Government Social Research
The new bi-annual publication will highlight the impact of Economic and Social Research Council programmes in Scotland; profile Scotland based ESRC scholars; report on joint funded ESRC and Scottish Executive (SE) research activity; and raise awareness of collaborative ESRC and SE schemes.
The publication was launched with addresses from Diana Wilkinson (Chief Social Researcher, The Scottish Executive), Professor Ian Diamond (Chief Executive ESRC), Professor Charlie Jeffrey (Director, ESRC research programme on Devolution and Constitutional Change) and Sir John Elvidge (Permanent Secretary, The Scottish Executive). Prof Steve Baron, Associate Director of the ESRC Teaching and Learning Research Programme, represented TRLP at the launch and said 'these speakers emphasised the vibrancy of the social sciences in Scotland and their major contribution to its continuing development of new, inclusive forms of democracy. In particular they focused on the role of the social sciences in providing conceptual underpinnings of, and evidence for, policy formation. They also highlighted the importance of social scientific, critical evaluations of policy implementation as a crucial factor in enabling transparent public debate about policy'.
In the post-devolution environment ESRC has focused on the distinct needs of Scottish Executive and collaborative activity between ESRC and Scottish Executive has increased the capacity for knowledge transfer and knowledge exchange between the policy, practice, and academic communities. The involvement of ESRC in dialogue between Scottish Executive and the academic community provides a strong incentive leading academics to engage in evidence-for-policy work; and improves access to social science evidence and knowledge on areas of interest to SE.
For more information about ESRC and SE collaborative activity please see the SE Knowledge Transfer Team webpages.