ESRC launches world's largest household longitudinal study
Howard Lake | 13 October 2008 | News
The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) has launched Understanding Society, the world’s largest ever household longitudinal study in order to gain new evidence to inform research on the issues facing our communities.
Initial funding for the project is £15.5 million, which comes from the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills and the ESRC and represents the largest single investment in academic social research resources ever launched in the UK. It is envisaged that the project will continue for decades.
The study will collect information from 100,000 individuals, across 40,000 households from across the UK. It will assist with the understanding of the long term effects of social and economic change, and will provide tools to study the impact of policy interventions on the well being of the UK population.
Professor Ian Diamond, Chief Executive of the ESRC, said: “The study will benefit policy researchers and policy makers in the UK, and researchers and research users in a wide range of academic and non-academic environments around the world.”
‘Understanding Society’ will be based at and led by the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) at the University of Essex, together with colleagues from the University of Warwick and the Institute of Education. The survey work will be undertaken by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen).
www.understandingsociety.org.uk
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.