Government Social Research
Welcome to the March GSR bulletin.
Please use the links below to navigate to sections of interest to you.
Visit the Homepage and Research news pages for more recent items.
GSR Fast Stream - more than 70 people attended the highly successful Fast Stream scheme launch events held in London, Edinburgh and Newport. Call for applications - see under Continuing Professional Development.
Commons Science and Technology Committee publish the government response to the previous report Scientific advice, risk and evidence-based policy-making (HC 900-I) - Appendix
George Clark, Head of Profession at DWP, retires at the end of
March. George has been a researcher in government since 1976, in
a career which has taken him from Department of the Environment on regional
planning issues, to the Manpower Services Commission on local labour markets,
and the former Employment Department commissioning research on labour markets,
working patterns and small businesses. From 1991-2000, George was Deputy
Head of Housing Research at DoE/DETR covering homelessness, private renting,
owner occupation and other topics. GSRweb will shortly feature a full interview
with George.
Jenny Dibden will be new Head of Profession at DWP. More
details in a future bulletin.
Carole
Willis: an appreciation (PDF), by Judith Sidaway is published in SRA
news, February 2007, page 8.
GSR Fast Stream - apply now! for the 2007 in-service Fast Stream scheme. Applications must be endorsed by your line manager and Head of Profession and completed signed nomination forms must be received by GSRU by 12'noon on Monday 2 April.
GSR Fast Stream Assessors needed - GSR needs to develop and grow its assessor team for the 2007 In-service Fast Stream and there are a few more spaces on the team that we need to fill.
Candidate volunteers needed for the GSR Fast Stream Assessor briefing on 1 May - deadline Monday 16 April.
Acas Research and Evaluation Section publish:
Home Office publish:
Welsh Assembly Government. Office of the Chief Medical Officer (OCMO) publish:
Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) publish:
Nuffield Foundation launch a new initiative on Administrative Justice - the administrative decisions by public authorities that affect individual citizens and the mechanisms available for the provision of redress.
Social
Research Association publish SRA news February 2007 - Contents include:
Report from the 2006 SRA conference; Randomised Controlled Trials in the
social sciences: the way forward; Training researchers on ethics and ethical
practice in social science research
The
abuse of research - article in The Guardian 13 February 2007, says that
the funding and political agendas of think tanks mean their reports need
to be treated with care and that the politicisation of research can lead
to serious distortions in debates on policy issues.
House
of Commons Science and Technology Committee publishes Third report: the
Cooksey Review (HC 204 Session 2007-08) - broadly endorses the approach
taken by Sir David Cooksey's review (A
review of UK health research funding.-HM Treasury, 2006 ) which had
recommended specific actions for Government to take, to ensure that publicly
funded health research is carried out in the most effective and efficient
way, and to facilitate rapid translation of research findings into health
and economic benefits.
European Research Council
(ERC) formally launched at Berlin conference to create the first pan-European
funding agency which can award grants for basic research, based solely on
peer review. The ERC is part of the EC's
"Seventh Research Framework Programme"(FP7).
Economic
and Social Research Council (ESRC) Festival of Social Science 9-18 March
2007 - the festival will celebrate some of the very best British social
science research, highlighting the ways in which it makes a difference to
our lives.
National
Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) publish Community cohesion for
children, young people and their families - highlights research, best
practice, current initiatives and identifies gaps in knowledge. Based on
systematic searches of 61 websites, at least 120 website areas, 8 databases,
plus requests for information via networks. In total 175 documents, press
notices and other pieces of information were consulted. Identifies eight
key players which are making contributions to community cohesion at a national
level. Also provides examples of local authority initiatives in three key
areas: multi-ethnic/multi-faith; asylum seekers/refugees; gypsies and traveller
communities.
Institute
for Social and Economic Research (ISER) publish presentations from the ISER
workshops on sequence analysis and behaviour coding, held at the University
of Essex in February 2007
Economic
and Social Research Council (ESRC) launch Britain Today: the state of the
nation - showcases the diversity of ESRC-funded research around the
state of the nation in 2007. It offers a concise analysis of research and
topical issues concerning Britain today.Contents include: What makes a good
childhood?; Can parents ensure their children enjoy growing up?; Unequal
employment: is disadvantage caused by discrimination?; Britons' changing
identities: changing social attitudes in Britain; Learning to live: how
best to teach essential life skills to the 14-19 age group.
Economic
and Social Research Council (ESRC) publish Bodies online - information and
advice seeking in the health and fitness domain - finds that, faced
with a minefield of information of variable quality, health consumers subject
websites to an initial weeding-out process that will eliminate most NHS
and drug company websites from the search within a matter of seconds.
Mathematica
publish semimonthly update - Contents include: Making health care a
reality for low-Income kids and families; New citizenship requirements cause
confusion for children's health programs; Early Childhood experts presenting
at SRCD in March.
Economic
and Social Research Council (ESRC) publish Gender Equality Network Newsletter
(PDF) - Contents include: Why are policies that would give fathers a real
choice to do unpaid care-work largely overlooked in the UK?; Does men's
contribution to domestic labour act as a buffer against divorce?; Should
work-life policies focus more specifically on reducing stress and pressure
at work?
Economic
and Social Research Council (ESRC) publish February edition of Social Sciences
- Contents include: International collaboration in social science research;
An international programme for international researchers; International
tools: equipping the UK's social scientists for international research;
Working in a policy or business environment.
Mathematica
publish semimonthly update - includes articles on the motivation for
an innovative program in which US state and federal governments increase
their efforts to give Medicaid beneficiaries with disabilities greater control
over the setting in which they live, how it was designed and implemented,
the evaluation and its findings, and how the findings have changed the way
that many states use their Medicaid home care resources.
NIRA's World Directory of Think Tanks - "provides a systematic introduction to the world's most prominent and innovative public policy research institutes, better known as think tanks. NWDTT provides details of the organizational structures of these think tanks and research activities in which they engage, functioning as the "soft infrastructure" for a global network of think tanks. In order to expand access to this useful reference source on think tanks, basic organizational information on approximately 500 institutions from 100 countries is available on line" [website].
Visit the Bulletin Archive to view the contents
of previous Bulletins.
Copy deadline for next Bulletin is noon 16 April 2007