members' comments can be fed back to applicants and other reviewers. We have just introduced the opportunity for applicants to respond to referees' comments on very large grant applications before a decision is made and if this proves successful it will be extended to other schemes.

Dual Support Reform

  ESRC is working closely with the other research councils, the OST and the funding councils in implementing the impending changes to the dual support system. We welcome the greater transparency the introduction of full economic costs will bring. However, it is possible that this will lead to a considerable increase in the number and costs of grant applications received by ESRC, given the size of our community and the likelihood that a research council award will cover a greater proportion of costs than funding from some other sources. We will need to keep this under constant review to ensure that our success rates do not fall to an unacceptable level.

RESEARCH RESOURCES

  High quality data resources are the very lifeblood of economic and social research. The ESRC has thus made a fundamental commitment to building and maintaining a comprehensive data infrastructure for the UK social science community. The effective exploitation of this data infrastructure is equally essential and the Council has played a leading role in developing innovative methodological approaches to analyse increasingly complex data resources.

Building a data infrastructure

  The United Kingdom has led the world in the creation of major social science data resources. For example, we have funded the collection of a unique suite of internationally renowned longitudinal studies, including the National Child Development Study, British Household Panel Study and Millennium Cohort. Through repeated periodic sampling of the same people over many years, these studies are charting the life histories of thousands of individuals from birth into old age. The resulting data offer enormous opportunities to study social and economic change over time. They also provide a robust evidence base upon which to formulate public policy in areas ranging from deprivation and social exclusion through to labour market dynamics and income distribution.

  Building and maintaining a world class data infrastructure requires very substantial investment given the pace of technological change in this area. The cost of maintaining the ESRC's major longitudinal studies alone will be £20 million over the next six years. However, if the UK is to maintain its position at the leading international edge, then it needs to do more than simply commit to the long term support of existing datasets. It must also find the resources to create bigger and more complex datasets to radically open out the opportunity for more in depth analysis of major social and economic issues. These include, for example, developing a deeper understanding of the dynamics of ethnic diversity and of wealth and asset distribution across the UK's population. It would also greatly improve our capacity to undertake comparative analysis internationally and across devolved administrations and the different regions within the UK.

  The Council recognises that this can be best achieved by working in close partnership with other key stakeholders. We are therefore working in close co-operation with such bodies as the Office for National Statistics, government departments, charitable foundations and other Research Councils. These efforts are now culminating in a major new ESRC-led initiative to create a National Datasets Strategy. This will provide stable and long term access to an increasing range of key social science data resources through co-ordinating future funding and data delivery arrangements

Exploiting the data infrastructure

  It is of vital importance that the most advanced tools and techniques are available to the social science community to both collect and effectively analyse increasingly multi-layered and multi-textured social science data resources. For example, the opportunities for greater data integration and improved data mining techniques are immense and offer the potential to truly revolutionise social science research. The Council has a role as the steward of methodological development, providing a fundamental and enduring commitment to improving the methodological skills base of the UK social science community through a number of initiatives. This has produced groundbreaking new methodological advances, including, for instance, work on Multi-Level Modelling which has helped researchers distinguish the influence of family from neighbourhood and school setting in assessing individual child educational attainment. This programme of support continues with the Council investing over £12 million in a Research Methods Programme and National Research Methods Centre over the last three years.

POSTGRADUATE TRAINING

  One of the Council's principal aims is that of building the next generation of social scientists by supporting high quality research training.

Quality Assurance

  The Council operates rigorous quality assurance procedures to ensure that training provision is of the highest standards, setting out both generic and subject specific training requirements. Any Department or Faculty that wishes to be eligible for ESRC postgraduate funding must first apply to the Council describing how its training provision meets these requirements. There are over 550 eligible Departments or Faculties currently "recognised" for ESRC studentship funding.

  The impact of our approach has been far reaching with a significant number of students not funded by the Council also benefitting from the training standards required by the ESRC. In this way the Council has had a positive impact on raising the general standard of postgraduate training provision in the social sciences and not only for ESRC funded students.

The "1+3" Model

  The ESRC believes that a minimum of four years of training are required to develop the necessary skills to prepare postgraduate students for a longer term research career. In 2001 we introduced the "1+3" model which provides integrated training and research over a four year period. This is normally based upon an initial year of research based Masters training followed by three years PhD support and training in more advanced research skills, although variants of this model such as "2+2" can also be supported. By providing an integrated and secure four year funding package, the ESRC believes it is more likely to attract high quality candidates to apply for its studentships.

Allocation of Studentships

  The Council's capacity to fund the most talented students has been further strengthened by the recent introduction of a quota system with the intention that by 2006 the vast majority of studentships will be allocated in this way. This devolved process of decision making has greatly improved the ability of HEIs to identify the highest calibre candidates and guarantee them a studentship at an early date. The quota system also means that institutions know in advance how many studentships they will receive in the future, which greatly assists in the planning of institutional and departmental research strategies. It will also bring us more closely in line with the postgraduate allocation procedures used by other Research Councils.

Cross-council collaboration

  We have been working closely with the other Research Councils in other studentship schemes. For example, we currently have two jointly funded studentship schemes aimed at building vital new interdisciplinary research capacity. The first of these is with NERC and is concerned with new approaches to the study of environmental issues. It has been running for five years and has supported about 100 students over this period. The second scheme, launched this year, is with MRC and is seeking to encourage innovative approaches at the interface between medicine and social science, particularly in the field of health behaviour.

6.  CURRENT PRIORITIES FOR RESEARCH AND TRAINING

(i)  Spending Review initiatives

  Many of the largest and most high profile investments within our current research portfolio are those funded through targeted spending review (SR) allocations. Most of these are in partnership with other research councils. These are priorities for the Council not least because of the intrinsic importance of the areas covered, the amount of funding involved and the opportunities they provide for cross-disciplinary, cross-council collaboration. A summary of all our current SR funded initiatives is provided at Annex 4. Amongst the principal issues being addressed are:

    Genomics—the effective contribution of social science to a better understanding of the social, legal and ethical issues surrounding current advances in biotechnology and genomics and analysing UK public attitudes towards a range of applications of genomics including GM foods, cloning and genetic testing.

    Stem Cells—the global regulation of embryonic stem cells; innovation processes in relation to stem cells; the role of standards; and public engagement in stem cell research.

    Management—UK productivity and other performance indicators for the 21st century; sustaining innovation while meeting competitive pressure; adapting promising management practices to new circumstances; and, developing an agenda for public service innovation and effectiveness.

    Rural Economy and Land Use—successful and sustainable food products and food chains; integration of land and water use; the environmental basis of rural development; and, economic and social interactions with the rural environment.

    Energy—how to access a secure, safe, diverse and reliable energy supply at competitive prices while meeting the challenge of global warming. "Managing the New Uncertainties" with a focus on energy markets and regulatory, social and economic drivers.

    Research Methods—the creation of a National Centre for Research Methods to provide a national research and training programme for improving the quality and range of methodological skills and techniques used by the UK social science community.

    E-Social Science—the use of new grid technologies to look at such key areas as financial forecasting and macro-economics, Human Systems Modelling and life-course analysis.

(ii)  Education research

  ESRC is leading a major initiative in the area of Teaching and Learning funded by a number of key stakeholders including the funding councils, the DfES and the Welsh and Scottish devolved administrations. The programme originated from concerns over the need for better co-ordinated high-quality research in this area and HEFCE initially provided the majority of the funding. The overall budget is some £27 million. The programme's overarching purpose is to support research leading to improvements in outcomes for learners of all ages and in all contexts of education and learning. For example, research on incentives to workplace learning has developed the powerful new concept and diagnostic tool of "expansive and restrictive learning environments" and has fed into the 2003 White Paper 21st Century Skills and the work of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) and the Modern Apprenticeship Task Force.

(iii)  Commissioning of new work

  In addition to the continuing commissioning work on cross-council programmes such as Energy and the Rural Economy, we are also commissioning four new programmes on Public Services; World Economy & Finance; the New Dynamics of Ageing; and Non Governmental Public Action. We are also finalising plans for two new programmes in the areas of ethnicity and mobility and are in the process of running a further Research Centres competition from which we will consider support for a number of new centres in April 2005.

(iv)  Maintenance of the research base

  There is much concern at present over the severe recruitment and retention difficulties in areas such as mathematics, physics and chemistry. In the social sciences there are similar concerns in terms of the renewal of the research base not least in areas such as economics and management where people with the necessary quantitative skills are in short supply and where alternative career options are generally rather more lucrative than a career in academia. We also have significant concerns relating to social statistics, research methods and related areas such as demography/population studies where the community has always been relatively small but where there are very few new people coming through. In addition, across the social sciences as a whole the academic workforce is ageing to the extent that we face major problems over the next ten years as illustrated by the table below. This is particularly the case in subjects such as education and social work. We are of course implementing the substantial increase in the postgraduate stipend, rising to £12k in October 2005, and will be providing higher salaries for research staff in the areas identified above. We have also given some priority to these subject areas in our support for studentships and postdoctoral fellowships.


(v)  Interdisciplinarity

  ESRC funds research excellence whether within or across disciplines and works to eradicate barriers to such excellence both within the social sciences and with those areas covered by the other Research Councils. Nearly all of our programmes and centres depend upon the involvement of researchers from a range of disciplines and an increasing proportion of our activities now involve collaboration with researchers in the physical, natural and life sciences. All of our Boards and Panels are multi-disciplinary—there are no "subject" Committees. Close collaboration with other councils regarding the assessment of responsive mode applications at the boundaries between us ensures that cross-disciplinary applications are not disadvantaged.

(vi)  International collaboration

  The ESRC's role in developing social science in the UK involves a strong commitment to work across national boundaries, taking advantage of the intellectual opportunities to be gained from co-operative and comparative research, as well as maintaining and developing the high standing of UK researchers within international social science research networks. Such collaboration includes:

    —  International co-funding of response mode research such as the European Science Foundation's ECRP (European Collaborative Research Projects) Scheme. We are now planning to introduce such co-funding with sister organisations beyond the EU.

    —  Building effective platforms of co-operation via inter-country and inter-agency agreements. This extends beyond our European partners including, for example, a collaboration with the Social Science Research Council for US academics to visit ESRC Research Centres and Programmes in 2004-05 and agreements with a number of partner Academies in China to offer grants for research visits and joint projects in areas such as Chinese economic policy and foreign direct investment in China.

    —  Participation in EU Framework Programmes, particularly the theme on Citizens and Governance in a Knowledge-based Society and the horizontal programme on Science and Society. We also co-fund pan-European research infrastructures such as the European Social Survey.

    —  Training initiatives through the new Dorothy Hodgkin Postgraduate Awards scheme. This is a new cross-Council scheme (initiated by the Office of Science and Technology) to fund PhD students from the developing world. Each award is jointly sponsored by both a Research Council and an industrial sponsor.

7.  KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER AND COLLABORATIVE PARTNERSHIPS

  A key element of the Council's approach to knowledge transfer is its commitment to effective user engagement at all stages of the research process, from the setting of research agendas and priorities and the conduct of research through to the communication and dissemination of research outcomes.

  In relation to public sector bodies, our approach is underpinned by concordat agreements and strategic partnerships with government departments and devolved administrations. A list of current concordat partners is provided at Annex 5. In particular, we provide syntheses and briefings on research findings in relevant policy areas such as taxation; fiscal planning; climate change; and employment patterns. We have introduced a policy seminar series and seminars have been held on factors affecting school leaving decisions, population trends in Scotland, UK productivity and obesity.

  In relation to business, there are close links between specific programmes and the business community. The Financial Markets Group based at LSE has attracted significant corporate sponsorship from a range of investors such as UBS Global Asset Management, Lehmann Brothers and International Asset Management Ltd. The CEP (Centre for Economic Performance) Business Club has also attracted similar support. ESRC's Innovation Research Centres work closely with business. For example, the Centre for Complex Product Systems (COPS) has run training courses for organisations such as Samsung and Boots, while BAe Systems has adopted its "human centred" approach to improving software processes and practices. The Centre for Research on Innovation and Competition (CRIC) has worked closely with Rolls Royce, Unilever and BNFL.

  All ESRC programmes and centres are required to engage with a range of users and programmes, for example, commit 5% of their budget for dissemination and engagement activities. Key performance indicators for engagement activities and published output have been introduced to set levels of achievement for this activity. In addition to workshops and other events, training opportunities are also provided by the ESRC for the directors of our major investments on understanding Government processes to maximise policy impact and engaging effectively with the media. Senior social scientists are engaged in a wide variety of advisory roles in Government and many academics, particularly in the areas of economics and management and business studies, also engage in consultancy work. ESRC commissioned research at Cambridge University has shown that academics acting in consultant roles are one of the most significant mechanisms of knowledge transfer in the social sciences. A number of the senior academics within our Management Research Initiative (AIM) are involved in such activity. We are also in discussion with the Treasury over the development of a new scheme to facilitate greater movement between the academic and government sectors.

  In addition to our centres and programmes, we spend over £2 million annually on collaborative studentships (CASE—Collaborative Awards in Science and Engineering), supporting about 200 such students at any one time. This scheme is based on partnerships between universities and non-academic organisations and allows doctoral students to draw upon workplace experience in a range of settings for their research. Similarly, Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs), managed with the DTI, bring together staff in academic institutions and workplaces from all sectors by having associates conducting jointly supervised projects. For example, the partnership between Central Manchester and Manchester Children's (CMMC) University Hospital NHS Trust and the Manchester School of Management at UMIST was awarded the KTP annual award for the Best Application of Social and Management Sciences in 2003. This partnership was funded by the ESRC and NHS North Region and will lead to an extra 700 operations being performed each year due to more efficient scheduling, potential savings to the Trust of over £400,000 per annum and employment by the research associate with York NHS Trust.

  Beyond these schemes the Council has also collaborated with government departments in building research capacity in targeted areas. It has, for instance, established a highly successful co-funded studentship scheme with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minster and has a jointly supported scheme with the Welsh Assembly Government, focused around developing research capacity on key social and economic issues within Wales. We are keen to extend these collaborations to involve other partners. The ESRC also supports LINK programmes, student placements in the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, the Small Business Research Initiative, the Business Plan Competition and the Young Entrepreneurs Scheme.

8.  SCIENCE AND SOCIETY

  ESRC science and society activity aims to promote social science and demonstrate its valuable contribution to the UK's knowledge base. The ESRC's portfolio of research into science and society topics such as public dialogue, public perceptions of risk and science teaching, means that we have an added responsibility to distribute evidence to the science community and encourage evidence based science policy. ESRC reports on public understanding of science such as "Towards a better map: science, the public and the media" and "Who's Misunderstanding Whom?" have made important contributions to the debate. In addition our Science in Society research programme has addressed key issues regarding the role of science, public engagement with science issues and the governance of science.

  We use the media, events, publications and the internet to inform and engage the public about social science research. For example, we issued 139 press releases related to our research in 2003-04. Much of our public dialogue activity is channelled through our research programmes, many of which invite relevant user groups and communities to become involved through, for example, programme advisory committees. Stakeholders help to shape the overall direction of these activities throughout the lifecycle of the research from the initial proposal through to the dissemination of findings.

  The ESRC is expanding its use of the internet and is launching in spring 2005 a major on-line initiative. The Information Centre will be a free-access social science research tool. Users will be able to access a breadth of social science knowledge from both ESRC and other UK funders. The site is aimed at both academic and non-academic users and will focus on presenting research results in plain English.

9.  EVALUATION

  The ESRC places considerable emphasis on evaluating the outcomes and impacts of its research funding, and it uses the results to inform its strategic development and funding decisions. Evaluations are managed by the Research Evaluation Committee (REC), which operates independently of the research boards and reports directly to Council. The REC conducts project, programme, centre and policy evaluations to provide accountability for ESRC expenditure, inform strategic priorities, support decision-making and contribute to improved research performance. The Committee has recently revised its strategy to incorporate more cross-cutting reviews of aspects of research policy in order to better inform Council's strategic planning process.

  Recent evaluations have included a policy evaluation of interdisciplinary research support, and assessments of work at the Centre for Research on Innovation & Competition, the Complex Products and Systems Innovation Centre, the Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment, and the Centre for Organisation and Innovations; results from the centre evaluations underpinned the Council's decision that these investments have performed sufficiently well to justify bids (in competition with others) for continued support. The REC's current work includes an assessment of the effectiveness of the ESRC's Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme, a review of the utility and performance of the Census Data Support Units, and evaluations of a range of research investments.

  The new evaluation strategy includes a greater emphasis on benchmarking the UK's international performance, starting with the development of robust bibliometrics. The bibliometric data collected by Thomson ISI is used widely but is acknowledged by experts to present a misleading picture of performance. The ISI takes no account of book publication, yet only 51% of submissions to the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise Politics Panel from 4, 5, and 5* Units were journal articles. There is also very variable coverage of important social science publications, with, for example, only 13% of outputs submitted to the RAE Education Panel appearing in the ISI. The REC's work is addressing these weaknesses, and the results will provide government and funders with more accurate measures of impact. The Committee will supplement these improved metrics with international subject reviews to benchmark disciplinary strengths and weaknesses in more detail.

10.  ADMINISTRATIVE EFFICIENCY AND CROSS-COUNCIL CO-OPERATION

  The Council aims to keep its administrative costs to below 4% of total expenditure although, with a relatively small budget and a large and diverse community and portfolio of activities, this represents a considerable challenge. The opportunities afforded by the creation of RCUK and the increasing harmonisation of administrative functions across the research councils will support this in the longer-term.

  The leading area of work since 2001 has been the development of Joint Electronic Submissions (Je-S). With the onset of Dual Support Reform and the introduction of Full Economic Costs (FEC), it was agreed that the best time for ESRC to come into the main system was by September 2005. As soon as the Je-S system is fully operational we shall proceed in 2005-07 with the integration of back office systems in areas such as research administration including applications processing, peer review, award and payments administration and end-of-award evaluation. These will be major steps forward in administrative collaboration.

  A major joint initiative has been the cross-Council development of an Electronic Records Management Systems (ERMS). The MRC has taken the lead in directing the work, and ESRC has been the first to implement the new system, working with colleagues at CCLRC. This became operational in April 2004.

  ESRC has also established a joint Human Resources/Personnel office with EPSRC, and last year established a common pay system for both Councils. The joint unit saved £80,000 from our joint EPSRC/ESRC salary costs in this area (some 25%). From January 2005 we shall also establish a common IT support unit at Polaris House in Swindon, with all Councils working together.

  Lastly we are reviewing how we bring together our financial administration systems, given that the various Councils have quite different businesses and therefore varying requirements.

  It is intended that a strategy for administrative convergence by 2008 will be in place by 2005. In total we believe that the synergies and benefits will save ESRC much in future capital costs and up to 10% (£450,000) of our recurrent costs.

11.  LOOKING FORWARD: FUTURE PLANS AND PRIORITIES

  The Council is currently engaged in developing its future priorities, both as part of the broader process for determining the distribution of the science budget announced in this year's spending review and as part of its own decision-making cycle. Over the next five to ten years there are substantial research challenges for which high quality social science is needed and the UK is well placed to deliver. The Council is already committed to supporting new work in areas such as economic performance and development, the delivery of public services and programmes on qualitative data and the secondary analysis of existing data. We will also wish to maintain a vibrant responsive mode that allows us to support those applications with the highest alpha ratings and to strengthen the infrastructure that underpins much of this work.

  In addition, ESRC will be seeking to strengthen its support in areas such as health and lifestyle behaviours; demographic change such as family structures and dynamics, migration and ageing; the emerging role and influence of countries such as China and India in the global economy; environmental and climate change; and, international security.

  We will also face a number of challenges over the next five to ten years and would welcome the opportunity to discuss these with the committee. These include:

    —  The continuing potential disjunction between the requirements of the RAE and those of the research councils in areas such as interdisciplinarity, applied research and research related to professional practice and engagement with users.

    —  The need to increase the quantitative and linguistic skills of social scientists. In addition to ESRC support, this will require intervention at earlier stages in the education process ie at school and undergraduate levels.

    —  The need to make a research career more attractive to the UK's brightest young people, particularly in view of the ageing of the current workforce as described earlier, and to provide more integrated support throughout the academic lifecourse.

    —  The need to improve data access and usage.

4 October 2004



 
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