Funding for transnational access to official microdata

Call for research proposals under the FP7 EU project "Data without Boundaries" (DwB)

To enhance access across borders to official microdata, the FP7-funded Data without Boundaries project offers different kinds of support for the work with a range of highly-detailed data from a number of European countries.

Please, read the instructions carefully at: http://www.dwbproject.org/access/call.html

This is a continuous call and there will be additional opportunities to apply. The next upcoming *deadline is 15th October 2012*. Additional deadline dates are 15th April and 15th October in 2013 and 2014.

The call is available also as pdf (240 kB) http://www.dwbproject.org/access/doc/DwB_third_call_for_proposals.pdf

Further details on DwB: http://www.dwbproject.org/about/

Funding call: Google Data Analytics

ESRC and Google are making funds available for research projects that demonstrate how publicly accessible online data, analytical and presentational tools can be used to further social and economic research.

The Google Data Analytics Social Science Research call is seeking proposals that showcase how academics can use online data analytical tools in creative and intellectual ways. Projects should:

·         Transmit best practice in use of such tools for social science
·         Show how the tools can be used to test social science theories
·         Suggest possible improvements or innovations to help integrate analytics – and open source data tools in general – into the teaching and learning community

Applicants can apply for a maximum of £125,000 from the ESRC towards the total project costs. The ESRC has allocated a total of £600,000 budget to the call and will fund up to a maximum of six projects.

 

The deadline for proposals is 2 October 2012. Full details are available on the ESRC website.

·         ESRC Google Data Analytics Social Science Research call

Engaging with Retail: New opportunities for Masters' students to work with major companies

The ESRC is increasing its engagement with the retail sector, and one element of this is the opportunity for academics and Masters’ students to work with major companies such as Barclays, Boots, Co-operative, Dixons, John Lewis, Nationwide, Tesco, and Whitbread on projects which are important to the retail industry.

The initiative also provides a great way for both students and their supervisors to build links with major retail companies.  Working during the spring & summer, students will be eligible for a £500 award (for ESRC funded students in their Masters year of a 1+3) or entry for a £1,000 prize competition for the best dissertation (for non-ESRC funded students). Additional similar contributions are available from some of the participating retailers.

For further information about the scheme and the list of available projects please see the following link:

•      Masters students opportunities  http://www.esrc.ac.uk/funding-and-guidance/collaboration/working-with-business/retail-masters-student-projects.aspx       

This initiative is part of a wider programme by the ESRC to facilitate communication between the social science research base and retail businesses, promoting knowledge exchange and encouraging greater collaboration:

Engaging with retail  http://www.esrc.ac.uk/funding-and-guidance/collaboration/working-with-business/index.aspx

EU researchers invited to apply for Data without Boundaries access to Secure Data Service

The Secure Data Service is a lead partner in the EU-funded Data without Boundaries (DwB) project. As part of this project, academic researchers within Europe are invited to apply for access to highly detailed social survey, census and business microdata from similar services in the UK, Germany, Netherlands and France (known as 'Research Data Centres').

This is a unique opportunity for researchers to receive specialist support and reimbursement of costs to conduct comparative research across borders.

Researchers should apply to conduct research at Research Data Centres (RDCs) not in the country of their residence. Therefore, researchers applying to access the Secure Data Service under the DwB project should not be resident in the UK.

Datasets available from the Secure Data Service are listed in the Data Library.

To apply, qualified researchers should visit the Data Access section of the DwB website for more information about the other RDCs involved and how to apply. Researchers approved under DwB to use data from the Secure Data Service will be contacted with details of the additional steps necessary to be approved to use the Service.

Access to the data will ordinarily be onsite at the Secure Data Service, located on the campus of the University of Essex. Researchers will be required to attend a half-day training session before being issued with a member logon, however the training session can be incorporated into the onsite visit to conduct research.

About the Data without Boundaries project
How to apply for Data without Boundaries access
Secure Data Service data library

Call for Proposals - Kauffman Firm Survey Data Extension - Data Matching

Deadline January 15, 2012

As the Kauffman Foundation nears the completion of its eight-year panel study on new firms in the United States, the Kauffman Firm Survey (KFS) www.kauffman.org/kfs, they are seeking interested scholars who would like to extend the core survey data in ways that do not increase the burden on survey respondents. While more than 6,000 variables are included in the confidential version of the KFS microdata, the Foundation recognizes that there are additional opportunities for research that become available by incorporating new sources of data to leverage the existing KFS survey information. Through this grant program we hope to accomplish the following:

* Expand the community of experts involved with the KFS to include scholars with expertise in natural language processing, web scraping, and related approaches;
* Create reusable infrastructure; and
* Use the prototype/demo infrastructure to evaluate the effectiveness of the approach-missingness, accuracy, utility-to expand our understanding of different approaches for matching to existing data sets.

Multiple projects are likely to be funded with individual project budgets up to $50,000 being preferred.

Full details available at www.kauffman.org/KFSProposals.

Funding to investigate the feasibility of a rolling census.

ESRC and ONS are inviting applications to investigate the feasibility of implementing a Rolling Census to provide population and wider socio-demographic statistics in the UK. Further information about the proposed study is currently being advertised on the ESRC website:

http://www.esrc.ac.uk/funding-and-guidance/funding-opportunities/RCSS.aspx

Invitation to tender: Economic impact evaluation of ESDS

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is seeking to commission an exploratory evaluation study to assess the economic impact and benefits of its main research data infrastructure, the Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS). This study is also intended to further develop the ESRC's approach to economic impact evaluation.

The purpose of the evaluation will be to identify and assess economic impact by:

• applying economic valuation techniques where appropriate to derive a quantitative estimate of the economic benefits of ESDS data and services
• presenting the results of the economic assessment within the context of a broader qualitative analysis of the benefits of the ESDS
• conducting case studies of the impact generated by research based on ESDS data
• reflecting on the results and identifying best practice and lessons for:
               o maximising the benefits from research data infrastructure investments and
               o developing approaches for future economic impact evaluations

Further details and a copy of the full specification are available from Jonathan Smith at the Research Councils UK Shared Services Centre Ltd.: Jonathan.Smith@ssc.rcuk.ac.uk, 01235 446394

Reference PS110004
Submission deadline is Tuesday 14 June 2011 at 11.00am

Essex University: PhD and Masters in survey methodology

The Department of Sociology at the University of Essex invites applications for fully-funded Masters and PhD studentships in quantitative sociology or survey methodology. Programmes are either for four years, including a one-year Masters, or three years, for applicants who already have research methods training at postgraduate level.

Students can choose from several Masters degrees, leading on to a PhD based in the Department of Sociology (Quantitative Sociology) or ISER (Survey Methodology). Masters degrees are available as standalone one-year degrees, but without ESRC funding.

ISER: http://www.iser.essex.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/research-degrees
Sociology: http://www.essex.ac.uk/sociology/prospective/Research_Degrees/
Masters: http://www.essex.ac.uk/sociology/prospective/PG_Programmes/

For more information about our ESRC studentships, eligibility and available funding, please see: www.essex.ac.uk/dtc.

A formal offer of a postgraduate place at Essex if necessary before you can be considered. You can apply online for postgraduate study at Essex at: www.essex.ac.uk/pgapply and then apply for these studentships.

You should submit your application for postgraduate study by 28 April 2011 at the very latest, to ensure you meet our subsequent ESRC funding application deadline of 13 May 2011.

For more details about the programmes, please contact Dr Nick Allum (nallum@essex.ac.uk) or for application procedures, Michele Hall, Graduate Administrator (socpgadm@essex.ac.uk).

Funding for Data Preparation

Are you

- LSE staff or an LSE postgraduate student?
- Involved in collecting data?
- Willing to be involved in a project looking at barriers and solutions to the reuse of research data?

If so there may be funding available for your data preparation work. If you are interested in finding out more please drop me an email.