Secure Data Service: One year celebration

27 June 2012

Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), Central London

A day of celebration for the Secure Data Service community of stakeholders, members, data owners and staff. Hear about new research already emerging from secure use of SDS microdata. Learn how the service is growing and improving. Meet and mingle with other researchers and data.

Schedule of events

• 14.30 – 17.00 Research presentations
• 17.00 – 19.00 Toast and reception

Come for the entire celebration, or just the evening toast and reception. Simply book your place at the link below.

Toast and reception
A toast to the first year! Brief comments at 17.30 highlighting the Service’s successes and planned future developments, followed by a reception where you can meet and mingle with staff, researchers and data owners.

Research presentations
Choose from a series of presentations focusing on research resulting from Secure Data Service data and projects, organised in three concurrent themes. For more details see the programme http://securedata.data-archive.ac.uk/media/28771/sds_anniversary_programme.pdf

Booking information
Building security requires all attendees to register in advance. Kindly book your place by Monday 25 June 2012 using the link below.

http://securedata.eventbrite.co.uk/?ebtv=C

Note: Bookings for these events are handled through Eventbrite.co.uk. Please refer to their separate privacy policy. If questions or concerns, contact the Secure Data Service directly.

Migration Statistics - update

Home Office’s Immigration Statistics January - March 2012 release, published today, provides the latest provisional figures on those subject to immigration control. It is available at:
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/publications/science-research-statistics/research-statistics/immigration-asylum-research/immigration-q1-2012/

The Migration Statistics Quarterly Report has also been published by the ONS at:

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/migration1/migration-statistics-quarterly-report/may-2012/msqr.html

The programme for the Migration Statistics User Forum day conference on 18 September is now available at:

www.rss.org.uk/migration-statistics

There is no charge for this event but pre-registration is essential.

Please email MigrationStatsEnquiries@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk if you have any questions not answered at the above conference details webpage.

World Input-Output Database

The World Input Output Database (WIOD) project (which ran from May 1, 2009 to May 1, 2012) has developed new databases, accounting frameworks and models. The core of the database is a set of harmonized supply and use tables, alongside with data on international trade in goods and services. These two sets of data have been integrated into sets of intercountry (world) input-output tables. Taken together with extensive satellite accounts with environmental and socio-economic indicators, these industry-level data provide the necessary input to several types of models that can be used to evaluate policies aimed at striking a balance between the various policy objectives.

The WIOD provides timeseries of input-output tables (1995-2009) for 40 countries, using international trade statistics to link them across countries.

These world tables are harmonised with data on labour input (3 skill types) and capital stock at 35 industry level. In addition there is environmental data such as energy use, carbon dioxide and other air pollutants.

The data is downloadable for free at www.wiod.org with extensive documentation.

A Strategy for Survey Methods Research in the UK

Three Directors of the late Survey Resources Network have published a strategy document, examining the present and future of survey methods research in this country. The document is available via the surveynet.ac.uk website or via the link below:

Peter Lynn, Bob Erens and Patrick Sturgis:
A Strategy for Survey Methods Research in the UK

Call for Applications: Chair of Governing Board, UK Data Service

THe ESRC are establishing the UK Data Service. The new Service will unify and extend what is offered by a number of ESRC data service providers, including the Economic and Social Data Service, the Secure Data Service, the ESRC Census Programme and others. It will become a cornerstone of the UK data infrastructure providing easier access to data resources to help maximise their academic and non-academic use and impact. The UK Data Service will be operational from October 2012. It will be directed and managed by the Director and the Strategic Leadership Team.

A Governing Board will be established to co-ordinate and manage the demands that will be placed in the Service, together with stakeholder expectations and interests. The UK Data Service Governing Board will have the responsibility and authority to ensure that the Service is developed, managed and maintained in a manner that maximises its benefit as a long-term world class data resource.

The ESRC are seeking an independent Chair for the Governing Board. This is a senior, part-time appointment (up to 15 days per annum) and will be remunerated accordingly.
Candidates should:

• have a strategic understanding of the complex environment the Service operates in including stakeholder perspectives
• demonstrate strong leadership, negotiation and influencing skills
• demonstrate experience of liaising and networking within the social science community and associated bodies at a national and international level.

The term of appointment, commencing 1 October 2012, will be three years initially with the possibility of renewal for a further two years up to a maximums of five years.

Further information

• Specification for the Chair of the UK Data Service Governing Board (PDF, 114Kb)

Applications should arrive no later than 16.00 on 15 June 2012. Interviews with shortlisted applicants are planned in the end of June 2012.

Contact

If you have any queries about the application process please contact:

• Kristine Doronenkova
  Email: kristine.doronenkova@esrc.ac.uk
  Telephone: 01793 444303 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 01793 444303 end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Statistics on Wealth Inequality

A meeting of the Official Statistics Section will take place on 21 May 2012 from 5 to 7pm with tea/coffee served in the basement from 4.30pm.

RSS, Errol Street, EC1Y 8LX

Speakers

Elaine Chamberlain, Statistician, Wealth and Assets Survey, Office for National Statistics
John Hills, Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics and Director of the Research Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion

Summary

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) conducted the first wave of the Wealth and Assets Survey between July 2006 and June 2008.  This survey is unique in both its comprehensive coverage of assets (financial, property, pensions, possessions), debts and savings, attitudes towards debt and savings and the characteristics of households, but also in its coverage of all persons living in private households in Great Britain.

The second wave of the survey, returning to households who responded in wave 1, commenced in July 2008, finishing in June 2010.

Elaine will speak about the results from wave 2 of the survey, the first of which were published in December 2011:  http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/was/wealth-in-great-britain-wave-2/2008-2010--part-1-/pra---was-wave-2--part-1-.pdf. Further data, including the first longitudinal data from the survey, are due to be published in the first half of 2012.

John will range more widely over statistics available on wealth and income inequality and their implications, and will also respond to the ONS presentation.

Attendance

Attendance is free and open to all, but pre-registration is recommended. You can register by email meetings@rss.org.uk or by phone (020) 7638 8998. 

For further information about the meeting contact Philip Turnbull (pturnbullmk@gmail.com).

DwB Training Course: Working with data from official statistics in Europe, particularly the European Labour Force Survey

The Data without Boundaries project is organising its first training course which will be hosted by GESIS, Mannheim, Germany, between 18 July 2012 and 20 July 2012.

As well as highlighting the legal and administrative aspects of data access, the course will demonstrate the possibilities of the EU-LFS in a hands-on computer session which will explore the potential for both international as well as longitudinal analysis. A basic understanding of multivariate statistical methods and SPSS/Stata will be required.

The course will consist of three parts:
- Part I: Overview of European Data from Official Statistics
- Part II: The EU-LFS: Content, Documentation, Data Structure, Analysis
- Part III: Accessing Confidential National Microdata

There is no attendance fee to the course, but participants will have to cover their own expences for travel and accomodation.

Interested post-graduate and senior researchers should send a short application letter (max. 500 words) explaining their motivation to 1st-dwb-training@gesis.org

Deadline for application: 15 June 2012.

For further information on the course: http://dwbproject.org/events/tc1.html

Announcement of DwB course (pdf, 107 Ko): http://dwbproject.org/export/sites/default/events/doc/first_dwb_training.pdf

Contact person: christof.wolf@gesis.org

Using multilevel models and MCMC methods and applying them to the Health Survey for England using the new STAT-JR package

Wednesday 11 - Friday 13 July 2012
Humanities Bridgeford Street Building, University of Manchester

This workshop is jointly organised by ESDS Government and e-Stat, a quantitative node for the ESRC Digital Social Research programme which brings together academics working in statistics and computer science.

Prerequisites: a working knowledge of multiple regression and the basics of sample design. Some previous knowledge of multilevel modelling, for example attendance at our workshop in 2010, would be beneficial.

Cost: the workshop fee is £95. Bookings will not be confirmed until payment is received.

The focus of this three day workshop is on the use of new statistical software, STAT-JR for fitting complex statistical models. We will focus on multilevel modelling where the multilevel structure is determined by the sample design, in particular on the way the methods can be applied to the Health Survey for England. This structure will then be used to examine the extent to which variables such as height, weight and BMI are clustered by household and area and whether any of this variability can be accounted for by background variables such as social class and educational qualifications.

The first day will provide a general introduction to the dataset and the STAT-JR software package. On the second day we will give sessions on Bayesian statistics and MCMC methods that the package uses and then describe its application to continuous multilevel models. On the third day we will finish by describing its use on binary response models and give a brief demonstration of an alternative E-book interface to the software. The workshop will be a mixture of lectures and practical sessions using the software on the datasets provided.

To view the programme and book a place please go to http://www.ccsr.ac.uk/esds/events/2012-07-11/

Health surveys user meeting

Tuesday 10 July 2012
Royal Statistical Society, London

This meeting will provide a forum for the exchange of information and views between users and producers of the UK health surveys. It is aimed primarily at users and potential users of survey microdata. The programme contains a mixture of papers from data producers and researchers and a poster session at lunchtime.

The meeting is free to attend and lunch is provided. To view the programme and book a place please go to  http://www.ccsr.ac.uk/esds/events/2012-07-10/

An Introduction to the International Passenger Survey

Friday 29 June 2012
Basement Computer Lab, Humanities Bridgeford Street Building, University of Manchester

A one-day workshop to introduce the International Passenger Survey to those with no or little knowledge of the IPS.

The workshop is free to attend and lunch will be provided. To view the programme and book a place please go to http://www.ccsr.ac.uk/esds/events/2012-06-29/

Family Resources Survey user meeting

Friday 22 June 2012
Royal Statistical Society, London

This meeting will provide a forum for the exchange of information and views between users and producers of the Family Resources Survey. It is aimed primarily at users and potential users of survey microdata.

The meeting is free to attend and lunch is provided. To view the programme and book a place please go to  http://www.ccsr.ac.uk/esds/events/2012-06-22/